Optimization Card

General

An optimization card lets you optimize impression distribution between its card outputs (variants) based on a specific KPI in all programmatic campaigns (display, in-banner video, video, interactive video, audio, native, and digital out-of-home image).

Card outputs can be creatives, product sets, messages, or any campaign decision path you want to test.

Optimization cards support:

• Optimization at the audience or placement level
• A wide range of KPI options, including custom conversions
• Custom or default thresholds for impressions, results, statistical significance, etc.
• Automated handling of underperforming variants
• Performance reporting via the campaign insights view

To understand how Flight Control runs optimization, see Campaign Optimization.

Note: Optimization cards are not available for social campaigns. This is because impression throttling required for optimization can conflict with social platforms' built-in optimization processes. Instead, distribution cards can be used to generate multiple ads within each ad set or ad group, based on the number of card outputs. The performance optimization of these ads is then handled directly by each social platform using its own algorithm.

Note: Flight Control doesn't optimize media.

Adding an Optimization Card

A card can be added to a campaign map using one of the following options:

1. Clicking the Add Cards icon. This adds the card to the campaign map but does not link it to another card.
2. Clicking any card's Output. This automatically links the added card to that card.

Setting up the Optimization Card

Note: An optimization card's default settings and values are designed to suit a variety of use cases.

To configure an optimization card's settings:

Select a metric to optimize in the Optimize By field: Clicks, Conversions, Click Through Conversions, 50% view (video/audio campaigns only), 75% view (video/audio campaigns only), Completions (video/audio campaigns only), or External Conversions. When Conversions or Click Through Conversions are selected as a KPI, you must define the conversion Attribution Signal to use in the optimization experiment. You can create attribution signals within Account > Attributions Setup, which will then add them for selection in the optimization card. You can choose to optimize across All, one, or multiple pre-defined conversion signals. If you have a media performance data source set up with a media partner, you can optimize by External Conversions from the partner. If you select External Conversions, you may choose to optimize across All, or specific conversion types from the Conversion Types dropdown. Optimize Across - Select between: Across All Campaign Audience (default): optimization is across all the campaign audience (impressions). By Placement Audiences: Each placement audience will be optimized separately (an experiment is created for each placement). Optimization Goal (defaults to 1): This is the number of winning variants (outputs) in the optimization. (e.g., if there are five outputs for an ongoing optimization, and we set the optimization goal value of one (1), the optimization will be completed when the best-performing creative is reached. For a value of two (2), the optimization will complete when the 2 best-performing creatives are reached, etc.) Serving Coefficient (the default value is 1): This value determines, once the algorithm reaches the optimized output goal, how much emphasis one output receives over another. (e.g., Strategy A outperforms Strategy B by 4%, with a coefficient of 1, we would serve it 4% more than Strategy B. A coefficient of 10 will allow serving it 40% more than Strategy B.) Advanced Parameters: Define condition sets and minimal threshold for calculating when to drop variants (outputs). Minimum Days: Specifies the minimum number of days that must pass before any output is considered for removal. This helps ensure each variant has enough time to accumulate meaningful performance data. Minimum Relative Performance Difference (%): Defines how much lower an output’s performance must be, compared to the top-performing output to qualify for removal. This is expressed as a percentage. Recommended value: 5%. Valid range: 0.1%–99.9%. Minimum Confidence Level: Sets the required statistical significance before determining that a performance difference is significant. A confidence level of 95% means there is only a 5% chance that the result is due to randomness, providing strong confidence in the decision to drop or keep a variant. Minimum Impressions: The minimum number of impressions each output must receive before being evaluated. A recommended baseline is 100,000 impressions per variant. Minimum Results: Specifies the minimum number of result events (e.g., clicks, conversions, or other KPIs) an output must generate before being considered for removal. Valid values: Any number equal to or greater than 0. Click Add Output to add more conditions  Add the same number of outputs as the number of items participating in the optimization.

Generate Outputs Card Action

You can use the Generate Outputs () card action in cases where you need to optimize specific products in a product feed.

This card action automatically creates outputs (based on the number of products in the product set) and connects them to individual product selection cards.

Optimization Resets

An optimization card resets when you connect or disconnect cards from its outputs in a live campaign. However, optimization doesn't reset when only a connected card’s settings or a connected creative card's assets change.

The optimization card retains data when testing resets. All optimization data is available in a campaign's Insights step, and you can access it by double-clicking the card.

Optimization Reporting

To monitor your optimization card's performance, go to the campaign's Insights step and double-click the card to open its Optimization View pane.

The pane contains the following:

• Optimize Across By: Shows you what was selected for this setting as part of the optimization card configuration.
• Optimization State: Indicates the current state of optimization, which can be one of the following:
  • Still Optimizing: Optimization is in its learning phase.
  • Optimization Complete: The learning phase is complete, and optimization has removed (dropped) low-performing outputs. Optimization then continues by redistributing traffic between only top-performing outputs.
    • Note: The number of retained outputs corresponds to the Optimization Goal value set in the card's settings.
• Activity State: Indicates whether the optimization is "Active" (received impressions that day) or "Inactive" (hasn't received impressions that day).
• The graph displays the selected KPI trend over time for each card output being optimized.
• The table displays the Status ("Dropped," "Leader," "Winner," or "Running") of each card output in the optimization experiment and the corresponding KPI metrics.

Note: Historical optimization insights data is tied to previous versions of your Flight Control campaign. Select the relevant campaign version to observe its optimization insights data.

To see the optimization card's configuration, click Actions > View Settings.

Exporting Optimization Data

To export table content from the pane to an Excel file, click Actions > Export to Excel. To export the pane's graph and table to a PDF file, click Actions > Export to PDF.

To export data from all optimization cards used in your campaign to an Excel file, go to the campaign's Insights step and click the export icon () located in the filtering/metric bar.