The Forecasting section allows one to create new forecasts and also monitor the evolution of the existing ones.
Configuring a new Forecast is a simple and intuitive process, all one has to do is choose a relevant name and a series of parameters as follows:
Timeframe
The length of time during which the Forecast will be calculated. One can choose between 6, 9, 12 or 24 months.
Schedule Forecast
By enabling this option, one can delay the start of the Forecast to a specific future month instead of starting it immediately.
Search Engine
The selected search engine dictates how the search volume for each keyword is retrieved from Google Ads. Only the search volume for the country respectively for the specific location selected at the search engine level is taken into account for the Forecast.
The Forecast calculation is also affected by the search engine’s device. One can choose to forecast visits either on Desktop or Mobile.
Traffic Metric
This parameter allows the selection of the estimated visits type that should be used when computing the forecasted values:
Estimated Visits: calculated using the keyword’s search volumes sourced from Google Ads as an average for the last 30 days, based on the selected search engine country.
Local Estimated Visits: calculated using the keyword’s search volumes sourced from Google Ads as an average for the last 30 days, considering the specific location of the selected search engine.
The option to use Local Estimated Visits is available for selection only if one of the custom location search engines added in the project is chosen.
Performance over time
This parameter allows selecting the speed for the progress toward the forecasted goal. One can choose between Linear or Exponential progress.
The Linear curve adds the same amount of progress every month, while the Exponential curve starts slow and then picks up the pace towards the end of the forecast.
Average order value
This represents the average amount spent by a customer when placing an order on a website. It can be calculated by simply dividing the total revenue by the number of orders recorded.
CTR Values
This parameter allows choosing the type of CTR curve that will be used in the Forecast. The data for the CTR curves comes from our CTR Study.
There are 4 types of CTRs one can choose from:
SERP and device-based
This is the recommended option and when selected, the forecasting algorithm looks at the SERP features showing up for each keyword and uses the CTR curve that matches all the keywords that we have in our database with the same SERP features. The device (Desktop or Mobile) is also taken into consideration. This choice gives you the most accurate CTR curve.
Global
When this option is selected, the forecast is calculated using a global average CTR curve regardless of any SERP features that may appear in the results.
Custom
This option allows one to enter a custom CTR that will be used for forecasting.
Google Search Console
This option allows the use of CTRs sourced from the Google Search Console property synced with the project. The CTRs are extracted as an average over the last 30 days.
Conversion rate (%)
This represents the website’s conversion rate, which can be sourced as an average over the last 30 days directly from the Google Analytics property synced with the project or computed manually by dividing the number of conversions by the total interactions. For instance, if there are 50 conversions from 1,000 interactions, the conversion rate would be 5%.
Exclude Keyword Variations
When checked, this option excludes keyword close variations from the Forecast calculation, resulting in higher accuracy for traffic estimations. Variations refer to keywords with the exact same search volumes over the last 12 months, such as plural forms, acronyms, or misspellings.
Do you have any other questions? Don’t hesitate to get in touch and we will keep building the FAQ.