How Multiple Placement Rules Work Together

You can create multiple Placement Rules for the same campaign to optimize Top of Search (TOS), Rest of Search (ROS), and Product Pages (PP).

For example, you may want to:

• Increase TOS bids when TOS performs well
• Reduce ROS when performance drops
• Increase PP when Product Pages have a good return

These rules can work together, but which rules run depends on the placement they target, their priority, and the observation settings you choose.

Think of each Placement Rule as having its own job:

“If my placement meets these conditions, make this adjustment.”

If you have separate rules for TOS, ROS, and PP, more than one rule can run during the same cycle.

For example:

If all three rules meet their conditions and are not blocked by their observation settings, all three can execute in the same cycle.

How the observation setting affects your rules

The Days to Observe setting determines whether a recent placement change should prevent a rule from running.

There are two options:

This Rule’s Placement Only setting

The rule only checks whether its own placement was recently changed.

Use this setting when you want TOS, ROS, and PP to be optimized independently.

Example:

Your TOS placement was adjusted recently.

• TOS Rule → blocked because TOS was recently changed.
• ROS Rule → can still run.
• PP Rule → can still run.

Any Placement, Any Action setting

The rule checks for recent changes to any placement in the campaign.

Use this setting when you want recent placement changes anywhere in the campaign to potentially prevent the rule from running.

There is also an additional restriction:

If a Placement Rule using Any Placement, Any Action executes, no other Placement Rule can execute for that campaign during the same cycle.

Example:

Your campaign has TOS, ROS, and PP rules.

If the TOS rule using Any Placement, Any Action runs first, the ROS and PP Placement Rules will not run during that cycle.

What if I have multiple rules for the same placement?

You can have more than one rule targeting the same placement, but only one rule can adjust that placement during each cycle.

The rule with the highest priority that meets the conditions will be used.

Example

You have two TOS rules:

TOS Rule 1 — Priority 1

• Increase TOS by 20% when ACOS is below 20%

TOS Rule 2 — Priority 2

• Increase TOS by 10% when ACOS is below 30%

If both rules meet their conditions, TOS Rule 1 runs because it has the higher priority.

The lower-priority rule does not adjust TOS in the same cycle.

What happens when TOS, ROS, and PP have separate rules?

You can have separate rules for each placement:

TOS: Increase TOS when it is performing well.

ROS: Decrease ROS when it is underperforming.

PP: Increase PP when it is generating good returns.

When these rules target different placements and use the This Rule’s Placement Only observation, they can run independently in the same cycle, provided each rule meets its conditions.

Example

Imagine your campaign has these results:

• TOS is performing well → TOS rule triggers
• ROS is performing poorly → ROS rule triggers
• PP is performing well → PP rule triggers

All three rules can execute:

TOS: Increase by 20%
ROS: Decrease by 10%
PP: Increase by 15%

This lets you optimize each placement based on its own performance rather than treating the campaign's placements as one group.

What happens if a placement was recently changed?

Scale Insights checks the latest placement-related change recorded in the campaign Change Log when determining whether a rule can run.

For example, suppose TOS was recently adjusted.

The reason is that the TOS change only affects the TOS-specific rule when using This Rule’s Placement Only observation, while Any Placement, Any Action considers placement changes across the campaign.

What about keyword bid adjustments?

Placement Rules can also include Adjust Keyword Bid.

When multiple Placement Rules are triggered:

Only one keyword bid adjustment can be made per campaign during each cycle.

If several rules want to adjust keyword bids, the highest-priority eligible rule is used.

For example:

• TOS Rule → Adjust Keyword Bid: +10%
• ROS Rule → Adjust Keyword Bid: +5%
• PP Rule → Adjust Keyword Bid: -10%

If all three are eligible, only the highest-priority eligible rule will make the keyword bid adjustment.

The placement adjustments can still be evaluated separately according to the rules above.

Important details

When multiple Placement Rules include Adjust Keyword Bid, the algorithm evaluates them based on priority.

• If the highest-priority rule does not meet its criteria, the algorithm evaluates the next highest-priority rule, including its keyword bid adjustment.
• If the highest-priority rule meets its criteria but is blocked by its Days to Observe setting, its keyword bid adjustment is also blocked.
• In this case, the algorithm does not evaluate the next highest-priority rule for the keyword bid adjustment.

Example

You have two Placement Rules:

Rule A — Priority 1

• Criteria: ACOS < 20%
• Keyword bid adjustment: +10%
• Days to Observe: 1 day

Rule B — Priority 2

• Criteria: ACOS < 30%
• Keyword bid adjustment: +5%

If Rule A does not meet its criteria, Scale Insights moves to Rule B and can apply its +5% keyword bid adjustment if Rule B is eligible.

However, if Rule A meets its criteria but is blocked because of Days to Observe, Rule A's +10% bid adjustment is blocked, and Rule B is not evaluated for the keyword bid adjustment.

Quick reference