Google Ads Bidding Strategies
Selecting the right Google Ads bidding strategy is key to a campaign’s success. Google Ads offers multiple bidding strategies tailored to specific campaign needs.
You might want to ask yourself – what is the goal of my campaign? It could be to increase clicks, impressions, or conversions.
Different campaign types require different bidding strategies.
For example, in search campaigns; you might want to use CPA whereas in Display you might want to use maximize conversions.
Goal type, budget, & targeting determine the bid strategy one should use.
In this blog post, I am going to explain current Google Ads bidding strategies, When to use and the Type of Goals to use with?
The key to success is determinig a strategy based on Campaign Goals
Manual Bidding Strategies
Other Bidding Strategies
Google Ads Bidding Strategy & Goal Type
Determine a bid strategy based on your SEM goals. Having the right Google Ads bidding strategy will help you win more auctions to improve your chances of conversions.
Each of Google Ads’ bidding strategies has weaknesses, advantages, and recommended applications.
Bid Strategy and Goal Type
Bidding Strategy | Goal Type |
Target ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) |
Conversions, Leads & Sales |
Target CPA | |
Maximize Conversions | |
Enhanced CPC | |
Maximize Clicks |
Clicks |
Manual CPC | |
Maximum CPV |
Views & Engagement |
Cost Per Engagement | |
Target Impression Share |
Impressions |
Target Search Page Location | |
Target Outranking Share | |
Viewable CPM (vCPM) |
Choose a Strategy Align with Business Goals & Campaign Goals
Business Goal | Campaign Goal | Bidding Method |
Increase sales, profit, or qualified leads | Get as much conversion value as possible at a fixed budget or fixed return on ad spend | Maximize conversion value with optional target ROAS |
Increase transactions or leads | Get as many conversions as possible at a fixed budget or fixed cost per action | Maximize conversions with optional target CPA |
Increase website visitors | Get as many clicks to your websites as possible with the given budget | |
Increase or stabilize awareness | Show at your desired location (e.g., top of page) and impression share in auctions |
What is Manual CPC
Manual CPC provides more control overspend. It lets you set your own maximum cost-per-click (CPC) for your ads, whereas, in an automated bidding strategy Google sets the bid for you.
You can set a maximum CPC bid for your entire ad group.
You can also set separate bids for individual keywords or placements.
Automated Bidding Strategies
Automated bidding takes the heavy lifting and guesswork out of setting bids to meet your performance goals. Each type of Automated bidding strategy is designed to help you achieve a specific goal for your business.
Bid Strategy & What it Does | |||
Bid Strategy | Goal | What it does | |
Manual CPC | Set your own maximum CPC for keywords | You “yourself” need to define bids at keyword or ad group level that help you achieve your business goals. | |
Target Search Page Location | Show your ad on the top of the page or on the first page of Google Search results | Google automatically adjusts your bids several times a day to get you ad placements either on the first page of search results or at the top of the search page | |
Target Outranking Share | Outrank ads from another domain | Google automatically updates your bids once a day to outrank another specifically chosen domain ads | |
Target Impression Share (Smart Bidding) | Increase Visibility | Target impression share automatically sets bids with the goal of showing your ad on the absolute top of the page, on the top of the page, or anywhere on the page of Google search results. Target impression share is available on the Search Network only, as either a standard strategy in a single campaign or portfolio bid strategy across multiple campaigns. | |
Maximize Clicks (Smart Bidding) | 1 – Increase Site Visits 2 – Get as many clicks as possible within your budget | Google Automatically adjusts your bids several times a day to get you most traffic within your budget. | |
Enhanced CPC | Takes’s Google predictions regarding conversion intent into account when using manual CPC or maximize clicks biding. | Automatically adjusts your manual bids for clicks that seem more or less likely to lead to a sale or conversion on your website | |
Maximize Conversions(Smart Bidding) | Get the most conversions for your campaign while spending your budget. | Maximize conversions bidding will help you optimize towards conversions. You have the option to set a Target CPA on your Maximize conversions bidding strategy, which means Smart Bidding will try to get as many conversions as possible at the target cost-per-action (CPA) that you set. If the Target CPA option is not set, then Maximize conversions will aim to spend your budget to get as many conversions as possible. Maximize conversion value bidding will help you optimize towards conversion values. You have the option to set a Target ROAS on your Maximize conversion value bidding strategy, which means Smart Bidding will try to get the highest conversion value possible at the target return on ad spend (ROAS) that you set. If the Target ROAS option is not set, then Maximize conversion value will aim to spend your budget to drive as much conversion value as possible. Maximize conversion values emphasizes the area you want to maximize, but limits spending to your specified budget. | |
Maximize Conversion Value (Smart Bidding) | Get the most conversions for your campaign while spending your budget. | Maximize conversion value automatically sets bids to help you get the most conversion value for your campaign while spending your budget. Maximize conversion values emphasizes the area you want to maximize, but limits spending to your specified budget. When you are using Maximize conversion value without a Target ROAS set, Google Smart Bidding will aim to spend your budget to maximize conversion value for your campaigns. When you are using Maximize conversion value with a Target ROAS set, Google will help get as much conversion value as possible at the target return on ad spend (ROAS). When you create a Maximize conversion value bid strategy, you can set a Target ROAS (return on ad spending). | |
Target CPA (Smart Bidding) | Get as many conversions as possible at the target CPA you set | Using historical information about your campaign and evaluating the contextual signals present at auction-time, Maximize Conversions bidding automatically finds an optimal CPC bid for your ad each time its eligible to appear. | |
Target ROAS (Smart Bidding) | Meet a target return on ad spend (ROAS) when you value each conversion differently. | Target ROAS automatically sets bids to help get as much conversion value as possible at the target return on ad spend (ROAS) you set. Some conversions may have a higher or lower return than your target. | |
What is Google Ads Maximize Conversion Value Smart Bidding Strategy
Introduced during Google Marketing Live 2019 – Maximize Conversion Value is the newest smart bidding strategy in Google Ads line up. Maximize is available starting August 21st, 2019.
Maximize Conversion Value aims to optimize the greatest conversion value within the budget.
Maximize conversion value uses historical campaign data and the searcher’s contextual signals to determine the optimal CPC bid at auction time.
Best works with transaction-specific values or have set conversion values for the conversion types you’re optimizing for.
Seasonality Adjustments for Smart Bidding
Smart Bidding strategies like Target CPA and Target ROAS use machine learning to automatically set bids at auction time to help improve the performance of your Google Ads campaigns.
Though these strategies already take into consideration seasonality. Google knows there are key moments for businesses to anticipate significant shifts in conversion rate, like during sales or when a new product launches.
To provide businesses more control in such rate situations, you can no apply seasonality adjusts for search and display marketing campaigns. Please see the screenshot example.
“Let’s say you’re planning a flash sale for the weekend. Historically, you’ve seen a 50% increase in conversion rates when you’ve run a similar sale. With seasonality adjustments, you can apply a predicted conversion rate adjustment and Smart Bidding will consider that adjustment for the date range selected while trying to hit your target CPA.”
FAQ - Bidding Strategy
What does automated bidding use to set the right bid for every auction?
Automated or Smart bidding uses historical data to set the right bid for every auction. I recommend starting with the “Maximize Conversion” smart bidding strategy and once over 15 conversions recorded in the past 30 days, then migrating to setting a Target CPA Bidding strategy.
Which type of Automated Bidding Strategy is Enhanced Cost-per-Click (eCpc)?
Enhanced CPC automatically adjusts your bids for clicks that are likely to convert. Another way for Google to increase bids (Max 30%), if it thinks you are bidding too low for a well-performing ad and likely to get a conversion.
Which type of automated bidding strategy is Target Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)?
Target ROAS is Google Ads Smart Bidding strategy that helps you get more conversion value or revenue at the target return-on-ad spend (ROAS) you set.