Google Ads Bidding Guide: How To Choose the Best Strategy

Choosing the right bidding strategy for a Google Ads campaign is a significant factor in how successful a campaign is. Implementing a strategy is essential so businesses do not waste ad spend on the wrong clicks.

Making the right decisions based on data analytics and understanding pay-per-click can make a notable difference in PPC efforts. While the world of digital marketing is swiftly shifting toward an automation-first model, sometimes keeping the human perspective involved is the best option. A mixture of automation and manual bidding helps boost brands to meet their goals in the most cost-effective way possible. Learn how to choose the best strategy with this Google Ads Bidding Guide.

Set Goals

Before embarking on a PPC journey, define the goals of the campaign. Investing in PPC is an intentional choice and supports work toward a central goal. It’s beneficial to shoot for the stars in your goals, but keep realistic expectations in mind when measuring success. Lofty goals lead to disappointment while underselling your potential can act as a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The following are some examples of goals companies set for PPC campaigns:

• Increased customers taking direct actions on the website
• Generate more traffic to the website
• Increase brand awareness
• Gain interactions or views on ads
• Increase product or brand consideration

All the above goals are ones Google outlines as overarching goals. An individual company can refine and define goals on a more micro level if that makes the most sense for the brand. Set goals based on both the desired actions you want from users seeing your ads and the long-term goals you have for your brand.

Learn Different Strategies

The first step to devising the perfect plan for your PPC strategy is understanding the options. Google Ads has automated options, but for the best results, there is no perfect formula. A combination of manual and automation tends to work best for most companies, but some do well with one or the other.

Cost Per Action

Cost per action targeting is a strategy most beneficial for conversion-driven campaigns. Using this method, Google sets bids on each campaign based on the cost per action. Some conversions cost more than others.

For this method, it is crucial to understand your cost per action or how much money is feasible to spend on acquiring a single customer.

Target Impression Share

Target impression share is relatively new to the PPC scene. It is a smart bidding strategy that drives brand awareness goals through a broad reach. Impressions do not always lead to conversions, so it’s essential to define your goal as brand awareness with this strategy clearly.

Maximizing Clicks

Maximizing clicks is an automated bid strategy designed to get the most clicks possible on an ad within a set budget. Your brand sets the budget, and Google automatically manages your bids to achieve the highest click amount available.

This strategy is one of the simplest to run because it is almost entirely automated.

Conversion-Driven

A conversion-driven approach works to maximize the number of conversions your PPC ads generate. With this strategy, the entire PPC budget goes to increasing the number of conversions. It is an alternative to the cost-per-action strategy.

Enhanced Cost Per Click

Enhanced cost per click automatically adjusts manual bids to work toward maximizing conversions. This strategy is a blend of manual and understanding bidding. Brands set the basic cost per click for ad groups and keywords; then, the algorithm optimizes them.

Return on Ad Spend

Targeting return on ad spend is a strategy best suited for optimizing the value of each conversion. It works by increasing conversion value and simultaneously targeting a specific return on ad spend. In this one, Google sets bids to maximize conversion value in a percentage-based manner based on the return you want from ad spend.

Maximizing Conversion Value

Maximizing conversion value is a strategy focused on optimizing the conversion value without targeting specific ROAS. This strategy is new as of 2019. The Google algorithm works to maximize the ROAS for you without targeting particular returns.

Set a Realistic Budget

Many companies start with a far too small budget or too large for their campaigns—worry not, it’s not a dealbreaker. One of the wonderful things about Google Ads campaigns is you can adjust as needed.

For example, if a brand finds they are hitting the cap on ad spend before noon every day, it could indicate it needs to up the budget to reach its full potential.

To set a budget, consider (on the topical level) what your goals are, past performance, and profitability needs. On a more involved level, understanding your brand’s potential in PPC is the best indicator if you are spending too much or not enough.

The brands with the most success in PPC understand that budgets can be fluid. They must adapt and change as your company does. The return from PPC should push a business toward its set goals. As the company achieves goals, it must set new ones and adjust the ad spend accordingly.

To Go It Alone Or Work With an Agency?

Another critical decision to make when a company ventures into PPC campaigns and starts to adjust bidding strategies to reach goals is to work with a PPC agency or go it alone. There are pros and cons to both options.

It can be highly beneficial for smaller companies to hire a digital marketing agency due to the years of expertise of agency workers. With a lower ad spend and a team working for your company, the results can be astounding.

It may drive up costs for larger companies and take a significant and challenging to manage campaigns off the plate of brand employees. Consider all the factors affecting your unique company because no company fits into a cookie-cutter campaign.

Hiring an agency can be intimidating but going with one that prioritizes transparency and demonstrates the ability to grow with your company can bring immeasurable value.

How to choose the best bidding strategy for Google Ads wildly depends on your company and goals. There is no one true bidding guide guaranteed to work wonders for your campaign goals, but understanding what to take in mind when developing a strategy goes a long way.