Automated bidding is a hot and controversial topic. You might have come across articles telling you to avoid automated bidding due to a lack of control over data and budget. Meanwhile, manual bidding takes a lot of time and effort as you must decide whether you need to change your bid or not and what changes you should and should not make.
If you are not willing to invest more time and effort in optimizing your bids, then smart bidding is your best bet. If you have been using Google Ads for a while, then you might know that it gives you many options for smart bidding. Some might work great for you while others might not. This makes it even more difficult to choose the right smart bidding strategy for your Google Ads.
In this article, you will learn about seven effective automated bidding strategies that can help you boost your Google Ad revenue.
Pros and Cons of Smart Bidding
Here are some of the pros and cons of smart bidding in Google ads.
Pros
- Increase visibility and brand awareness
- Generates more traffic to your website
- Boost conversions
Cons
- Google does not know about your business dynamics
- Little to no control over your data and budget
- Limited campaign goals
- Google broad data might not reflect your right target audience
7 Smart Bidding Strategies to Boost Google Ad ROI
Here are seven automated bidding strategies that work.
1. Enhanced CPC
Let’s say you don’t want to fully automate your bidding process but also don’t want the hassle of adjusting the bids frequently. That is where the enhanced cost per click strategy can come in handy. It gives you the best of both worlds. If you want your manual bids to generate more conversions without increasing the cost, then enhanced cost per click is your best bet.
Enhanced cost per click strategy boost your ads conversion rate and still be in control of your keyword bids. One big downside of the enhanced cost per click strategy is that Google will automatically reduce or increase a bid based on the likelihood of click generating a sale. If implemented correctly, this bidding strategy can increase your click-through rate and conversion rate.
2. Maximize Conversions
Even though, most people might not consider enhanced cost per click as a fully automated bidding strategy as it lies somewhere in the middle but that is not the case with this strategy. Maximize conversion strategy is considered by Google as a fully automated bidding strategy. As a result, online advertisers could not input bids for an individual keyword. Google will automatically choose a cost per click bid after analyzing the primary goal of your bidding strategy. If you want to get the best result out of your advertising budget, then maximize conversions is an ideal choice.
3. Target CPA
In a target cost per acquisition strategy, digital advertisers first set a cost per conversion and leave the rest to Google as Google optimizes the bids to generate maximum conversions. Mostly, individual conversions might be above or below your target cost per acquisition, but Google will minimize and eventually reduce the variance over time. Advertisers can also set a target CPA at a campaign and portfolio level and can define a range with a maximum and minimum value. When using this bidding strategy, make sure that conversion tracking is enabled otherwise, you will struggle to track where the conversion is coming from.
4. Target ROAS
Unlike target CPA which focuses on cost per acquisition, target return on ad spend strategy revolves around return on ad spend. In this smart bidding strategy, Google will not only predict future conversions but also the conversion value based on past performance data in auctions. The biggest advantage of this strategy is to adjust bids in real-time to enhance conversion value.
Just like target cost per acquisition, individuals’ bids will either be lower or higher than your return on ad spend goal. As a target cost per acquisition, publishers can define a range with minimum and maximum bid limit. This reduces the intervention of Google and prevent it from straying too far. Avoid setting target return on ad spend target high. Instead, set a target that is achievable.
5. Target Search Page Location
As an online advertiser, we always dream about getting featured on the top of Google search results. If you have that dream and want to get more eyeballs on your ads, then this smart bidding strategy is for you. With a target search page location, you can get your ad on the top of the first page of search results.
There are a lot of settings that give you options to select CPC bid limits, bid automation and even allow you to eliminate low-quality keywords from your bids based on their quality score. If the keywords you are bidding on have a quality score that is less than four, it will automatically be removed.
What differentiates target outranking share from other strategies on this list is that it does not focus on the outcome but on ad placement in the auction. This strategy is basically designed to outrank your competitor and rank higher in search results just as the web design company Dubai can help you achieve that goal by giving you a unique web design. Select an industry you want to dominate and the percentage share of auctions you want to outrank them for. Your overall ad rank might not improve after implementing this smart bidding strategy, but it will give you an edge over your competitors.
One of the latest additions to the smart bidding strategy is target impression share. Digital advertisers can define an impression share goal in percentage. They can choose from three ad placement options.
- Absolute top of the page
- Top of the page
- Anywhere on the page
Irrespective of which option you opt for, it will tell Google about your preferences which allows the algorithm to modify your bid by analyzing your preferences. Moreover, advertisers can also set the maximum CPC bid to prevent overspending.
Which is your favorite smart bidding strategy? Let us know in the comments section below.
