Search Campaign Bidding Options

1. Maximize Conversions

When you select Conversions and don’t set a target cost per action, you are using Google’s ‘Maximize Conversions’ bidding strategy.  This bidding strategy is good for when you already have conversions in your Google account (at least 30) and have your website conversion optimization nailed down. 

Google will aim to spend as much as possible to get a conversion for you, so be careful of the campaign/ad group budget when using this strategy, as it will spend quickly.

2. Target CPA

When you select Conversions as well as a target cost per action, you are using Google’s ‘Target CPA’ bidding strategy.  This bidding strategy is good for when you already have many conversions in your Google account (at least 100) and want to control your bid spend as much as possible.

Google will still aim for conversions, but will try and keep the bid at the target CPA set. If you don’t have many conversions this automated bidding strategy will not work well as Google does not have sufficient data needed to get you conversions at the target set. Also if your target CPA is too low you run the risk for your budget not spending.

3. Target ROAS

When you select Conversion value as well as a target return on ad spend, you are using Google’s ‘Target ROAS’ bidding strategy.  This bidding strategy is similar to target CPA but using conversion value instead of cost. It is good to test both target CPA and target ROAS to see which one performs better.

4. Manual Bidding (Max CPC)

If you have a new account or not that many conversions then you will want to select the manual bid option.  In bidding, select ‘Clicks’ and then add a maximum cost per click bid limit. This will mean that Google will only bid a maximum of whatever maximum CPC you give it.

While this can be a good option for new accounts, or when automated bidding is not working well, Google’s automated bidding options have come a long way and are generally more superior to manually bidding each keyword. If automated bidding is working well for you we recommend sticking with it over manual bidding. 

5. Target Impression Share

Target impression share is used when you want to get your ads to appear on a particular spot on Google such as on the top of the page. It is good for brand campaigns and when you want to beat your competitor’s out on certain keywords. 

While we do not use this bidding strategy often, there is a very specific use case for it.

To use this option select ‘Impression share’ and let google know where you want your ads to appear (You can choose ‘Absolute top of results page’ as an option but it will run up your bids in doing so so you will be paying for it!) 

Set a percent (%) impression share to target. This will tell Google how often to show your ad when people search for the keyword. (We recommend 75% for brand campaigns, as it gets very expensive for anything higher)

And finally add a maximum cpc bid limit to tell google not to bid more than a certain amount on each keyword.