Depending on your marketing goals, Google Ads offers different bidding strategies to build brand awareness, influence purchase decisions, drive conversions, and generate revenue.
In this article, we'll explore which bidding strategy to choose on Google Ads Search based on your marketing objectives, and we'll cover the most widely used bidding strategies.
Bidding strategies are not applied at the account level but at the campaign level. You can therefore choose different bidding strategies depending on the marketing objective of each of your Search campaigns.
1. Interest-based bidding strategy:
Maximize Clicks:
If you use the "Maximize Clicks" bidding strategy, your goal will be to get as many clicks as possible on your campaign's ads. Bids on your keywords will be set automatically while staying within your budget.
Option: When setting up this strategy, you can set a maximum cost-per-click (CPC) bid limit so the algorithm doesn't exceed your budget. You'll need to think about the maximum amount you're willing to invest for a single click on your ad. For example, if you set a maximum CPC bid limit of $3, you won't pay more than $3 per click on your ad.
2. Awareness-based bidding strategy:
Target Impression Share:
If you use the "Target Impression Share" bidding strategy, your goal will be to achieve maximum visibility for your campaign's ads.
When setting up this bid type, you can choose where your ads appear:
- Absolute top of the results page
- Top of the results page
- Anywhere on the results page
You'll then need to define a target impression share as a percentage. For example, you choose the placement "absolute top of the results page" with a target impression share of 90%. Google then automatically sets bids so your ads appear at the very top of the page 90% of the time they're eligible to show. You'll also need to set a maximum CPC (cost-per-click) bid limit.
3. Conversion-based bidding strategies:
If your goal is to generate conversions on your website, you can choose one of the 3 bidding strategies below:
Manual CPC bidding (with or without Enhanced CPC):
This bidding strategy lets you manually adjust your bids on your keywords based on the likelihood that a click will result in a conversion.
If you choose to enable "Enhanced CPC," you can generate more conversions than without it. The algorithm will automatically increase your manual bids for clicks that are most likely to convert.
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Target CPA:
The Target Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) bidding strategy automatically sets bids to generate as many conversions as possible while meeting your target CPA. This strategy is ideal if your budget is not limited.
You'll need to tell the algorithm a specific acquisition cost, meaning the maximum amount you're willing to pay to get 1 conversion. Some conversions may cost less or more than your target amount, as the algorithm will try to hit your target CPA on average over 30 days.
This strategy should only be used if your products or services are sold at a similar price point. For example, if you sell a chair for $20 and a sofa for $3,000, you cannot use this bidding strategy because the algorithm will inevitably favor selling chairs over sofas based on the target CPA you've set.
Maximize Conversions:
If you choose the "Maximize Conversions" bidding strategy, your goal will be to generate as many conversions as possible while staying within your campaign budget. However, this strategy tends to spend aggressively, so a fairly substantial budget is needed.
4. Revenue-based bidding strategies:
Target ROAS:
If you choose the "Target ROAS" bidding strategy, your goal will be to achieve a target return on ad spend.
For example, for every $1 invested, you want $3 in revenue, meaning you want the product sold through your ad to generate $3 in return. When setting up the strategy, you'll therefore indicate that your target ROAS is 300%, because for every $1 invested, you're aiming for 3x the return.
From there, bids are set automatically to maximize revenue.
However, for a Search campaign, using the "Target ROAS" bidding strategy requires having recorded at least 15 conversions in the past 30 days (though it's recommended to have at least 50 conversions over the past 30 days, to give the algorithm enough data to set bids effectively).
Note: This is therefore not the right strategy to choose if you're launching a new campaign, as it requires a substantial history. To define your target ROAS, base it on the ROAS you typically achieve on that campaign.
Maximize Conversion Value:
Choose the "Maximize Conversion Value" bidding strategy if you want to maximize the total value of your transactions. This strategy adjusts your bids and shows your ads on the Search Network more or less frequently based on users' searches.
Option: For this strategy, you can also set a target ROAS as a percentage (for example, 500%, meaning that for every $1 invested, you're aiming for 5x the return).
Note: This is also not the right strategy to choose if you're launching a new campaign, as it requires a substantial history, just like the Target ROAS strategy.
Depending on the bidding strategy chosen for your Search campaign, you'll have more or less control over your bids.
Want to learn more about bidding strategies and get support with Google Ads or your overall digital marketing strategy? Don't hesitate to reach out! â
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By Candice Echavidre
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