It can be tough to know how to match each auto bidding strategy to the right campaign goal.
And in the world of PPC, that means utilizing different Google Ads strategies to make sure your ad campaigns are reaching the right people, at the right time, and with the right message.
This may sound easy, but even the pros get it wrong.
With so many options available to you, the balance between good Google Ads campaigns and bad Google Ads campaigns is as wild and delicate as the hair on a butterflys’ forewing.
And with Google ads some people will tell you that scaling your campaigns at a slow, steady pace is good – but I’m here to tell you that fast is better.
I’ve always believed this, in spite of the trouble it’s caused me.
But let’s be honest… Being strapped to the nose of a rocket will always be better than meandering down a garden path.
That is why God made V8 muscle cars, face-melting g force and Google ads.
And anything that gets your blood pumping is probably worth doing and anything worth doing is worth doing right.
Therefore, if you want to nail Google ads like a boss, then you need to know how to match each auto bidding strategy to the right campaign.
Otherwise, you may as well set your marketing budget on fire with a silent scream in your throat.
So in this article, we’re going to break down each auto bidding strategy and show you the right way to match it up with the goals you’re want to achieve.
In short, welcome to the fast lane, Bub.
What is the right auto bidding strategy for your campaign?
Google Ads allows you to place ads on Google and its network of partner websites. You can target your ads by location, keywords, and demographics.
As a business owner, you’re likely always looking for ways to optimize your Google Ads campaigns and get the most bang for your buck.
So you should and the best part of Google Ads is the automatic bidding feature which allows you to match each auto bidding strategy to the right campaign goal.
With auto bidding, Ads will automatically adjust your bids to get you the most clicks possible for your budget whilst ensuring that the traffic has a high probability of doing whatever campaign goal you choose.
This ensures that you’re not spending more than necessary on your ads and that you’re reaching as many potential customers as possible.
It’s no secret that matching each auto bidding strategy to the right campaign goal is essential to a successful PPC campaign.
Should you get your auto bidding strategy right, then it can help your business to flourish into one of those fine moments that can make you smile in your sleep at night.
But what many business owners don’t know is that not every bidding strategy is suited for every goal.
The types of campaigns you run will dictate the type of bidding strategy you use.
There are seven types of goals in Google Ads that help you to match each auto bidding strategy to the right campaign goal:
1. Maximize Clicks auto bidding strategy
You must have come across this scenario many times before: you want to ramp up your ads, but Ads makes you wait until there’s enough data available to optimize them.
And if you don’t have a big budget or a time machine, then waiting around isn’t really an option. Maximize Clicks auto bidding was created to solve exactly this problem.
Maximize clicks auto bidding is a strategy that sets bids to help you maximize clicks within your set budget and it is available in a single campaign or a portfolio bid strategy across multiple campaigns, ad groups, and keywords.
The Maximize Clicks strategy is best used when you have a solid conversion funnel and you want to send as many visitors to your website as possible.
By setting your bids to automatically adjust, the Maximize Clicks strategy can help ensure that your ads are always shown in the top position and receive the most clicks possible.
You can use Maximize Clicks auto bidding with any type of budget, including daily or lifetime budgets.
However, it’s important to note that if your budget is set too low, Maximize Clicks may not be able to get your ads as many clicks as you would like.
- Goal: Increase clicks / website site visits
- Available In: Single campaigns or across multiple campaigns, ad groups, and keywords
- Description: The Maximize Clicks strategy aims to increase the number of people visiting your website. This auto bidding strategy sets bids to help you maximize clicks within your marketing budget
- The maximize clicks auto bidding strategy is available in a single campaign or a portfolio bid strategy across multiple campaigns, keywords and ad groups
- Best Used When: You have a solid conversion funnel and you want to send as many visitors to your website as possible
If you’re looking to increase traffic to your website, try using the Maximize Clicks auto bidding strategy.
It’s a great way to ensure that your ads are always shown in the top position and receive the most clicks possible.
You can use Maximize Clicks with any type of budget, making it a great option for businesses of all sizes.
Just be sure to keep an eye on your budget so that you don’t end up spending more than you’d like.
2. Target Search Page Location auto bidding
Target Search Page Location auto bidding is a great way to help ensure your ads appear in one of the top positions Ads keywords.
It’s available as a portfolio bid strategy on the Search Network and when enabled, this feature will automatically set your bids to help increase the chances that your ads will show up on the first page of a Google search or in one of the top ad positions.
Keep in mind that Target Search Page Location only applies to campaigns targeting the Search Network.
If you’re looking for a way to improve your click-through rate (CTR) and get more from your advertising investment, then using the Target Search Page Location auto bidding strategy may be the right choice for you.
- Goal: Get to the top of the first page of a Google search results page or have your advertisement in one of the top positions
- Available In: Campaigns
- Description: Target Search Page Location auto bidding increases the chance that your ads appear on thr first page of a Google search or in one of the top ad positions. This is only available as a portfolio bid strategy on the Search Network
- Best Used When: You want to rank for the first page on Google or in one of the top positions in a Google search. For example a branded search term
3. Target Outranking Share auto bidding strategy
If you’re looking to match each auto bidding strategy to the right campaign goal then you’ve most likely looked at Target Outranking Share.
This auto bidding strategy is worth considering if you want to increase your website’s visibility over other competitors.
With this approach, you choose another advertiser’s domain that you want to outrank and set how often you’d like to outrank it.
Google will then automatically adjust your bids to meet that objective.
Target Outranking Share is only available as a portfolio bid strategy, so it’s best used when you want to specifically outrank a competitor in your industry.
Keep in mind that this approach can be costly, as your bids will need to be high enough to surpass those of your competitor.
So if you’re looking for a more affordable way to improve your website’s visibility, check out some of the other auto bidding strategies available to you.
Keep in mind that this bidding strategy is not a guarantee, but it can help give you an edge over your competition.
- Goal: Increase your website visibility over your competitiors
- Available In: Campaigns and is only available as a portfolio strategy
- Description: With Target Outranking Share, you can choose an advertiser’s domain that you want to outrank and how often you’d like to outrank it. Google Ads will then automatically set your search bids to help meet that objective
- Best Used When: You want to play dirty and outrank a specific competitor in your industry
4. Target cost-per-acquisition (CPA)
Target CPA, which was launched in 2015 and allows for more control over your automated bidding.
Google automatically sets Search or Display bids to help you receive as many conversions as possible at your target cost-per-acquisition (CPA).
It’s worth noting that there isn’t a single perfect CPA; it varies depending on what industry you’re in and how much sales volume you typically see per month and if your website or landing page is high converting.
If your business typically sees $5–$10 average order values (AOVs), then you’ll probably need to spend about $25–$45 to acquire each customer.
Should this apply to your business, then remember that over time the customer lifetime value of each customer acquired may exceed your CPA.
Therefore if you initially lose money to acquire a new customer, then remember that your customer lifetime value may result in your ads are extremely profitable over time.
By using Target CPA, you can set a specific target cost-per-acquisition (CPA) that you want Google Ads to hit.
This gives you more control over your automated bidding and helps ensure that you’re acquiring customers at the best possible price.
Keep in mind that it’s important to continually monitor your account and adjust targets as needed.
Doing so will that you’re always acquiring customers at a profit.
Target CPA is best used after you’ve already determined your target CPA and know what your average customer lifetime value is.
That way, you can use the bidding strategy to help reach that target as efficiently as possible.
Remember that Google will still auto bid on your behalf, so there may be times when conversions cost more or less than your target.
- Goal: Get more conversions within your target cost-per-acquisiton
- Available In: Campaigns and ad groups
- Description: Target CPA allows for more control over your automated bidding. Google automatically sets Search or Display bids to help you receive as many conversions as possible at your set target cost-per-acquisition (CPA). Some conversions may cost more or less than your target
- Best Used When: You’ve established CLV and a CPA that you know you can spend to acquire a customer while still maintaining a profit over time
5. Enhanced cost-per-click (ECPC) auto bidding strategy
Enhanced cost-per-click (ECPC) is a feature available to help you generate more conversions while staying in control of your keyword bids.
When making use of ECPC, Google automatically adjusts your manual bids to help you deliver the most relevant ads to users while trying to achieve the same cost per conversion.
This enables you to optimize for conversions instead of clicks.
How does enhanced CPC bidding work?
With auto campaign optimization off, Google will bid up until your maximum CPC bid limit has been reached for an individual or negative keyword list in an ad group or campaign.
With auto campaign optimization on, bids will be automatically increased (or decreased) to the point where Google can deliver you the most conversions within your budget.
Enhanced CPC bidding is available as an optional feature when using Manual CPC bidding or as a portfolio bid strategy.
When might enhanced CPC bidding not work well?
There are some cases where ECPC may not work as well as expected.
For example, if you are targeting a very specific audience or if your ads are not performing well, ECPC may not be effective.
Additionally, ECPC may not be as useful if you have a very small budget or if you are only interested in getting clicks and not conversions.
When might enhanced CPC bidding work well?
ECPC can be a useful tool to help you achieve your conversion goals if you have a small budget and would like to get the most conversions possible.
It is also a great choice for advertisers who are trying to optimize their paid search campaigns for conversions rather than just clicks.
In this example, auto campaign optimization is turned off so that ECPC will work properly.
In this case, we used it with keywords in only one ad group and enabled it as part of our overall bid strategy—so ECPC will need to be manually adjusted from time to time depending on your specific conversion goals.
You should monitor your PPC data regularly to make sure Google gives you the maximum relevant traffic while spending your budget wisely.
So, if you’re using Manual CPC bidding, it’s worth turning on ECPC to let Google do the work of increasing your bids to get more conversions (as long as you’re okay with potentially spending a bit more).
Just be sure to regularly monitor your data to make sure everything is running smoothly.
Smarter bidding for smarter people: auto campaign optimization on or off?
That’s up to you! Turning it on will let Google automatically adjust your bids for you, while keeping auto campaign optimization off will allow you to have more control over how your bids are set.
Whichever option you choose, just be sure to keep an eye on your data so you can make changes when necessary.
Enhanced cost-per-click (ECPC) is a feature available to help you generate more conversions while staying in control of your keyword bids.
So, if you’re using Manual CPC bidding, it’s worth turning on ECPC to let Google do the work of increasing your bids to get more conversions (as long as you’re OK with potentially spending a bit more).
- Goal: Get more conversions while staying in control of your keyword bids
- Available In: Campaigns, ad groups, keywords
- Description: With ECPC, Google automatically adjusts your manual bids to help you get more conversions while trying to achieve the same cost-per-conversion. ECPC is available as an optional feature when using Manual CPC bidding or as a portfolio bid strategy
- Best Used When: You are using a manual bidding strategy but still want to take advantage of automated bidding
6. Target return on ad spend (ROAS) auto bidding strategy
Target ROAS automatically sets your bids to help you receive as much conversion value as possible at your set ROAS (the average value you receive in turn for every dollar you spend on ads).
Some conversions may have a higher or lower return than your target.
Target ROAS is available as a portfolio bid strategy and a standard strategy for individual campaigns.
It’s best used when you want to focus efforts on driving the highest value of conversions versus the total number of conversions.
Using Target ROAS allows you to bid according to the desired revenue per search result, rather than bidding according to anticipated ad click volume.
This can be helpful if you want to maximize revenue generated by PPC traffic, rather than trying to achieve the maximum number of conversions possible.
There are a few things to keep in mind when using Target ROAS:
The first is that Target ROAS can be used as either a portfolio bid strategy or as a standard bid strategy at the campaign level.
When using Target ROAS as a portfolio bid strategy, it will be applied to all ad groups and keywords in the campaign.
Alternatively, you can use it as a standard bid strategy at the ad group or keyword level, which will override the portfolio bid strategy for only those specific entities.
Secondly, if you have more than one conversion action defined in your account, Target ROAS will use the first conversion action that is defined. You cannot specifically choose which conversion action to use with Target ROAS.
Remember that Target ROAS auto-bidding is set at the account level and will be applied to all campaigns.
Finally, the ROAS bid amount cannot be more than 10 times higher than your actual ROAS or lower than negative 10.
You can adjust this bid range by editing the respective fields in the “Standard” column of Target ROAS column within “Additional campaign settings.”
Another important consideration when using Target ROAS is that once you set a target return and begin auto-bidding with Target ROAS, you cannot pause auto targeting.
If you want to stop auto targeting and use manual bidding again, you must first disable auto targeting for all entities under your campaign then turn off auto bidding for those entities that using Target ROAS as well.
Target ROAS auto bidding is only available in Google Ads.
- Goal: Meet a target return on ad spend (ROAS)
- Available In: Campaigns, ad groups, keywords
- Description: Target ROAS automatically sets your bids to help you receive as much conversion value as possible at your set ROAS (the average value you receive in turn for every dollar you spend on ads). Some conversions may have a higher or lower return than your target and Target ROAS is available as a portfolio bid strategy and a standard strategy for individual campaigns
- Best Used When: You want to knuckle down on getting the highest value of conversions versus trying to receive the highest number of conversions
7. Maximize Conversions Google ads
Background Information:
Maximize Conversions as an auto bidding strategy in Google Ads auto-adjusts your bids and then Google optimizes for a high volume of conversions.
Maximize Conversions is usually recommended when you have a large budget and want to automate changes in your bids throughout the day to help maximize your total conversion volume.
It can be used with the Optimize for Clicks or Previous Conversion value options in campaign settings but as it automatically adjusts bids by percentages, it might increase costs per click on average.
Maximize Conversion is best used when you have a large budget and want to maximize the number of conversions you drive each day.
- Goal: Get more conversions within your available budget
- Available In: Campaigns
- Description: This strategy uses auto bids to help you get the maximum number of conversions for your campaigns while spending your entire budget. When you match this auto bidding strategy with your campaign, Google optimizes for a higher volume of conversions. Maximize Conversions is available as a standard strategy for individual campaigns, but is not available as a portfolio bid strategy
- Best Used When: You have a large budget and want to automate your ads to drive more conversions
Google Ads Auto Bidding FAQ:
1. What is the difference between Max CPA and Maximize Conversions?
Both Max CPA and Maximize Conversions bidding strategies auto-adjust your bids to help you receive the most conversions while spending your entire monthly budget.
The main difference between these two strategies is that Maximize Conversions runs on a daily basis, so it automatically adjusts bids by percentages each day to maximize volume.
Max CPA runs over the course of your entire campaign on an automatic bid setting time interval you define (for example, every 2 days).
As it’s not optimized for a particular time period, this strategy might increase or decrease costs per click relative to what they were prior to auto-bid optimization.
Can I set bids below the minimum?
No. With auto bidding, your ads will automatically increase bids whenever they’re likely to lose the auction for a particular keyword or ad group.
For example, if you set auto-bid strategies in an active campaign with auto-optimization enabled for ad group level keywords that are receiving clicks and conversions, then the auto bid strategy will raise your bids when it’s possible to receive more conversions than your goal CPA value.
What types of auto bidding are available?
Right now Google provides two types of auto-bidding options—Maximize Conversions and Maximize Clicks—which use different algorithms to dynamically adjust your bids based on predicted performance. You can select either option from the “Bid strategy” section of the Campaign settings tab.
If I match each auto bidding strategy to the right campaign, then how much will I increase my total campaign costs by?
The auto-bid adjustment you see differs by keyword and ad group, but it could be as high as 100%.
If you use auto bidding, your average CPC could go up significantly higher than what you’d pay if you manually adjusted your bids yourself to maximize conversions or clicks.
However, because auto-bidding strategies can help ensure that you don’t miss potential conversions while spending your entire budget each day, auto bidding usually results in more efficient use of advertising dollars compared with manually adjusting bids.
Will auto bid strategies impact my Quality Score?
Please note that doesn’t guarantee a particular minimum CTR or Quality Score for your ads.
Google’s auto bidding feature, Maximize Conversions, helps to ensure that you’re not missing potential conversions while spending your entire budget each day.
As Google Ads automatically adjusts bids by percentages, it might increase costs per click on average which may or may not have an effect on your Quality Score.
Now you know how to match each auto bidding strategy to the right campaign goal
When comes to Google ads, you don’t need the wild, impenetrable exoskeleton of grit and determination to succeed.
Instead, you only need to match each autobidding strategy to the right campaign goal. Then you leave the hard work to Google.