Read a Google Ads account by campaign type before you change a bid

The situation

A US kidswear brand, March to July 2023, running Search, Shopping and Performance Max through winter and the peak season. Blended, the account returned about 4.4x on $889,608 of spend (Google Ads dashboard).

What the average hid

Performance Max Shopping, on its own, returned $3.81M of conversion value on $755K of spend: 5.05x, with 22K conversions at a 3.32% conversion rate. That campaign type was carrying the account.

A blended view invites a blunt move: lift every budget, or cut every budget. Reading by type points to a sharper one.

The method I use

Four questions per campaign type, in order:

• Is conversion tracking counting the right event, with the right value?
• What is the return against break-even, not against the account average?
• How much of the spend sits in the campaign types below break-even?
• What is the marginal return: what did the last 10% of budget return?

What it means for your account

If you cannot say which campaign type is above break-even and which is below, you are steering by average. That is the first thing a Growth Diagnostic fixes, and it usually takes days, not weeks.