Testing Google Ads Smart Bidding Versus Manual Bidding. The Results Were Humbling
I am always going back and forth in my head on which bidding strategy to use for a Google Ads campaign. Do I leverage Google’s smart bidding options or get my knuckles dirty with a manual cost per click strategy? As always, it is best to test them both because you never really know what will do better until you try it, so I did.
The test was Manual Cost Per Click (CPC) bidding Versus Maximize Conversions bidding.
Maximize conversions is a bidding strategy that tells Google to go out and get as many conversions as possible within my budget. It goes without saying, you need to have the correct conversion tracking set up so that Google will get as many as X action (Form fill submission, call, subscribe, etc.)as possible.
From the outset, both have their unique traits
On the one hand, manual cost per click bidding gives you more control by setting the max cost per click you want at the keyword level.
More control also requires more time, and some level of expertise to properly manage and set bids to increase performance.
On the other hand, a fully automated maximize conversion test leverages Google’s machine learning that takes into account millions of factors that no human could possibly know.
Although it will save you time, it does give you less control, and having the proper conversion tracking in place will be critical. Google is only as good as the data it is fed. If you do not tell it what to maximize for, it will make bad, very bad decisions.
And the test begins…
THE TEST
6 months with a manual CPC (cost per click) bidding strategy
AND
6 months with one of Google's automated bidding strategies, maximize conversions.
Industry: Financial
1 Conversion was either a form fill submitted from the landing page or a call lasting 60+ seconds from the Google ads call extension
The results were….
a clear blowout. The human (me) had to take a big bite of humble pie. Maximize conversions swept the board driving 2.5X more conversions, tripling click-through rate, and cutting the cost per conversion in half, all with less budget!
With the exception of impressions (vanity metric anyway), all metrics were Fighting Irish Green, GO GO GO.
This test was very clear, but as all tests do, there are flaws that may have a factor in the results.
- The dates were in two different times. This business does not have a particularly large seasonality to it but could play a part in the test.
- Although the keywords targeted were mostly the same from each test period, negative keywords were added to the negative keyword list and underperforming keywords were paused as part of the day to day management of the campaign which could have an effect on results.
Outside of the minor changes as explained, the campaign was similar in structure, targeting and budget and the main variable being the bidding strategy.
In this test, the winner by clear knockout was MAXIMIZE CONVERSIONS AKA ROBOTS.
Are you using manual cost per click? OR any of the smart bidding strategies such as maximize conversions? What results are you seeing?
