Optmyzr Blog

How to Use Portfolio Bidding and Campaign Groups (And Actually Track Their Impact)

Apr 25, 2025

Paid Search

Vimal Bharadwaj

SEO & Content Manager

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Optmyzr

Managing bids across multiple campaigns shouldn’t feel like a daily firefight. But it often does. One campaign burns through the budget overnight. Another gets zero conversions.

Smart bidding helps, but only to a point. Especially when campaigns are isolated and goals aren’t aligned.

That’s where portfolio bidding and campaign groups come in. They help you group campaigns by goal, share data more effectively, and make smarter decisions with less micromanagement.

In this guide, you’ll learn:

When to use them (and when not to)
And most importantly, how to measure whether they’re actually working

Let’s break it down.

What is Portfolio Bidding?

Portfolio bidding is a feature available in both Google Ads and Microsoft Ads that lets you group multiple campaigns, ad groups, or keywords under a single automated bidding strategy, like Target ROAS (tROAS) or Target CPA (tCPA). The platform then uses real-time signals to adjust bids across the portfolio to hit your shared goal.

It’s especially useful for advertisers who want to let Smart Bidding distribute budget and optimize bids across campaigns based on performance potential, instead of managing each one in isolation.

Even if you’re not grouping multiple campaigns, portfolio bidding is how you unlock features like bid caps and bid floors. So it’s common to set up a portfolio strategy for a single campaign just to gain that control.

Here’s what makes it powerful:

It shares performance data across campaigns, which speeds up learning.
It reallocates budget to better-performing campaigns automatically.
It gives you extra levers, like setting Max CPC caps—even while using Smart Bidding (something you can’t do at the individual campaign level).

Example: A B2B advertiser on a tCPA strategy sees CPC spikes up to $25 on low-demand days. By switching to portfolio bidding and adding a Max CPC of $9, they put a “guardrail” in place to prevent budget blowouts, while still giving Smart Bidding enough flexibility to optimize toward their $30 CPA goal.

Is Portfolio Bidding right for any advertiser?

No. Portfolio bidding isn’t for everyone. It’s a smart way to unify and stabilize your bidding if you’re running multiple campaigns with the same conversion or revenue goals, or your campaigns suffer from low data volume.

When to use Portfolio Bidding?

When..

You’ve multiple campaigns aiming for the same performance goal (like a 700% ROAS or $50 CPA).
You want the platform to automatically shift budget and adjust bids across campaigns based on real-time signals.
You want to set bid caps and bid floors—a feature that’s only available when using portfolio bidding, even if it’s just for one campaign.
You need more control over Smart Bidding, like applying a Max CPC cap to avoid spikes or using a bid floor to compete more aggressively.
You’re using a platform like Optmyzr to manage and fine-tune these bid limits automatically, without manually adjusting them every day.

Example: You’re managing five ecommerce campaigns all targeting a ROAS of 700. With portfolio bidding, the platform treats them as a single unit, reallocates budget as needed, and Optmyzr helps you enforce smart guardrails using bid min/max automation.

When not to use Portfolio Bidding?

When..

Campaigns have different goals (e.g., one is brand awareness, another is conversion-driven).
You need manual control over individual campaign bids.
The campaigns are low volume and don’t generate enough conversions to benefit from pooled machine learning.
You want to track performance across campaigns without affecting their bidding behavior.

What are Campaign Groups?

Campaign Groups in Google Ads are a way to organize and evaluate multiple campaigns that share a common business objective. You can think of them as a container that holds campaigns together so you can track their combined performance using shared KPIs like conversions, CPA, or ROAS.

They don’t influence bidding, but they provide a higher-level performance lens and let you define specific targets across all included campaigns.

Example: An ecommerce brand runs a mix of Search and Shopping campaigns to promote its seasonal product lines. They create a campaign group for all campaigns focused on summer inventory and set a performance target of 500 conversions with a target ROAS of 4.5. Within a week, they monitor the group’s performance and spot one campaign with a much lower ROAS. They quickly adjust product targeting and bids, helping the group trend back toward the overall goal.

When to use Campaign Groups?

When…

You want to monitor performance across multiple campaigns that work toward the same business goal, without changing how those campaigns bid.
You want to set shared performance targets like “Get 70 conversions this quarter at a $200 CPA” and track if you’re on pace.
You’re running a multi-channel initiative (e.g., search + video + display) and want a holistic view.
You’re working on seasonal, product, or brand-based initiatives where campaigns are spread across types but share a common goal.

Example: You’re running 6 campaigns for a Mother's Day promo across YouTube, Search, and Display. Use a campaign group to track conversions and CPA from all of them combined.

When not to use Campaign Groups?

When…

You’re looking to automate bidding or optimize budgets (Campaign Groups are strictly for tracking, not optimization)
You need to group campaigns by channel type only (filters in Google Ads already allow this)
You need a campaign to belong to more than one group (a campaign can only be in one group at a time)

How to measure success at the portfolio and group level?

This is where most people get stuck. You’ve turned on tCPA across five campaigns, grouped them under a portfolio… now what?

Here’s how to make sure you’re tracking the right outcomes:

Conversion volume: Are conversions rising across the group?
tCPA or tROAS alignment: Are you within range? Trending better or worse?
Budget allocation: Is the portfolio shifting spend toward the campaigns that actually perform?
Alert conditions: Are there campaigns that are 3x better—or worse—than the group average?

💡 Pro tip: Use Optmyzr to create deviation-based alerts. You can set alerts to flag campaigns that are underperforming the portfolio average by, say, 50%, so you can course-correct quickly.

For campaign groups, Google lets you set performance targets that track your progress over time. You can define conversion goals, CPA ceilings, ROAS floors, and even track by time periods (monthly, quarterly, or custom windows).

Here are some common mistakes to avoid

1. Setting a Max CPC cap that’s too tight

In portfolio bidding, especially with tCPA, setting a Max CPC can be a smart guardrail. But if you set it too low, you’ll end up constraining smart bidding altogether.

Tip: Don’t treat Max CPC like a strict ceiling. Instead, use it as a flexible limit that allows for variation. Setting it at 50–100% above your average CPC gives enough breathing room for algorithms to work effectively without overspending.

2. Combining campaigns with unrelated objectives

When using portfolio bidding or campaign groups, mixing campaigns with different goals (like one focused on visibility and another on sales) can confuse Google’s algorithms and skew your results.

For example, if you group a brand awareness campaign with a performance-driven campaign in a portfolio, you’ll get inconsistent signals that make it harder for Google to optimize toward any one outcome.

Tip: Keep your groups clean. Align on goal type, like all campaigns driving purchases, or all campaigns aiming for a specific ROAS.

3. Optimizing only at the campaign level

One of the biggest missed opportunities with portfolio bidding is continuing to analyze performance campaign by campaign. The whole point of a portfolio strategy is that Google uses cross-campaign insights to optimize toward the shared goal.

If you don’t look at aggregate outcomes, you might mistakenly pause a campaign that’s strategically helping the portfolio overall.

Tip: Regularly review the overall performance of the portfolio (conversion volume, CPA, ROAS, and how budget is distributed). Use tools like Optmyzr’s deviation-based alerts to flag outliers so you can spot issues without losing sight of the bigger picture.

4. Failing to revisit performance targets regularly

Campaign group targets, like conversion or CPA goals, can drift out of alignment if market conditions change. If you’re not updating these benchmarks quarterly or after key campaigns, you could be aiming at the wrong outcome.

Tip: Use historical benchmarking in tools like Optmyzr to compare current performance against past time periods. This gives context to what’s working and what needs adjusting.

How Optmyzr helps you, the way Google Ads doesn’t

While Google Ads gives you the basics, Optmyzr adds advanced control, visibility, and automation to make portfolio bidding and campaign groups easier to manage and scale.

Here’s what you get:

Performance alerts for campaign portfolios based on deviation ratios
Cross-campaign monitoring via dashboards and KPIs
Quick identification of outliers to help make informed decisions on adjusting budgets, targeting, or tactics accordingly
Automated rules and scripts to adjust bids when metrics fall outside target ranges

1. Performance alerts based on deviation ratios

Why it matters:

Optmyzr’s alerts help you catch campaigns that aren’t pulling their weight, like one that’s spending three times more than others but failing to deliver results.

📈 Optmyzr’s strategic alerts trim Morefire’s workload by 15% per account

Use it for:

Ecommerce: Flag campaigns where ROAS suddenly drops.
Lead gen: Get notified when CPA exceeds your max.
B2B: Watch for conversion droughts in low-volume, high-intent campaigns.

Learn more: How to set up your alerts to monitor KPIs

2. Cross-campaign dashboards and KPI tracking

Why it matters:

View performance across all your campaigns in one place using the All Accounts Dashboard. It makes it easier to compare trends and track progress without jumping between multiple accounts or spreadsheets.

Use it for:

Ecommerce: Track seasonal performance across Shopping + Search.
Lead gen: Monitor multiple lead magnets and their cost per result.
B2B: Keep tabs on campaigns by funnel stage or industry vertical.

Learn more: How the All Accounts Dashboard gives you a bird’s-eye view

3. Quickly identify outliers to make informed decisions

It’s not just about tracking totals. Benchmarking helps you quickly spot which campaigns in a group are outperforming or falling behind so you can adjust strategy before small issues become big problems.

“Our entire team loved the PPC Investigator tool for its capacity to deliver clear insights into the root causes of changes in campaign performance.”
- Mike Rhodes, WebSavvy

📈 Optmyzr empowers WebSavvy to prioritize client profitability over Google’s interests

Use it for:

Ecommerce: Identify which product category campaigns are lagging behind seasonal benchmarks.
Lead gen: Detect form types or channels that are producing fewer leads than usual.
B2B: Find out which vertical-specific campaigns are underdelivering compared to last quarter’s targets.

Learn more: How PPC Investigator helps you clearly identify performance changes

4. Automated bid rules and scripts

Why it matters:

You can adjust bids automatically based on how your campaigns are performing, so you don’t have to make changes manually every day. The Rule Engine is one of Optmyzr’s most powerful tools that allows for complex and customized bid management strategies.

“At Anicca Digital, we use Optmyzr’s Rule Engine to manage bids to a target ROAS.”
- Holly Kelly

📈Anicca boosts ROAS with rule-based bids for an energy broker using the Rule Engine

Use it for:

Ecommerce: Boost bids when high-margin products are converting.
Lead gen: Pause keywords with poor lead quality or high CPA.
B2B: Scale down bids during off-hours or high-cost periods.

Learn more: 6 Rule Engine Strategies: How Optmyzr Customers Bypass Google Ads Limitations

What does the data say about bidding strategies?

Our 2024 bidding strategies data study offers some guidance on choosing a bid strategy:

Max Conversion Value usually delivers the best ROAS, especially in lead gen.
Max Clicks is underrated and works surprisingly well in early-stage accounts.
Manual CPC still has a place—but only when actively managed and paired with strong conversion volume.

So instead of asking “which is best?”, ask:
“Do I’ve enough conversions?" “Are my goals realistic?” “Am I giving Google enough to work with?”

That’s when automation (and portfolio bidding) really starts to pay off.

It’s time to get strategic with automation.

Using portfolio bidding and campaign groups isn’t about giving up control. It’s about replacing micromanagement with strategy. These tools help you streamline bidding, share learnings, and prioritize what matters most—business goals.

With the right setup and the right tools (hey, Optmyzr), you can:

Run tighter campaigns
Hit performance goals faster
Spot inefficiencies before they blow your budget

So if you’ve been hesitant to give portfolio strategies a shot, or if you’ve used them but haven’t measured success properly, now’s the time to rethink your approach.

And if you want the best of both worlds — powerful optimization and clear reporting — use Optmyzr to fill the gaps with alerts, rules, and portfolio-level insight you won’t get natively in Google Ads.

Sign up for a 14-day free Optmyzr trial today.