Google Ads Bidding Strategies for Maximum Results
YRV Dynamics developed this POV to optimize the result to discuss Google Ads bidding strategy. The first is to identify your goal for the campaign. First, take a look at what you want to accomplish:
- Taking direction on your site: Conversion tracking
- Generate Traffic: Focus on clicks, CPC, or max clicks
- Brand Awareness/ Generating Awareness: CPM or vCPM (viewable CPM)
- Video ads for long-form messaging: CPV or CPM. Video ads increase consideration as well.
Smart Bid or Manual Bid:
Smart bidding is best used to focus on conversions. This is due to the heavy lifting and guesswork out of setting bids. Essentially, this is known as “auction-time bidding,” which deals with a range of auction time signals such as device, location, time of day, language, and operating system.
CPA or Target Cost Per Action: tCPA is a great way to increase conversions while targeting a specific CPA
- Pros: Goal is events or conversions, sign ups, app downloads, sales. The algorithm favors conversion tracking to avoid unprofitable clicks
- Cons: Cannot set CPC bid cap. tCPA requires a healthy budget. Your daily budget ideally needs to be at least 2x your tCPA to learn quickly — -possibly examine a higher tCPA.
Target Return on Ad Spend: Focus on a certain ROAS while targeting a specific report on the ad spend—this part of the value-based conversion family.
- Pros: Made for eCommerce platforms with multiple SKUs. Can take the guesswork of identifying high volume and high margin winners. Gravitates to “buying-ready” audiences.
- Cons: Feedback loops needed, such as product revenue and a well-connected merchant center. Ad spending can be less than what can be allocated daily. The goal is to find the lowest spending threshold for the highest conversion value.
Maximize Conversions: These are more appropriate with key actions or conversions such as lead gen. This is where you maximize the conversions for the highest volume of conversions possible.
- Pros: Dive higher conversion goals and find people ready for conversion
- Cons: The goal is conversions, which can come at a higher cost or lower ROAS. However, efficiency is not the goal; maximizing your conversion count is.
Maximizing Conversion Value: This is part of the value-based portion of the bidding strategy. Where the budget is spent to maximize the highest conversion value possible.
- Pros: Driving the highest dollar revenue, visitors will be more apt to purchase vs visit and bounce as its more qualified traffic
- Cons: ROAS may not be as solid. More focused on conversions that yield high revenue.
Enhanced CPC: Adjust your manual bids for maximized conversions if you use eCPC.
- Pros: Typically, a high CTR and conversion rate vs solely manual CPC
- Cons: Increases in CPCs are common and may not be as profitable, but this is the same feedback of most smart campaigns
Manual Bidding is still alive and well on Google ads
Maximize Clicks: This is still considered in the Manual Bidding family (at least in Google’s POV). This maximizes the highest volume of clicks based on your budget.
- Pros: Generates lower lower CPCs and raise impression share, short learning period
- Cons: Clicks and conversions are lower quality. Not actively going after conversions, simply traffic
One last word on Maximize Clicks. People often default to max clicks, thinking it will earn top-performing traffic immediately. Here are some thoughts:
- You want to spend your ad budget in full. Google will take your whole ad budget and back out the full volume of clicks that the budget will earn.
- You have minimum time to view, monitor, and adjust bids or KWs. Again, maximizing clicks will maximize results.
- You’re unsure how much the CPCs will be and want to see what your CPCs yield. In this case, please set a maximize CPC as a threshold. This way, you’re not spending $15 CPC, maybe $5, and adjust from there.
- It is not an optimal way to earn key ad rank or cost per conversion. These rely on other factors that would be needed to navigate your CPCs.
Manual CPC: Can be adjusted on ad groups within an ad group or individual KWs and placements. Here, you would examine your Search Term report and compare before and after to adjust bids on top performing or KWs that earn little/ no conversions.
- Pros: The highest level of control, your max CPC bid is the most you will be charged for a click.
- Cons: More time, work, and experience as it's manually set. Doesn’t leverage machine learning
One quick word about Google Ads Automated Bidding. This is different than smart bidding. These are bid strategies that use machine learning to optimize on your behalf. These are bids based on the strategy you set. Smart bidding is more for conversions and conversion value in every auction. This is auction time bidding (CPA, tROAS, max conv, mac conv value, eCPC).
Click here to follow the conversation on YouTube with our video labeled “Unlocking the Secrets of Google Ads’ Smart Bidding Strategies.” We also have a podcast for all of our PPC content- click here to see all our podcast content. Please click the play button below to listen to the podcast version of this Medium article.
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Yousaf Yunes is the CEO/ Lead Founder / Principal at YRV Dynamics, with more than 15 years of expertise in the advertising industry. He’s garnered a Top Rated Plus status on Upwork, earning a perfect job satisfaction score of 100% with twenty-one 5-star reviews from his Upwork clients. Yousaf earned certifications in Google Search and YouTube/Video and holds dual Blueprint certifications in Meta’s planning and buying. Yousaf has also won the Monty McKinney Award for the Institute of Advanced Advertising Studies (IAAS).
During his downtime, Yousaf is the lead moderator for the largest Meta group focused on Blueprint, known as “Facebook Blueprint Certification Prep,” which boasts a membership of over 30,000 individuals.
