As your account grows, keeping performance targets consistent across multiple apps, storefronts, and campaigns becomes more complex. Goals in SplitMetrics Acquire provide a central place to define and maintain your targets, reducing repetitive setup and aligning your optimization workflows with your performance objectives.
This article walks you through setting up Goals in Optimization Hub and using them with Bid Optimization Strategies and Automated Rules.
What Are Goals?
A Goal defines three things:
Target metric: The performance metric you want to optimize toward, such as CPI, CPA, or ROAS.
Target value: The value you want to achieve for that metric.
Campaigns: The campaigns the Goal applies to, selected using filters such as app, storefront, placement, campaign type, delivery status, or labels configured in Ads Manager.
For example, you can create a Goal with a ROAS target for a storefront and assign it to campaigns that share the same objective. If a particular campaign requires a different target, you can create a separate Goal for it.
Once assigned, a Goal gives supported automation tools a clear target for optimizing bids or evaluating campaign performance.
❗Important: A Goal defines the performance target, while the connected automation tools use it to guide their actions. Creating or updating a Goal does not trigger optimization on its own.
How to Create a Goal in Optimization Hub
You can create a single Goal or upload multiple Goals at once using a CSV file.
Create a Single Goal
1. In the navigation menu, go to Optimization Hub and scroll down to the Goals section.
2. Click + New Goal to open the Goal creation form.
3. Enter a name that helps you identify the Goal and distinguish it from other targets.
4. Select the target metric you want to optimize toward and enter its target value.
5. Use the available filters to narrow down the campaigns you want the Goal to apply to. You can filter by app, storefront, placement, campaign type, delivery status, or labels configured in Ads Manager.
6. Select the relevant campaigns from the filtered list.
7. Review your settings and click Create goal.
Upload Goals in Bulk
To create multiple Goals at once, select Upload a CSV file with goal targets. Use the provided template to prepare your file.
The template includes the following columns:
app_id (required): The ID of the app the Goal applies to.
goal_name (required): The name of the Goal.
storefront (optional): The storefront the Goal applies to.
ad_placement (optional): The ad placement the Goal applies to.
campaign_type (optional): The campaign type the Goal applies to.
target_metric (required): The metric you want to optimize for.
target_value (required): The target value for that metric.
Choose which campaigns the Goal applies to
Use the optional columns to choose which campaigns the Goal applies to. For example, entering a storefront applies the Goal to campaigns associated with that storefront within the selected app, including campaigns that target multiple storefronts. You can also specify an ad placement or campaign type to make your selection more specific.
To apply the Goal to all campaigns within the selected app, enter All or leave the optional filter fields empty.
Upload your file
Add each Goal on a separate row and fill in the relevant fields. Keep the column headers unchanged, then save the completed template as a CSV file and upload it.
Once created, the Goals are available for use in supported optimization features.
Managing Existing Goals
Use the filters in the Goals section to find a Goal by target metric, target value, placement, campaign type, or storefront.
You can also check the Achievement metric to see how closely your campaigns are reaching their assigned targets across your portfolio.
When your performance targets change, edit the relevant Goal directly. The changes are automatically reflected in the connected automation tools that use it, so you don’t need to update the same target in multiple places.
💡 Note: Each campaign can have only one Goal at a time. Assigning a new Goal to a campaign replaces the previously assigned one.
Using Goals in Bid Optimization Strategies
When configuring a Bid Optimization Strategy, you can select an existing Goal to use its performance target instead of configuring the same metric and value separately.
How it works
1. Navigate to Optimization Hub > Bid Optimization Strategies.
2. Create a new strategy.
3. Configure General Settings.
4. Under Strategy goal, select an existing Goal, if this option is available.
5. Review the target metric and value, then complete the strategy setup.
The selected Goal and the strategy use the same target metric and value. If you update the target in the strategy, the change is also applied to the Goal and all campaigns assigned to it. Likewise, any changes made directly to the Goal in Optimization Hub are reflected in the strategy.
If no Goal exists for the target you configure, SplitMetrics Acquire creates one automatically.
Using Goals in Automated Rules
You can also use Goals in Automated Rules to define conditions based on campaign performance targets.
How it works
1. Go to Optimization Hub > Automation Rules.
2. Create a new rule.
3. Choose the objects the rule will apply to, configure its actions, and set the run frequency.
4. Under Conditions, select Campaign goal, if this option is available, and configure the remaining settings.
5. Review the configuration and save the rule.
✏️ Tip: You can combine Campaign goal with other conditions using AND and OR operators to define more specific criteria for when an Automated Rule should run.
Each time the rule runs, it uses the performance target defined in the Goal assigned to the selected campaigns. You can use the same Campaign goal condition across multiple rules, and any updates to the Goal’s target metric or value in Optimization Hub will automatically apply the next time those rules run, eliminating the need to update each rule manually.
❗Note: Goal support depends on the rule configuration. Not all existing rules necessarily support Goal-based conditions, so check the available options when creating or editing a rule.
Next Steps: Put Your Goals into Practice
Think of Goals as the foundation of your optimization approach. Set targets that reflect your business priorities, then adjust them as your strategy evolves. With your targets managed in one place, your optimization workflows can stay focused on the outcomes that matter most, without the extra work of maintaining the same targets across multiple tools.