Explore AI-Powered Search Ads Bid Strategies

Tips for running an effective conversion-based bidding strategy.

- don't set your maximize conversion (with a CPA target) too low - allow time for optimization -use the bid strategy report

tips for running a value-focused bidding strategy

-Search campaigns should accrue at least 15 conversions over the past 30 days before you turn on a target ROAS bidding strategy, so AI can learn to make a better bidding decision - allow time for optimization -use the bid strategy report

Smart bidding strategy best practices

-align with marketing objectives -adjust the target to capture more volume -avoid limited budgets -account for conversion delays

what does value-based bidding offer?

-allows to capture the consumers who matter most -suited to a privacy-centric future -allows for precise and meaningful data (lets you import first-party data) -grow you market share, you revenue, and profit

best practices for Target impression share

-avoid restrictive bid limits -stay with the right target (When setting your initial impression share target, make sure your target is in line with the average 30-day impression share of your campaign.) -allow time for optimization -use the bid strategy report

Your client's business is focused on growing online sales, but your client wants to do so at an efficient cost-per-action. What three optimization strategies can help achieve this marketing objective? 1. Applying a target CPA bid strategy to campaigns 2.Using Smart Bidding simulators to identify how a budget and cost-per-action will improve performance 3. Applying a Maximize Clicks bid strategy to campaigns 4. Reaching an audience of previous visitors who didn't convert

1, 2, 4

What are two reasons the Maximize Conversion Bidding strategy is a good fit for Gordon's goal? 1. Maximize Conversion Bidding is good for advertisers who want to maximize the number of conversions for a campaign within a set budget. 2. Maximize Conversion Bidding optimizes toward a specific return on investment or efficiency goal. 3. Maximize Conversion Bidding will grow as many impressions as possible in order to grow brand awareness. 4. Maximize Conversion Bidding is good for advertisers who don't want to optimize toward a target CPA target just yet.

1, 4

VCM breaks down into two areas: value ingestion

1. Global Site Tag: Conversion tracking and value fires via website tag following online activity (One Google Tag, Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics 4, enhanced conversions for leads (ECL)). 2. Import: Conversions are passed directly into the platform via import (OCI, conversions API, offline conversion adjustment, store sales improvements). 3. Google Tracked: Conversion events are tracked in Google's systems (store visits, EVCs, call measurement, and local actions).

Tracking conversion measurements with 1. online sales 2. lead generation 3. offline sales 4. other offline conversions

1. If you measure online sales with transaction-specific values and use the Google tag, you can track transaction-specific conversion values. You can also use Tag Manager to deploy conversion tags with values. If you use Google Analytics to measure web or app values, you can import your conversions into Google Ads conversion tracking. 2. For qualified or closed leads, you should implement enhanced conversions for leads. 3. implement store sales measurement 4. offline conversion imports, and import from ad click into Google Ads

best practices for value-based bidding

1. bid to what matters -conversion measurement with first-party data, then assign values, allow for 6 weeks before enabling value-based strategy 2. align bid strategy with your goals -max conversion value -Max conversion value with target ROAS; choose a target that aligns with historical performance, avoids limited budget, 3. optiscore and recommendations -what campaigns would be a good fit 4. analyze performance -to evaluate results and measure waiting for at least 50 conversions, like a month or longer -don't include the most recent week, conversion delays 5. optimize as your business goals evolve

Types of automated bid strategies

1. increase site visits -max clicks within budget 2. increase visibility -target impression share automatically sets bids with the goal of showing your ad on the absolute top of the page, on the top of the page, or anywhere on the page of Google search results 3. get more conversions while spending your budget (smart bidding) 4. get more conversion value while spending your budget (smart bidding) - assigns a specific monetary value to each conversion -max target ROAS

Awareness-based bid strategies for 1. clicks/traffic 2. awareness/ visibility

1. max. clicks 2. target impression share

Smart Bidding conversion and value-based bid strategies when you want to 1. increase transactions or leads 2. increase sales, profit, or qualified leads 3. increase website visitors 4. increase or stabilize awareness

1. max. conversion within a fixed budget 2. get as many conversions with target cos-per-action goal 3. max. conversion value 4. get as many conversion values withing target return on ad spend (ROAS)

what are the key elements of automated bidding?

1. performance -bids influence how visible ads are and the amount of interactions you receive 2. auctions -helps with adjusting bids based on the target 3. user journey complexities -uses signals (location, time, device)

Products that enable the value-based bidding framework

1. track conversion Global site tag Offline conversion import Enhanced conversions Data-driven attribution Conversion adjustments 2. enable value-based bidding -dynamic and static conversion values 3. maximize conversion value Maximize Conversion Value Optional target ROAS Conversion value rules etc.

Smart Bidding best practices for 1. target and budget setting 2. conversion volume 3. conversion delays 4. learning period

1. use recommended target, and uncap target ROAS/CPA budgets 2. conversion volume -the volume of conversions the campaign gets is key to evaluating performance 3. take into consideration conversion delays 4. leave first four to seven days of data out of evaluation since this is the learning phase

VCM breaks down into two areas: value definition

1. value defintion: -actual: value realizzed at the time of conversion (revenue, omni/offline value, profit). 2. Proxy: A general value is understood at the time of conversion (lead scoring) 3. Predictive: A predicted value is calculated at the time of conversion based on signals captured (propensity, survival/churn, lifetime value).

How does value-based bidding work? 1. Provides recommendations to optimize your bidding 2. Automatically ingests data and defines the value 3. Uses billions of combinations of signals to predict the conversion value

3. Uses billions of combinations of signals to predict the conversion value

A retailer is looking to drive additional revenue from his campaigns next year. Why would value-based bidding be the right solution for him? 1. Value-based bidding would allow him to focus on driving the business objective that matters most to him - driving traffic to his website. 2. All consumers are identical, so a value-based approach would focus on driving volume of sales for his business. 3. A value-based strategy would allow him to optimize towards both sales volume and value at the same time. 4. Value-based bidding uses AI to maximize value within the budget and target ROAS.

4. Value-based bidding uses AI to maximize value within the budget and target ROAS.

best practices for setting a target CPA:

Account for conversion delay when analyzing the past 30 days of performance. The target CPA should be set close to the current CPA to start, in order to maintain similar volume. Review the Google Ads recommendation for the target CPA, which is based on historical conversion data. If you're switching to a new conversion action, make sure you review the average CPA of the relevant conversion action to set targets

auction-time bidding

Google's bidding algorithms tailor bids to each user's unique context, using relevant signals present at auction time.

ramp up time

Leave the first two to three conversion cycles of data out of evaluation since this is the initial ramp-up.

bid strategy report

Lets you see how well your bid strategies have performed for key metrics.

How much more should the daily campaign budget be set for target CPA to optimize and not be limited?

Set a target CPA campaign's daily budget at 20% to 30% higher than a typical day's spend to allow for more volume at a similar efficiency and headroom for growth. -Use Performance Planner to identify the right budget within your campaign's targets, or use a shared budget and portfolio bid strategies to automatically manage campaigns with similar goals.

value-based bidding

Smart Bidding strategy that uses machine learning to maximize conversion value, bidding for conversions that drive business objectives. It uses billions of combinations of signals to predict the conversion value, letting you better qualify the conversions your campaign budget is driving. -dynamic (first-party conversion-level data like profit, propensity scores, and predicted lifetime value) and static

Performance Planner

Use Performance Planner to forecast target and budget scenarios across campaigns up to 18 months ahead Tip: Use profitability as a guide to set the right budgets and ROAS targets with Performance Planner. A higher target ROAS doesn't always yield more profit.

Portfolio bidding and shared budgets

Use portfolio bidding and shared budgets to allocate bids and spend across a group of campaigns with similar performance goals.

smart bidding

adjust bids automatically to help you connect with the right customers at the right time, optimizing for the best results within your budget. -two main performance goals: 1. conversions -target CPA 2. conversion value -target ROAS uses Benefits -google AI -time saved -auction-time bidding -depth of signals used and cross analysis

Ad customizers

allow you to incorporate real-time information, such as location information or a countdown

manual bidding

allows you to set your own max CPC for your ads, you can set the "default bid" which allows you to set the max bid for entire ad groups, and you can also do separate bids on individual key

Target impression share

automated bid strategy that automatically sets bids to show your ad at a certain location on the Google Search results page. three options for where ads can show: 1. at the absolute top of the page 2. at the top of the page 3. anywhere on the Google Search results page Google Ads automatically sets your bids based on the placement setting you choose. ex: if you choose an impression share target of 70% at the absolute top of the page, Google Ads automatically sets your CPC bids to show your ads at the absolute top of the page for 70% of the total amount of time.

Maximize clicks bidding

automated bidding strategy for those looking to increase website traffic but who aren't tracking conversions. If you aren't tracking conversions in your Google Ads account, this bidding strategy is the default when you create a new Search campaign. -It automatically adjusts the maximum cost-per-click (CPC) bid in a campaign to maximize the amount of clicks within a budget. -Remember: Maximize clicks doesn't optimize to conversion data. If you're tracking conversions in your account, consider using a conversion-based bid strategy like Target CPA, Maximize conversions, Target ROAS, or Maximize conversion value.

top signals card

bid strategy report highlights some dimensions where the bid strategy is automatically optimizing bids for consumers who are more or less likely to convert. -Top signals may include but aren't limited to device type, location, day of week, time of day, queries, or Customer Match lists.

enhanced conversions

conversion tracking feature that enables more accurate conversion measurement. It allows conversion tags to capture hashed customer data advertisers collect on their conversion page (email addresses) and then match it against Google logged-in data

Value-centric measurement (VCM)

framework used to help marketers define conversion values and import them into Google. VCM is the first step to enabling value-based bidding and represents a change in maturity, moving from basic tracking to conversion quality and value.

Responsive search ads (RSA)

let Google test different headline and description combinations and use machine learning to group relevant assets together.

what are the two types of bidding methods you can choose for your bidding strategy in google ads?

manual and automated

Smart Bidding target and budget simulators

show you how different settings might change your ad performance. These tools help you understand what happens if you change your targets or budgets.

value

the monetary or business value a consumer brings to a business and can be measured by a number of metrics, such as cart size, average order value, lead value, and lifetime value.

conversion delay

the time it takes between when a user clicks on an ad to the time that the user actually converts on a site. If you are uploading offline conversion data, your conversion delay is the time it takes a user to convert plus the time it takes you to upload the conversion into Google Ads.

keyword insertions

update your ads to include the keywords that triggered the ads to show. For example, when someone searches for "CRM software," the ad's headline can include the term "CRM software."

automated bidding

uses Google AI to set bids for your ads based on that ad's likelihood to result in a click or conversion.