If you want to benefit from exposure but with a clear focus on sales, while maintaining control over costs and transparency, and you prefer minimal hassle with targeting and bidding, consider running a Smart Display campaign with a sales objective and a target CPA bidding strategy. Below are some tips and suggestions, whether you’re a beginner or have some experience with similar campaigns.

1. Objective and Campaign Type
   Choose the “Sales” objective for your Smart Display campaign.
2. Budget
   Set your daily budget according to your performance goals and financial capabilities. Note: Google recommends that the daily budget be at least 10 times higher than the target CPA for optimal performance.
3. Bidding Strategy
   a. If you focus on conversions:
   • CPA (Cost Per Action): This is the amount you are willing to pay for a conversion. In a Smart campaign, if you set a target CPA, the system aims to meet this average cost. Essentially, you specify the maximum amount you’re willing to pay for a conversion.
     Cons:
     • Requires effort to create dedicated campaigns/ad groups, especially if you have multiple product categories with varying CPA needs. For example, if a product sells for 500 RON and you have a generous margin, a target CPA of 20 RON is reasonable. However, if a product sells for 45 RON, you may need to reconsider your bidding strategy.
     • Transparency: If you work with an agency, they need to know what a comfortable CPA is to estimate profit margins and can weigh this in performance negotiations.
   • Pros:
     • Leverage AI for bidding.
     • Transparency: Clear tracking of impressions, clicks, and conversions.
4. b. If you focus on conversion value:
   • ROAS (Return on Ad Spend): This percentage measures how much revenue you generate for each currency spent. For example, if you want to earn 1000 RON for every 20 RON spent, your ROAS is 5000%.
     Formula: Conversion value ÷ Ad spend x 100% = Target ROAS
     To use ROAS, you need at least 15 conversions in the last 30 days. Consider switching from target CPA to ROAS after some time.
5. Conversions for Reporting
   Only include conversions that constitute a transaction (a sale on your site). Avoid tracking other events as conversions in this campaign (e.g., call extensions if that’s your focus elsewhere).
6. Audience
   Note that Smart Display campaigns do not support audience or user list targeting.
7. Remarketing
   Smart Display campaigns include remarketing. If you include a feed, you can also enable Dynamic Remarketing.
8. Targeting
   Although you can’t adjust audience targeting, you can manage placements, locations, and demographics.
   a. Exclude placements with a “not yet rated” qualification. Many of these are new sites with no traffic or exposure.
   b. Allow placements “below the fold.” Sometimes, significant user actions happen after scrolling down.
9. Responsive Display Ads
   Even if you run a custom display campaign, include Responsive Display Ads. Google recommends this for better ad scoring and overall results.
10. Asset Performance and Optimization
    a. Assets rank relative to others in the ad group. Removing low-performing assets might lead to high-performing assets becoming less effective if new additions perform exceptionally well.
    b. Conversion optimization can take up to 2 weeks. Google generally recommends waiting for 40 conversions before making significant changes to assets, headlines, etc.