Seriously, are you just blindly raising bids? Stop touching your placement modif
By Elizabeth Greene · June 4, 2026 · Curated by George's Blog
Seriously, are you just blindly raising bids?
Stop touching your placement modifiers.
Most sellers think a spiking ACoS means they need more Top of Search.
It rarely does.
Blindly adjusting modifiers makes things worse.
You need a diagnostic process first.
Most sellers skip it entirely.
Your ads spend. Growth stays stuck.
Here is how to find the real root cause before wasting budget.
First, use the date of change method.
Isolate exactly when performance dropped.
Next, do the basic ACoS math.
Is it a spend problem or a sales problem?
Identify if CPC spiked or conversion rate dropped.
Then, find the specific product causing the issue.
It is almost never every product.
It is usually one or two.
Finally, find the exact campaign with the highest volume loss.
Isolate the problem first.
Fix it second.
Optimizing placement modifiers is the final step.
Not the first.