Currently in BETA. To enable Savings Strategy on your account, please contact your Customer Success Manager.
Savings Strategy is an account-level setting that controls how much confirmed competitor activity Brand Activator needs to see on a brand term before it acts. By default, Brand Activator acts on any competitor appearance, maximising your brand presence on the SERP. Savings Strategy adds the option to have Brand Activator wait for repeated or sustained competitor activity instead, in exchange for greater savings.
The setting applies across your account and takes effect from the next decision cycle. Every account starts on Maximise Brand Visibility, which is identical to Brand Activator's standard behaviour.
The three modes
| Mode | What it does |
|---|---|
| Maximise Brand Visibility (default) | Acts on every competitor appearance. Maximum brand presence, no change to current behaviour. |
| Balanced | Waits for repeated competitor presence before acting. Occasional or one-off appearances are ignored. |
| Maximise Savings | Acts only when competitor presence is sustained. Occasional or one-off appearances are ignored. |
Moving from Maximise Brand Visibility towards Maximise Savings increases how much competitor activity is needed before Brand Activator acts. This keeps your main campaign off the negative keyword list more often, which is how savings increase. The trade-off is brand presence: a competitor can occasionally appear on the SERP without you, which can reduce your branded impression share.
Brand Activator monitors the SERP at the same frequency in every mode. The mode changes how Brand Activator responds to what it sees, not how often it checks.
How this interacts with other Brand Activator checks
Savings Strategy changes how Brand Activator responds to competitor activity. It doesn't change the other checks Brand Activator makes on a term:
- Organic position: If your brand isn't top of organic on a term, Brand Activator removes that term from the negative keyword list regardless of mode. This is logged as Not top organic position in the Activity Log.
- Low-bid campaigns: On Balanced or Maximise Savings, your main campaign stays off the negative keyword list less often, so a linked low-bid campaign may compete against active competitors more often, which can reduce its clicks.
- Data coverage: If there isn't enough data to assess a term reliably, it's removed from the negative keyword list regardless of mode.
A change in mode will not reduce your savings below the level they were on Maximise Brand Visibility.
Testing in Sandbox
The Sandbox reflects your account's currently selected mode. If Savings Strategy is enabled on your account, changing your mode also changes the mode used in Sandbox tests, so the Lone Ranger rate and activity log shown in a test are based on whichever mode is currently configured.
To preview the impact of a mode change before it goes live, pause Brand Activator, then run a Sandbox test on your brand terms.
Measuring impact
Savings data carries the same 4-day reporting delay as the rest of Brand Activator. For example, if you switch mode on the 12th, savings data for the 12th appears on the 16th.
The Activity Log updates from day one and can be used to track actions and their reasons ahead of savings data becoming available. A reduction in competitor-related reasons in the log reflects the new mode taking effect, in advance of the savings figure updating.
Frequently asked questions
Why did Brand Activator still act while I was on Maximise Savings?
This happens when the term wasn't top of organic, data coverage on the term was low, or competitor activity was sustained above the level Maximise Savings allows. Savings Strategy filters out occasional or one-off competitor activity; it doesn't disable Brand Activator.
Why didn't Brand Activator act when I saw a competitor appear?
On Balanced or Maximise Savings, a single appearance by a competitor doesn't trigger action on its own. Brand Activator waits for competitor presence to be repeated before acting.
My savings changed and I didn't change my mode.
Your mode controls how Brand Activator responds to competitor activity, not the level of competitor activity itself. Savings can move up or down if competitor activity on your brand terms changes, independent of any setting change on your side.
My two brand terms behave differently under the same mode.
This is expected. Each term is assessed against its own competitor activity, so terms with different competitive patterns can produce different outcomes under the same mode