PPC managers love to have as much control over their PPC account as possible. But Google’s automatic bidding algorithms have made great progress in the last few years. They get better and better every year.
If you’re still settings bids manually, then it may be time to test automatic bidding. But wait, before you switch on automated bidding, there are certain things that “Adword Management” you need to be aware of so that you may get the most out of automated bidding and not let it flop.
This article will provide you with seven helpful hints that will allow you to get the most out of automatic bidding, and it will also highlight the top two advantages of utilizing automated bidding.
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Two advantages of using an automated bidding system
It is vital to have an understanding of the benefits of switching to automated bidding before we explore the tactics that can help you get the most out of the automated bidding options available through Google Ads.
If you are still utilizing manual bidding, here are two reasons why you should consider switching to an automated technique for placing bids instead.
Read the post on our blog titled “Google Ads Automation” to gain knowledge about five additional ways in which you may take use of automation inside your Google Ads account.
Advantage number one: bidding during the auction time
The pay-per-click (PPC) advertising industry has become significantly more intricate during the past ten years. PPC advertisers used to primarily be responsible for selecting a list of keywords, developing advertisements catered to those keywords, and then determining the appropriate bid amount for each phrase.
Complexity of the Old PPC Bidding System
The user experience on Google Ads has become significantly more complicated as a result of the proliferation of social media platforms. Additionally, the number of moving elements in Google Ads has increased significantly. A keyword’s potential for making money depends on a number of factors, some of which are listed here:
The Newly Complicated PPC Bidding Process
PPC marketers are exempt from the requirement that they choose the optimal bid. When it comes to bidding, there are a lot of different factors that need to be considered.
For instance, in addition to the term that the user is looking for, you need to take into account the audience, including gender and age range, as well as the location and the device that they are using.
PPC advertisers are only able to process and manage so much information due to the increased complexity that has been introduced.
Real-time processing of bids is possible with automated bidding. This indicates that it is able to consider all of the aforementioned elements and determine a bid that is appropriate for the particular auction. This is not something that can be accomplished by a human being in any way.
Advantage number two: concentrate on other aspects of the PPC account
One additional benefit of employing automated bidding is that it frees up the PPC manager’s time, allowing them to concentrate on other aspects of making the account better.
The PPC manager is now free to devote their attention to matters that, due to the time limits, they may not have been able to devote as much effort to while manually altering bids.
What kinds of automated bidding strategies are there to choose from?
There are a number distinct approaches to automatic submitting of bids. SMART bidding is the name given to the automated bidding methods that make use of conversions to assist in the optimization of keyword bids.
There are only two automatic bidding strategies that do not fit under the category of SMART bidding as of the time this article was written. These automated bid tactics are known as the Maximize clicks and Target impression share bid strategies
Sales and Leads Needed for the Budget
Targeting the right keyword themes
The highest possible cost per lead or return on advertising investment
Once you have an understanding of the objectives of your campaign, you will be able to match those objectives with the bid strategy that is most likely to assist you in achieving those objectives.
For instance, if you are running a brand campaign and want to appear at the top of search results, you might select the Target impression share bid strategy as your preferred option.
If you want to receive as many leads as possible at a certain cost per lead, then the target CPA bidding option is probably the best choice for you to make.
If you do not have a notion of what cost per lead you should be targeting and want to see how many leads you can receive for a specific budget, then the maximize conversions bid strategy is possibly a good starting point for you to consider using.
In either case, having a solid understanding of your campaign objectives before beginning the bidding process will be of great assistance to you.
The second piece of advice is to focus on activities that are analogous to those involved in manual bidding.
If you are currently using manual bidding and want to test the impact of automated bidding, then you should make an effort to maintain the campaign goals in a manner that is as similar as feasible to what you were obtaining when you were using manual bidding.
If you are going to test target CPA bidding, make sure that you configure the target CPA to be the same as the CPA that you were getting when you were manually bidding.
If you want to test Target ROAS, you should set the ROAS to be the same as what you were obtaining when you were manually bidding on things.
When you choose the maximum conversion bid approach, you need to make sure that you give it the same budget that the campaign was spending when you were conducting manual bidding. This is necessary if the only goal you have is to obtain as many conversions as possible for the money you spend.
By keeping the goals as comparable as feasible to what you had when you were using manual bidding, you will be able to determine whether or not automated bidding is doing better than human bidding. It won’t be a fair test if you give it different goals than what you were getting with manual bidding, because then it won’t be comparable.
On the basis of previous facts, the system will frequently provide you with recommendations regarding the target that you want to establish for the automated bidding plan that you have.
Recommendations Generated by Automated Bidding Systems
Recommendations Generated by Automated Bidding Systems
Tip 1: Give it time
When you first began operating a campaign while using manual bidding, it would have undoubtedly taken some time for you to collect data and figure out how to best optimize your bids in order to improve the campaign’s overall effectiveness.
In a similar manner, automated bidding requires some amount of time in order to test and learn which kinds of traffic perform well and which kinds of traffic perform poorly.
When you initially start using automatic bidding, you can see a drop in performance as the system gets used to the new routine and starts to learn from its mistakes.
During this time, there is a possibility that you will feel the want to fiddle with the automated bidding process by altering its aims or even turning it off entirely. Don’t! You simply cannot escape waiting at this point. Always keep in mind that the system is acquiring new knowledge and will continue to improve as more time passes.
The length of time it takes for the machine learning skills of Google “Adword Management” to emerge from the learning phase is directly proportional to the amount of money that is being spent.
You should plan to devote around two weeks of your time to the learning process. After this length of time has passed, you should begin to notice that the automatic bidding method is doing a great deal better.
Tip 2: Keep reviewing targets
After you have completed the phase in which you are learning, it is imperative that you analyze the performance of each campaign to see whether or not you can derive further value from it while maintaining a profitable margin.
If a campaign is successful, you might be able to increase the number of sales you make while still maintaining a profitable rate if you give the system permission to be more aggressive. This may entail instructing the system to seek a higher CPA, a lower ROAS, or just spending more money in the event that the goal is to maximize conversions. This will enable the system to pursue a larger user base and open the door to the possibility of a great deal more conversions.
Give your automatic bidding technique a few weeks to work once you have increased the aggressiveness of the bids it places. The next step is to examine the rise in the number of clicks and conversions.
You should experiment with increasing the aggressiveness of the automatic bid approach if it is still lucrative and you have observed a rise in conversions.
You run the danger of having to restart the automated bidding strategy from the beginning of the learning phase if you make significant adjustments to it. Nevertheless, you are able to make a few adjustments here and there without having to restart the learning mode.
Tip 3: Make sure you pick the appropriate conversion actions
The conversion activities that you have selected to be reported in the Conversions column are optimized through the use of SMART bidding.
If there are any Conversions for which you do not want the system to strive to optimize, then you will need to make this information known to the system.
If you are recording both online sales and newsletter subscriptions as conversions, for instance, the system will count a conversion from any of these two as having the same value. Likewise, if you are only tracking online sales, the system will only count them as having equal value.