What Is a Bid Adjustment and What Is It Used For?
A bid adjustment is a Google feature that lets you give the algorithm additional signals about how much more or less you are willing to pay for a specific targeting option.
In practice, setting a bid adjustment of +10% tells the algorithm that you are willing to pay 10% more to appear for a particular target. Conversely, setting an adjustment of -20% means you are only willing to pay 80% of the original bid.
During our audits, we have noticed that many accounts are not taking advantage of this optimization, even though it is a significant lever for guiding algorithm learning around your target audience and making the most of the platform's machine learning capabilities.
Bid adjustments can be applied in several places, including:
- Google audiences
- Devices
- Demographic data
- Geographic areas
- Ad scheduling
â
Here is how to proceed for some of these adjustments:
â
If the column does not appear by default, you will need to add it by customizing the columns in your table.
- Audiences
When building your Search or Display campaigns in particular, you have the option to add audiences in observation mode. A good portion of these audiences are covered in the following article: link.
Over time, you accumulate data and start to notice that your conversions are driven by one or more specific audiences, or conversely, that certain audiences generate no conversions at all. You can then apply bid adjustments upward or downward to guide the algorithm and clearly signal where your priorities lie.
- Similarly, you may run a business where conversions happen far more often on desktop than on mobile. In that case, you can set adjustments to prioritize desktop and limit your impressions on mobile and tablet.
- Finally, as data accumulates over time, a typical persona often starts to emerge. To capitalize on the characteristics that define it, you can apply bid adjustments based on age range, gender, or even household income. Once again, the goal is to give the algorithm as many signals as possible to point it toward your core target audience and maximize its learning.
Bid adjustments should not be confused with bidding strategies or bid estimates:
- Bidding strategies define how you want to use your campaign budget. They range from more to less aggressive and from more to less automated. In theory, automated bidding strategies are able to determine bid adjustments on their own. In practice, some automated strategies do take your manual adjustments into account, such as Target CPA or Target ROAS, for example.
- Bid estimates, on the other hand, are figures Google provides to give you an idea of how much you need to pay per click to appear in the top position on the search results page. They are a very useful indicator for identifying keywords that fit your budget and allow you to appear as often as possible given your spending level.
- â
To wrap up, bid adjustments are an optimization lever worth integrating into your campaigns' best practices, particularly during the learning phase. It is a simple, quick optimization that makes the most of your existing insights.
â
Would you like support with Google Ads, or more broadly with your digital marketing strategy? Feel free to reach out!
By Ronan Lecointre
.jpg)
.jpg)