Add a KPI target to a tracker

A KPI target sets what good performance looks like for a tracker, so it can say whether spending faster or slower is a problem. A target applies to one tracker for the selected month or quarter.

1. Open the Advanced view of the dashboard. Click Add KPI target on the banner, or Add target in a tracker's KPI Goal column. You can also click Add KPI target under KPI & Targets on a tracker's page.
2. Under Which tracker?, choose the tracker, if asked.
3. Under What do you want to track?, choose CPA / CPL, Conversions, Clicks or CPC. CPA / CPL is marked Recommended. ROAS and Revenue cannot be picked as a target.
4. Click Next and enter the target. For CPA / CPL and CPC, enter the average CPA or CPC you want to pay. For Conversions and Clicks, enter the total you want to reach this period.
5. Click Next, check the Review, and click Add target.

The review shows the tracker, KPI, target, date range and data source. Budget Pacer only reads your account data, so the target only drives advisory recommendations. It never changes your campaigns.

Edit or remove a KPI target

On the Advanced dashboard, click the tracker's KPI Goal cell, or click Edit target on the tracker's page. Change the value and click Save changes, or click Remove target.

What Actual / Goal shows

Actual / Goal on the Advanced dashboard compares confirmed results with your target. Today's in-progress data is not included.

• For CPA and CPC, lower is better. Below target is good, On target means up to 10% above your target, and Above target means more than that.
• For Conversions and Clicks, higher is better. Budget Pacer projects results to period end, then shows Ahead above 105%, On pace from 95% to 105%, and Behind below 95%.

If there is not enough data, you see a note such as No conversions yet or Not enough data yet.

The Recommendation column

With at least one target set, the Advanced table adds a Recommendation column. It combines budget pace with your KPI, for example that a tracker is underpacing with an efficient CPA, so there is room to scale. Hover over it for the full text. Recommendations are advice only. Any change is yours to make in the ad platform.

The Recommendation reads the pace the same way as the dashboard Status. A tracker that is Spending a bit fast counts as spending fast, and Spending a bit slow counts as spending slow, just like Spending too fast and Spending too slow. A few other messages you may see:

• No budget assigned. means the tracker has no budget for this period. Add one on Budget Tracker first.
• Add target for smarter recs. means that tracker has no KPI target yet.
• No spend detected. Check setup. means the tracker has a target but no confirmed spend. Check paused campaigns, approvals, billing or which campaigns are in the tracker.
• Not enough data yet. means there are not enough completed days or conversions to judge. Check back after the first full day.

Dismiss the KPI target banner

The banner Add performance targets to get smarter recommendations appears when a period has no targets. Click Dismiss to hide it for that period.