Manual Bidding Optimization

While automated bidding is the ultimate goal, manual bidding should not be left out, especially in the early stages of a new account. This guide will go through how to effectively optimize when using manual bidding for your campaigns.

The ultimate goal when running manual bidding campaigns is to maximize revenue and ROAS at the same time. This is easier said than done because increased revenue often leads to decreased ROAS.  The graph below shows what you should be aiming for,  the sweet spot balancing revenue and ROAS. 

Here are some simple rules to follow when it comes to optimizing your bids - 

• If your ROAS is higher than your goal, increase your bid.

• If your ROAS is higher than your goal, but your Top Impression Share is in the >80%, don’t increase your bid.

This is because, if you are already in the top positions 80% of the time, there isn’t much to gain by increasing your bids.

Bid Update Frequency

When it comes to bid optimization, it’s best to keep a consistent frequency.

Here are a few rules when it comes to bid update frequency:

1) Always update your bids on the same day of the week.

This makes it easier to correlate bid changes with performance changes. If you consistently update the bids every Monday for example, you can look back at the last week and match data with the last bid change. If you randomly come in and make bid changes, it’s hard to know what is working and what is not.

2) Always review at least a  full week’s worth of data. 

A full week is Monday to Sunday. Or Thursday to Wednesday. Just get a full week of data when you review the performance because different days will perform differently. Also with delayed attribution, looking at 1 day’s worth of data is useless.

3)  Use a date range that represents your product’s consumer journey.

Don’t base your bids on only a week’s data if you’re selling a product that usually requires more than a week for the consumer to purchase. Common date ranges are: 7 days, 14 days, 30 days, or 60 days.

If you are selling a high ticket product, then your optimization schedule should be longer than if you were selling an impulse purchase product.

How much do I change my bids by?

It is hard to say because it will depend from product to product and account to account but generally the range will be from 20-40% 

At the end of the day a 40% increase on a $2 bid will be considerable, but a 40% increase on a $.20 bid won’t make much of a difference, so keep that in mind when making changes. 

As a general rule, start with +/-20% and move up or down by 20% from there. If your bid is very low you might have to be a little more aggressive with the increase, and if your bid is already very high, then lower it slightly.

Keyword or Ad group level bids?

It’s always best to have full control and change bids on the keyword level.  Changing bids on the ad group level can lead to some keywords receiving more or less bids than required. 

Don’t forget about Device and Audience Bid adjustments

Most people optimize bids on keywords and completely forget about devices (mobile, tablet, desktop) and audiences. 

Sometimes it’s as simple as lowering bids on the devices and audiences that are bringing your ROAS down. 

I’m increasing my bids but my ROAS is not increasing?

While increasing bids plays a big role for hitting your ROAS targets, sometimes a lower ROAS doesn’t only stem from bid increases.  Sometimes low ROAS could just be a case of:

• Low Quality Score

• Ads not relevant enough

• Ads not intriguing enough

• A competitor outbidding you 

• Bad keyword terms

So before getting frustrated that bid updates are not working, review and address other aspects of your campaign and then come back to the bids.