Table of contents
Line Item Set Up
To access the creation of a line item, either you've just completed the creation of a campaign and you will automatically be redirected to the creation of your first line item, or follow the steps below:
Go to the Campaigns section
Find the desired campaign to add a line item to and click the campaign name
This opens the campaign page where all line items appear. Add new ones here.
Click the + Line Item call-to-action on the top left side
Choose between the following options:
Set up one line item at a time: Set up retailer-specific line items individually.
I’ll set them up later: Come back and create the line items later; only the campaign shell will be created.
Line Item Settings
Naming the Line Item
The first step is to name the Line Item. The chosen Line Item name will be seen only by the user in the Campaigns page and Analytics sections. It won't appear in the ads and will never be visible to shoppers.
Enter a name that will help identify it within the campaign or in a report. A Line Item name is unique and each Line Item must be named differently in the same campaign.
Targeted Retailer Inventory
Select the page types and platforms you would like this line item to serve on.
Setting Start and End Dates
Start by selecting the Start Date on the calendar (today's date is set by default but any date in the future can be selected).
Continue by selecting an End Date. Choose from the following two options:
No End Date: This is the None option. The line item will be on “Active” status for as long as it has funds to spend.
Specific End Date: Select the date directly on the calendar. The line item will stop serving ads and change to Ended status on this precise date at the end of the day.
Budget, Caps, and Pacing
Setting a Line Item Budget
After creating the line item, there are two options available for setting up the budget:
Uncapped Budget: Select Uncapped and the line item will spend freely from the funds available at the campaign level. The available funds are determined by the campaign budget and can be capped or uncapped. The line item will stop spending once the Campaign budget is reached. At this point, the line item status will switch to Budget Hit.
Capped Budget: Select Capped and enter the maximum amount for the line item to spend. The line item might not spend the entire amount. The amount is used as a cap and the line item will stop spending when it is reached.
Setting a Line Item Pacing
After the budget selection, set up pacing options to help control the budget spend pace. By default, the line item is set up with no pacing rules and will deliver the budget as soon as possible. There are two options to control the speed at which the budget is spent.
There is an option to set line item pacing to determine how a line item spends its capped or uncapped budget. Regardless of whether a pace is set, a line item will never spend more than its set budget or campaign budget. Set a Daily and/or Monthly Pace or an Automated Pace per line item.
Daily Pace: Line item won't spend more than the indicated amount daily.
Monthly Pace: Line item costs will not exceed the monthly pace amount for each calendar month. If line item doesn't start on the first day of the calendar month or if the pacing is updated throughout the month, the monthly pace will be calculated based on the remaining days in the current calendar month.
Automated Pace: Daily spend will be adjusted automatically. There must be a line item budget and end date or enter a monthly pace to select this option.
This option is helpful if the line item does not reach its daily spend every day, but brands want to make sure it has the opportunity to spend the full budget.
Set a Daily/Monthly Pace
On the Campaigns page, click the name of the campaign that contains the desired line item to edit
On the Line Items page, click the Edit icon in the Daily Pace and/or Monthly Pace column and enter the desired amount to allot per day/month
Click Save
Set an Automated Pace
On the Campaigns page, click the name of the campaign that contains the desired line item to edit.
On the Line Items page, click the name of the desired line item to edit.
On the Line Item Settings step, ensure that an End Date is set (in the Schedule section) and the Line Item Budget is capped (in the Line Item Budget section) or that a Monthly pace is set (in the Monthly Cap section).
Scroll to the Daily Cap section and mark the Automated checkbox
Click Save & Exit
Product Selection
Further, search and select the desired products to promote which will be attributed to the line item.
There are 2 options to search products:
Search by keyword using the Search Account Catalog module
Or search by Product IDs by using the Find Matches by Product IDs module.
These two options are explained in detail below:
Finding Products by Keywords
By default, search by keyword using the Search Account Catalog module. Enter a word or set of words in the search bar and the query will return all products that match based on their names.
Narrow down the search by using the dropdown, - choose to search among a set of brands or categories and add a specific price range to find products that meet these exact specifications.
Once the query is ready, click the Search call-to-action to retrieve the results. The results of the search appear under the Search field.
Select a product and click the checkbox or anywhere in the product row. To select all the results, click Select All Results. Users can select only what they see on the page by clicking Select All on Page at the top-right-hand side of the results table.
Finding Products by Product ID
Search the desired product(s) to promote by using common product identifiers. Click Find matches by product IDs tab in the first module on the page, next to Search Account Catalog.
Then, select the type of identifiers to use for search: [GTIN, UPC or EAN], MPN, Model Number, SKU ID, SKU Key, Parent ID.
Finally, copy and paste the IDs into the search field (one per line) and click Search on the right-hand side.
The platform will find and show the exact match products of the pasted IDs. If some IDs don’t have a match in our system, see the full details at the bottom of the search list by clicking on IDs with no matches.
Keywords
After selecting the products for cross-retailer unification, there is the option to setup positive and negative keyword targeting for all line items created after finishing the specific instance of the workflow.
Negative Keywords
To prevent line items from delivering on certain keywords, negate keywords at Broad and Exact match levels in the Negative Keywords section below the product catalog.
Positive Keywords
All the products selected for inclusion in line items will already have keywords automatically associated with them by our algorithmic keyword model. Manually submit additional positive Exact match keywords in the Submitted Keywords section.
Find out more on Keywords with the below articles:
A few tips below:
Enter one keyword or keyword string per row.
Keywords are not case-sensitive.
Keywords will be applied to all products targeted in the line item, therefore, to negate keywords for only certain products, create a separate line item for these products.
Duplicate entries will be automatically de-duplicated.
The same keyword entered in both match-type textboxes will be considered as two keywords. For example, “remote control” in the Broad Match textbox and “remote control” in the Exact Match textbox are counted as two keywords.
Negative keywords take priority. Meaning if a keyword is in both the Negative Keyword section and the Submitted Keyword section, it will be treated as a Negated Keyword.
Up to 1,000 Broad Match and up to 1,000 Exact Match negative keywords can be entered per line item.
Special characters are permitted but may automatically be parsed
Bidding & Optimization
Once products are selected, it moves to the line item creation where Optimization Engine is chosen and Bid (CPC) is entered.
The first action in line item creation is to select line item’s Optimization Engine.
3 different models optimize delivery based on objectives:
Clicks Optimizer: This focuses on maximizing the click-through rate (CTR). The Criteo Commerce Yield engine will adjust the delivery of ads based on their likelihood to trigger a click.
Conversions Optimizer: This focuses on maximizing conversions. The Criteo Commerce Yield engine will adjust the bid to minimize the cost-per-order of the ads.
Revenue Optimizer: This focuses on maximizing ROAS. The Criteo Commerce Yield engine will adjust the bid based on the ad’s predicted attributed sales amount.
Here is how each of these above models works:
Clicks Optimizer
Select Clicks Optimizer to get the highest click volume relative to the impressions, or in other words, the best CTR. With this optimization strategy, the Commerce Yield engine will determine which pages are most relevant to show the ad based on the shopper's current shopping behavior and their likelihood to click on the ad.
The bid will remain constant for every opportunity and the bid entered is the amount brands/ advertisers will be charged for all clicks tied to the line item.
Learning Phase
There’s no learning phase with the Clicks Optimizer. Select, launch, go!
CPC bid management with Clicks Optimizer
Adjust CPC bids at line item or SKU level to control the delivered volume of clicks.
Additionally, we recommend calibrating CPC bids based on seasonality, to control the volume of clicks better.
Conversions Optimizer
Select Conversions Optimizer to maximize ad conversions and minimize Cost-Per-Order (CPO).
The input CPC bid will be used as a baseline bid. With the conversion optimization strategy, the Criteo Commerce Yield engine will slightly adjust the bid based on the ad’s likelihood to trigger a purchase, relative to the campaign performance.
For each line item, when using the Conversions Optimizer, there is an option to set a Max CPC Bid Limit (different from the input CPC bid) that will act as a maximum hard cap for the adjusted CPC bids.
Learning Phase
A learning phase starts whenever the Conversions Optimizer is selected and if the line item is live. Wait 7-10 days on average before reaching maximum efficiency. We recommend not changing the line item bid settings during the learning curve. The higher the volume achieved, the sooner efficiency will be reached.
CPC bid management with Conversions Optimizer
We recommend applying the same CPC bid across all SKUs and line items. This allows the optimizer to deliver its best performance, given the available budget and saves time doing bid management.
Additionally, we recommend calibrating CPC bids based on seasonality, to control the volume of clicks better.
Can I still choose not to apply the same CPC bid across all line items?
Yes. Even though we encourage you to use the same CPC bid across all your line items, there are some scenarios where it makes sense to change it.
Applying the same CPC bid requires inputting a CPC bid above the highest minimum bid of the line items. If the campaign ROAS is below the ROAS target, reduce CPC bids on the line items or SKUs where the minimum bid allows so.
When having hybrid objectives for the campaign (push the visibility of a specific SKU, spend volume on a particular inventory, etc.), adjust the CPC bids to control the volume of scopes that matter.
Revenue Optimizer
Select Revenue Optimizer to maximize attributed revenue (ROAS). The input CPC bid will be used as a baseline bid. With the revenue optimization strategy, the Commerce Yield engine will slightly adjust the bid based on the ad’s predicted attributed sales amount, relative to campaign performance.
For each line item, when using the Revenue Optimizer, set a Max CPC Bid Limit (different from the input CPC bid) that will act as a maximum hard cap for the adjusted CPC bids.
Learning Phase
Note that a learning phase starts whenever the Revenue Optimizer is selected and if the line item is live. Wait 7-10 days on average before reaching maximum efficiency. We recommend not changing the line item bid settings during the learning curve. The higher the volume, the sooner efficiency will be reached.
CPC bid management with Revenue Optimizer
We recommend applying the same CPC bid across all SKUs and line items. This allows the optimizer to deliver its best performance, given the available budget and saves time doing bid management.
Additionally, we recommend calibrating CPC bids based on seasonality, to better control the volume of clicks.
Still want to choose not to apply the same CPC bid across all line items?
Yes, it is possible. Even though we encourage using the same CPC bid across all line items, there are some scenarios where it makes sense to change it.
Applying the same CPC bid would require inputting everywhere a CPC bid above the highest minimum bid of line items. In that case, ultimately, if the campaign ROAS is below the ROAS target, reduce CPC bids on the line items or SKUs where the minimum bid allows to do so.
When having hybrid objectives for the campaign (push the visibility of a specific SKU, spend volume on a particular inventory, etc.), then adjust the CPC bids to control the volume of scopes that matter.
Press the side arrow on the image to the left to see a breakdown and quick overview of the three optimization engines.
Setting Line Item’s Bid (CPC)
This is the baseline amount brands or advertisers are willing to pay for one click of their ad and that will enter the auction. It does not include the account fees.
Depending on the optimization strategy selected, the CPC bid may be sensibly adjusted to drive more performance.
To set the bid:
Enter the amount in the input field in the Bidding box.
Commerce Yield operates on a first-price auction, where all bids act independently of one another and the highest bid ultimately wins. In addition to the bid, relevancy and prediction decide which SKU wins the auction. The CPC bid controls the volume that the ads will deliver.
Suggested Bids
Suggested Bids is an intelligent tool that provides CPC Bid recommendations for Onsite Sponsored Products line items, based on the winning bids for products that are similar to the line item’s SKUs. A suggested bid range is displayed in the Bid section (step 3) of the line item setup workflow.
Once the line item is live, the suggested range will also be displayed in the Edit Bid Strategy menu for each line item, where the CPC bid can be modified throughout the flight.
The range is based on continuous real-time analysis of historical auction data within line item’s SKUs’ categories – and specifically for existing line items, the auctions line item specifically competed in.
Suggested Bids help simplify the optimization process by arming brands with instant insight into competitor bids, to benchmark their CPC against. This can help in more efficiently assessing the right level at which to bid without risking overpaying compared to other advertisers in the category and ensure that the campaign starts winning auctions and reaching relevant shoppers immediately.
If it is decided that impressions are worth more than the suggested bid range, raise CPC higher and SKUs will be more likely to win auctions and serve onsite. Conversely, you can set the bid below the range until the Minimum Bid is reached.
For more information on bidding, please check the following related articles:
Review
Review of the entire line item configuration is the last step of creating a line item.
After choosing the CPC bid and optimization strategy, click Save and Continue.
Now you can see and review all the settings selected. Once confirmed the line item is set up in the desired way, click Launch and the line item will be created.
If the Start Date selected initially for the line item’s creation is today, the line item will automatically launch after saving it and switch to an Active status.
If a date selected is in the future, the line item will be saved and have a Scheduled status. On the selected date it will automatically switch to Active and start delivering ads.
At this point, the line item can be viewed by clicking on its campaign name in the Campaign Section of the UI. View and manage any of the line items from the Line Items page on the campaign-specific page.
Line Item Status
A line item's status is determined by its configuration and by the manually controlled Off/On toggle on the Line Items page. Line items set to On or Active will spend, while line items set to Off or Inactive will not. The status of the line items can be adjusted at any time.