What Is Google Ads Automated Bidding?

Google Ads automated bidding is a strategy that sets bids automatically for your ads based on the ad’s likelihood to result in a click or conversion. There are at least four automated bidding strategies and you’ll use them at different times and based on your objectives.

 

Automated bidding takes the heavy lifting and guesswork out of setting bids. So there is no need to set bids manually because the machine learning system sets bids for you automatically at auction time.

 

And automated bidding strategies learn as they go, using past bid performance to inform future bids.

 

In Google Ads, you can use automated bidding or manual bidding in your campaigns. And the bidding strategies that you’ll have under these two will depend on the campaign type that you create and the objective you have.

 

For your Search campaigns, you’ll have all the bidding strategies available in Google Ads. And in this article I list all the automated bid strategies in your account based on the goals of your campaigns.

 

 

Awareness-based bidding strategies

 

Awareness-based bidding is a Google Ads automated bidding strategy that focuses on making your ads more visible. So this helps you focus on specific locations, particularly higher ones to ensure that you are meeting a specific Impression share threshold.

 

 

This helps you to set your bids to increase the chances your ads will appear in the search page area that you select like anywhere on results page, top of results page or absolute top of results page.

 

You can then set a percent Impression Share target to state how often you want your ad to appear in the search page area you select. For example, you can choose to appear 50% of the time at the top of the results page. And it is also advised to set a maximum cost per click (CPC) bid limit.

 

When to use: Target Impression Share will also help you to outbid competitors. If you want to appear higher than all competitors, you can set your ads to appear in the absolute top of results page. But make sure you set a maximum CPC limit because this can be very expensive if competitors are doing the same.

 

Consideration-focused bidding strategies

 

Consideration-focused bidding focuses on getting you as much traffic to your website as possible. And Maximise Clicks is the bidding strategy that will help to get you as many clicks as possible for the target spend amount that you choose.

 

 

Your bids are set automatically at auction-time by the machine learning system. And it positions your ads to get you as much traffic as possible for your budget.

 

You can also set a maximum CPC bid limit to cap how much you pay for each click. But this could limit the clicks you get on your ads.

 

When to use: As a consideration-focused Google Ads automated bidding strategy, Maximise Clicks is the best strategy when you first launch your campaign. This helps you to see which of your searches are converting well and which are not and need blocking. And then you can switch to a conversion-focused bid strategy when you have more data.

 

Conversion-focused bidding strategies

 

Conversion-focused Google Ads automated bidding has the most number of bidding strategies than the other types. These strategies include Maximise Conversions, Target Cost Per Acquisition (tCPA) and Enhanced Cost Per Click (eCPC).

 

 

These strategies help if you’re tracking post-click actions, and are looking to value conversions equally and to maximise the number of conversions your campaign is getting.

 

When to use: Change to one of these strategies later when you want to focus on conversions. For example, if you’ve now had at least 30 conversions per month and have an idea of how much you want to pay for each conversion, change to target cost per acquisition (tCPA).

 

With Maximise Conversions, you’ll be focusing on getting as many conversions as possible for your budget. The Google Ads machine learning system will have insights into which searches are performing best for your campaign and will adjust bids to get as many conversions as possible.

 

And with Enhanced CPC this helps you to set your core bid manually and then add a layer of real-time optimisation. This means your bids will be increased automatically for clicks that are most likely to lead to conversions. And it will lower your bids for clicks that seem less likely to convert. This helps you to get more value for your budget.

 

Revenue-focused bidding strategies

 

If you want to track conversion value and have a campaign that has had at least 50 conversions in the past 30 days for Search then revenue-focused bidding is the right fit for you.

 

And with the Target Return On Ad Spend (Target ROAS) bid strategy, bids will be set automatically at auction time. This will help to get as much conversion value as possible at the target return on ad spend that you set.

 

 

You will enter a value as a percentage. For example, if your goal is to get an average £3 in sales for every £1 you spend on ads, your target ROAS would be 300%.

 

When to use: This is for you when you are sure of the return you want to receive for  each £1 that you spend in your campaign. This will vary from campaign to campaign, but the system will try to achieve an average across them that meets your objective.

 

Conclusion

 

Google Ads automated bidding will help you to meet your advertising goals while spending less time managing your bids. That’s because it bids automatically at auction time and sets the right bid to help you achieve your objectives. And continually reviewing your bid strategy is important and you can check your Recommendations page for any new suggestions to update it.

 

Get in Touch

 

Need help picking the best Google Ads automated bidding strategy for your campaigns? I can help and I’ve worked with many businesses over the years and have built a wealth of knowledge on how to choose the right one. Use the form below to contact me.