If you’ve spent any time in Google Ads, you’ll know that the platform is never short of providing recommendations. Now, one of its experimental features is becoming more prominent. Google has moved the “Missed Growth Opportunities” report out of Labs and into the main Recommendations tab (currently in beta), where it’s been renamed Missed Opportunities. Previously, advertisers had to opt into the feature. Now, it will appear along with Google’s other optimisation suggestions, which makes it harder to ignore. The update shows the potential impact limited budgets and/or bids have on campaigns. But while the insights could be useful, they’re still estimates, not facts, and should be treated this way.
Understanding the Missed Opportunities Report
The new beta feature looks back at your campaign performance and estimates what might have happened if they had been less constrained. It highlights areas where Google believes you may have missed because your budgets or bids weren’t competitive or optimised enough, including additional clicks, conversions, and conversion value. It also estimates the additional traffic and revenue your campaigns could’ve generated if those limitations hadn’t been in place. This report provides a useful starting point when reviewing campaign performance.
Missed Opportunities helps identify campaigns where demand may have exceeded available budget, making it easier to spot areas that may need a closer look. However, although the feature includes extra reporting, Google hasn’t published the methodology behind these projections. We don’t know:
- Which auction data has been used
- How seasonality is handled
- How much of the report is based on campaign performance versus modelling
- Or what level of confidence Google has in its estimates.
This report should be treated as scenarios based on Google’s assumptions. The report may display some worthwhile opportunities, but it shouldn’t automatically dictate or scare you into your next budget decision.
Use the Report Along with Your Own Data
By moving the Missed Opportunities report into the Recommendations tab, Google is making its optimisation suggestions much more prominent during campaign management. Before you increase your budgets or adjust your bidding strategies, it’s important to compare Google’s estimates against:
- Conversion rates
- Sales data
- Customer lifetime value (CLV)
- Gross margins
- Lead quality
- Your overall business objectives
These all influence whether additional ad spend makes commercial sense. A campaign capable of generating more clicks isn’t necessarily one that needs more budget behind it. We always compare Google’s optimisation recommendations against first-party data before we make any significant spend or bidding changes to campaigns. If the opportunity seems valuable, we treat it as a controlled test rather than assuming that following Google’s suggestion will result in a guaranteed outcome. The key is remembering that this report is a projection.
The Final Word
The new Missed Opportunities report could be a useful planning tool. It can help highlight campaigns that have potentially been held back by bidding or spend, and provide another perspective when analysing campaign performance. If you’d like a second opinion before increasing your ad spend or if you need help identifying where your budget should be invested to make the biggest impact, we’d love to help. Get in touch with our team.