Disclaimer: Custom Campaigns are not recommended for all users. This single-campaign goal type is for experienced advertisers who have very specific objectives that cannot be achieved using the functionality of multi-campaign goals. If you have any questions or need assistance, please reach out to your Data Strategist. If you're a Starter plan customer, please consult our Support team to see if this goal type is right for you.
If you've been with Perpetua for a while, you're likely familiar with our multi-campaign Sponsored Products goal types. They're known as Universal, Brand-Based, and Advanced. These are your go-to goal types and the one's we recommend using the majority of the time. You can learn more about them and their functionality in this article.
Custom Campaigns, on the other hand, are slightly different as they are a single-campaign goal type. They provide certain advantages and additional control in comparison to the multi-campaign goal types. As a result, they're more suited for experienced advertisers that have very specific, sophisticated strategies but can also be complementary to any existing multi-campaign goals you're running.
There are two types of Custom Campaign goals you can launch:
Keyword Targeting: allows you to bid on specific keywords.
PAT (Product Attributed Targeting): allows you to bid on specific ASIN/category targets.
The table below contains a summary of the key differences between them.
Functionality | Multi-Campaign Goals | Custom Campaigns (Single-Segment Goal) |
Number of Campaigns | Each goal has 3-6 campaigns depending on the targeting type you use. | Each goal has 1 campaign. |
Product selection | You cannot advertise the same ASIN in multiple goals. | You can advertise the same ASIN in multiple goals. |
Keyword Harvesting | New keywords are harvested automatically based on conversion data. Control is limited to the custom harvesting threshold advanced setting. | Create your own criteria to control what kind of keywords are harvested. Add individual and segment-specific phrases that new keywords must contain to be harvested. |
Traffic Exclusion (negative matching) | Targets can be negative matched to fine tune what you're targeting in the goal. They are applied across the entire goal. | Ability to negative match targets and segment-specific phrases to develop highly specific strategies across multiple goals for the same product. |
Here are a few examples of when you'd use a Custom Campaign and how it enables you to achieve your advertising strategy:
I sell Nike shoes and want to promote my "Nike Air" product line for Father's and Mother's Day because I'm offering a seasonal discount. Even though I'm already advertising this product in a separate Custom Campaign, I can launch a new one for this specific set of Nike Air products. In this new goal, I can configure it so that Perpetua will only target branded keywords and harvest ones that contain the phrase "nike air", "Father's Day" and/or "Mother's Day" within the branded search space. This is because I have a very specific objective and want to target an audience that already recognizes my brand. With a Custom Campaign, I'm able to isolate my targets to execute this strategy.
My advertising objective is to isolate the targeting of one of my competitors in order to be as aggressive as possible in conquesting their space. Using a Custom Campaign, I can create a strategy where Perpetua will only target and harvest keywords that contain my competitor's brand name. Alternatively, I can choose to exclusively target specific competitor ASINs instead. This is not possible with multi-campaign goals because any keywords that pass a conversion threshold will be automatically harvested and the keywords/ASINs that are targeted are gathered from historical data. Custom Campaigns give me the added level of control in this scenario to execute my highly specific strategy.
I sell energy bars and want to improve the organic rank for one of the flavors on my flagship search term. The flavor is pistachio and the keyword I'll be targeting is "pistachio energy bar" using the exact match type. By using a Custom Campaign, I can turn off keyword harvesting and specify the "pistachio energy bar" keyword target to ensure that no other targets are harvested or bid on.
More information on how to launch Custom Campaigns in Perpetua, along with step-by-step instructions, can be found in this article.
Article last updated January 2023. If you find this information to be out of date, please contact hello@perpetua.io.