Setting up Google Ads can feel overwhelming if you’re only focusing on keywords and ad groups. To truly boost your campaign’s performance, it’s important to dive deeper into Google’s bidding strategies, especially their automated options. Among these, “Smart Bidding” has changed the game for advertisers, offering powerful tools to help businesses meet specific goals—whether that’s increasing clicks, conversions, or overall ad visibility.
In this article, we’ll work through the most popular automated bidding strategies, explain how they work, and show you how Smart Bidding ties into features like responsive search ads and broad match keywords. By the end of this blog, you’ll better grasp which strategy fits best with your advertising goals.
What Is Automated Bidding in Google Ads?
Automated bidding is a Google Ads management feature that takes the guesswork out of manual bidding by using machine learning to adjust your bids. It looks at real-time signals like device type, time of day, and user behavior to predict the best bid for each auction. Whether you’re focused on increasing visibility, driving clicks, or increasing conversions, automated bidding helps streamline those efforts so you don’t have to manage individual bids for every keyword in your campaign.
Automated bidding strategies are becoming increasingly popular compared to manual bidding, but they still require an expert understanding of Google Ads to be successful.
Let’s dive into some of the most common automated bidding strategies in Google Ads including Target Impression Share, Maximize Clicks, Maximize Conversions, Target CPA and Target ROAS.
Target Impression Share
Target Impression Share is a strategy designed to increase your ad’s visibility. You set a goal for how often you want your ad to show up based on a percentage of available impressions. You can choose from three placement options: anywhere on the results page, at the top, or the absolute top of the page.
This strategy is more about brand awareness than driving conversions. It’s useful if you’re in a competitive space and want to make sure as many people see your brand as possible. We typically recommend Target Impression Share when brands run some type of competitor campaign.
When Should You Use Target Impression Share?
This is ideal for brand awareness campaigns where visibility is the main goal. Keep in mind it can be expensive, as the focus is on showing the ad, not necessarily getting clicks or conversions.
Maximize Clicks
The Maximize Clicks strategy does exactly what it sounds like—it aims to get as many clicks as possible within your daily budget. Google will adjust bids in real-time to prioritize keywords likely to generate clicks. While this is great for driving traffic, it doesn’t prioritize the quality of the clicks, meaning you might get a high volume of visitors who aren’t ready to convert.
When Should You Use Maximize Clicks?
This is perfect if your main goal is to increase traffic, like driving more visitors to a landing page. However, it’s important to keep an eye on whether those clicks are turning into conversions.
Maximize Conversions
For campaigns focused on driving actions like form submissions or purchases, Maximize Conversions is the go-to strategy. Google’s machine learning adjusts bids in real-time, based on the likelihood of a conversion, making sure your budget is spent on clicks that are more likely to turn into actual results.
When Should You Use Maximize Conversions?
This works best for businesses aiming to increase conversions. If the primary goal of your Google Ads campaign is to get people to fill out a form or buy something from your site (e.g., a product, a course, or whatever you offer), Maximize Conversions is a really good bidding strategy to use. You’ll just want to make sure you have conversion tracking set up properly and enough past data for Google to make accurate decisions.
Target CPA (Cost Per Acquisition)
Target CPA allows you to set a specific cost per acquisition (CPA), and Google automatically adjusts your bids to stay within that budget while maximizing conversions. This strategy is ideal if you have a clear budget in mind for acquiring new customers.
When Should You Use Target CPA?
Use this when you need to control the cost of acquiring leads or sales. Be cautious, though—if your CPA is set too low, Google could unintentionally limit your visibility.
Target ROAS (Return on Ad Spend)
Target ROAS is for advertisers looking to achieve a specific return on their ad spend. Google adjusts bids to ensure the revenue generated from your ads aligns with the return you aim for. For example, if you set a target ROAS of 400%, Google will work to ensure that for every $1 you spend, you earn $4 in return.
When Should You Use Target ROAS?
This strategy is great for e-commerce or any business tracking revenue through website purchases. This also includes brands using product listing ads (PLA / Google Shopping) to drive sales. Like Target CPA, it requires a good amount of historical data to truly work well.
Enhanced CPC (eCPC)
Enhanced Cost Per Click (eCPC) is a mix of manual bidding and automated adjustments. While you set your bids manually, Google uses machine learning to tweak them when it thinks a conversion is more likely. This strategy is perfect for those who want to maintain control with manual bidding while also benefiting from some level of automated optimization.
When Should You Use Enhanced CPC?
If you prefer to have more control over your bids but still want to improve your chances of conversion, eCPC is a good way to step into the world of Google Ads automation. Just remember it won’t optimize as aggressively as some of the other fully automated strategies we’ve mentioned.
How Smart Bidding Works with Responsive Search Ads and Broad Match Keywords
Smart Bidding and Responsive Search Ads
Smart Bidding strategies like Maximize Conversions or Target ROAS work hand-in-hand with responsive search ads (RSAs). RSAs allow Google to test different combinations of your headlines and descriptions to find the best-performing mix. When paired with Smart Bidding, these ads can automatically adjust based on what’s working best for specific audiences.
For example, if a particular headline is performing better with a certain group, Google will not only show that headline more often, but also adjust the bid to ensure your ad gets the best placement possible.
Broad Match Keywords and Smart Bidding
Broad match keywords are designed to give your ads the widest possible reach. Broad match use to come with a negative connotation to Google Ads advertisers because it allows Google to cast a very wide net, usually bringing back irrelevant searches, unqualified clicks and wasted ad spend. However, Google has revamped broad match in the last couple of years where it is now much more precise. While broad match keywords can sometimes lead to less relevant clicks, combining with Smart Bidding helps minimize the risk. Google looks at signals like user behavior and search context to adjust bids based on the likelihood of a conversion, making broad match keywords more effective these days.
What to Keep in Mind with Smart Bidding in Google Ads
The Key Role of Data in Smart Bidding
All Smart Bidding strategies depend heavily on data to make informed decisions. The more data you feed into Google’s system, the better it can predict outcomes and optimize your bids. This is why accurate tracking and plenty of historical data is a must for success.
While Smart Bidding can make a big difference in campaign performance, it’s not a set-it-and-forget-it solution. Regular monitoring is still necessary to ensure your strategies align with your changing business goals.
A Proper Budget is Essential
In addition to having plenty of historical conversion data to work with, you’ll also need a healthy budget to test into these strategies. They are meant to optimize and perform over time, requiring a decent advertising budget. If you have a limited budget or a campaign that is only running for a limited time, you’ll want to stick with manual bidding.
Patience is Also Critical
Lastly, you’re going to have to be patient to see the results come from an automated bidding strategy. Once you launch a campaign using one of the strategies we mentioned, you should not expect to see results for at least three weeks. This could be even longer depending on the amount of historical data your account has.
Choosing the Right Bidding Strategy for Your Business
Google Ads offers a variety of automated bidding strategies, each designed for different advertising goals. Whether your aim is driving traffic, increasing conversions, or maximizing revenue, there’s a strategy that can help you reach your objectives. Automated bidding and all things AI are here to stay, so it’s recommended that you start adopting this technology sooner rather than later.
At Octiv Digital, we’re here to help you navigate the ever-changing world of Google Ads and Smart Bidding. We can help you understand the various options, optimize your existing campaigns, and tailor a strategy that fits your brand’s goals. Let’s connect to learn more about your brand.
