Tips for Handling Spend Heavy Ups and Pacing
The pace at which you increase spend during a heavy-up period will dictate the approach you should utilize to optimize performance.
Below we outline two scenarios with recommendations based on how you pace your spend increase.
Scenario A - You rapidly increase budget upfront | It is necessary to wait approximately two weeks before executing in-channel optimizations. Both for spend to hit desired daily levels and for activity to stabilize. During this initial few weeks, the main metric to monitor is daily spend, to ensure you are able to hit your desired spend levels. | Immediate Term (that week): CPA will spike (and ROAS will dip) It is critical at this point to not be reactionary and cut spend or over-optimize. Medium Term: CPA/ROAS will level off post immediate spike. This is when you’ll be able to see varying performance on a tactic level and begin optimizing. | Immediate Term (that week): No immediate change Medium Term: Delayed impact to CPA/ROAS of bottom funnel channels (organic and paid brand search). Due to new users being driven into the funnel needing time to move down the funnel (and convert). |
Scenario B- You gradually increase budget over the first few weeks | Can continue normal cadence of optimizations (likely against new CPA/ROAS goals given higher spend) | Immediate Term (that week): No immediate change to CPA/ROAS Medium Term: Changes to CPA/ROAS will be gradual based on rate of spend increase and ongoing optimizations. | Immediate Term (that week): No immediate change. Due to no drastic influx of new users into the top of the funnel Medium Term: Expect to see a gradual increase in volume against organic and paid brand search. |