So you’ve decided to take a leap of faith and switch from manual bidding to using Google’s automated bidding!
Congratulations! ?
It can be a little scary taking that step, but the amount of free time you’ll have now means you can refocus on the things that matter in your business.
Now that you’ve decided to utilize Smart Bidding, you might find yourself wondering “what now?” ?
Maybe you decided to test it out already on a campaign of yours. Or maybe you know you’re ready to switch, but aren’t sure about the best practices you should use.
This post is going to cover seven creative ways you can use the automated bidding tool for your campaigns.
But First, What is Automated Bidding?
In case you don’t know or stumbled upon this post out of pure curiosity, I’m going to cover the basics of what this tool is about.
Google ads created automated bidding as a strategy that will help you reach the maximum results on your campaign goals.
When you switch to automated bidding, Google will automatically set the bid amounts based on how likely it is that your ad will generate clicks or conversions. For this to happen, data is analyzed from the device they’re using, their operating system, their locations, demographics, and the time of day the user is searching.
When using automated bids, you don’t have to worry about updating your bid keywords or ad groups. Instead, these bids are automatically set and will be different for each auction.
Automated bids get smarter each time it’s used. The strategies it utilizes is analyzing past data and informing future bids based on past performance.
7 Ways to Use
Display Remarketing
When creating a campaign, you’re already prepared to select your ideal and relevant audience, but using the automated bidding features in Display might help increase your conversions and save you time.
g other things, Display can be tricky because of strange placements and a large variance in CPCs. By applying Target CPA or Maximize Conversions, you’ll find that Google does most of the placement work for you, which means getting your campaign in front of the best customer.
Make sure you aren’t accidentally excluding relevant traffic, though!
Target CPA
If you’re a little nervous to relinquish all of your control to automated bidding, this is the strategy for you! ?
This bidding strategy works by implementing as many conversions possible based on your target cost-per-acquisition (meaning you still have some control). Some bids will more than likely cost more than your target cost, and others will cost less, but don’t worry! They’ll average out to make sure you stay where you need to be.
This strategy works well when you have an average CPA you’d like to aim for. Before choosing the option, try to have an idea in mind for how much you’d be willing to spend and factor in everything that could cause a rise in cost or loss of ROI.
RLSA
Much like Display Remarketing, RLSA is perfect for targeting users who continually search for products.
With RLSA, you’ll have the option to open up your keywords to target broad categories. Then, Google will intentionally target users who are more likely to follow through with purchasing on your site.
This allows you to lead more people into the buying process through their searches, which means a higher return on investment for you! ?
Target Impression Share
This strategy makes bidding a priority so you can reach a target percentage of the impression share.
Your impression share shows you the percentage of searches you appear in that were a result of targeting and keywords. If you have a low percentage share, this is usually the result of low bids. This strategy will help you defeat that.
The higher your impression share = the visibility of your ad to relevant users = a higher conversion rate.
Related: What is the Difference Between Conversions and Clicks
Top of Funnel Display Campaigns in Targeted Bidding
Beyond asking customers to fill out an easy form, Display tends to be tricky to get real results from.
If you are seeing a rise in conversions, opting into Target CPA will provide Google with data that says to target your relevant audience rather than irrelevant traffic.
Target ROAS
Target ROAS (return on ad spend) work by having Google set your bids to maximum conversion value as high as possible, which in turn maximizes your potential ROAS.
However, Target ROAS can only be applied to one campaign. This strategy shares similarities with Target CPA, but while Target CPA allows you to set it to multiple campaigns (aka portfolio bidding strategy), Target ROAS exclusively focuses on ROAS.
Enhanced CPC
This strategy shares commonalities with manual bidding instead of automated bidding, but instead of manually changing the keyword bid, this allows the Google Ads algorithm to make those adjustments.
When using Enhanced CPC, Google Ads will automatically increase or decrease the bid based on the individual user’s probability of converting. This used to be limited to 30% adjustments, that restriction has been removed, allowing Google Ads to adjust freely.
Successful use of Enhanced CPC leads to increased click-through rates and conversion rates. There is also usually a cost-per-click rate increase as well since the algorithm increased the bid more often than it decreases.
If you want to enable Enhanced CPC, all you have to do is check the box below the manual bidding setting. Or, you can choose Enhanced CPC through the drop-down options.
In conclusion
Shifting from manual bidding to automated bidding won’t automatically lead you to success. That’s why it’s so important to make sure you test different strategies to discover which one works best for you and your business.
By utilizing these seven unique and creative ways to use automated bidding, you’re guaranteed to take your campaigns and business to the next level!