Automation will deliver across channels even during dynamic times
Manual bidding is reactive bidding with historical data
Optimizing uncertain campaigns manually means using a batch of data that wouldn’t capture recent trends or over-reacting to shifts. This may not cross-check account data, capture recent trends, or deliver significant data.
Smart Bidding is proactive with recent trends + signals
Smart Bidding will both factor in recent trends across the account, in addition to bidding towards the campaign’s strategy goal.
Smart Bidding can quickly react to changes in recent swings in demand, historical trends (Weekly, hourly, etc), and other signals critical during fluctuations.
How Smart Bidding Works:
True-auction Time Bidding
Adaptive Learning at the query level
Richer user signals and cross signal analysis
Audience signals
Non-last-click attribution model
Store visits data
Bidding Strategies
Why choose Smart Bidding over eCPC?
Smart Bidding strategies have been driving significantly better performance than manual / semi-automated solutions
Maximize Conversions uses Google’s AI to determine the correct bid for every auction to drive as many conversions as possible within your budget.
Benefits
Maximizes conversions and helps you spend your budget as efficiently as possible according to Google’s AI. It can be beneficial if you haven’t had a lot of conversion data yet or if you’re unsure what the client’s target CPA is.
*Even though Google attempts to be efficient with Maximize Conversions, it is best to monitor how the campaign is doing regularly as oftentimes having a Target CPA performs significantly better than Max Conversions.
Use cases
You want to maximize the number of conversions for a campaign.
You do not have a specific CPA or ROAS goal.
Your campaign has low conversion volume or no conversion history.
Your campaign is limited by budget and you have <90% impression share.
Requirements
Campaigns must be tracking conversions and cannot be using a shared budget.
Get the highest conversion value possible at your target return on ad spend (ROAS)
Benefits
Gets the most revenue at the target ROAS through the power of auction-time bidding.
Use cases
You want to automatically optimize bids to maximize revenue in a shopping campaign.
Your conversions vary in value and you want to get as much conversion value as possible at your target return on ad spend.
You’re a Lead Generation or an eCommerce business.
Requirements
Value of conversions shared through Google Ads conversion tracking or imported Google Analytics goals.
Minimum conversions required: 15 conversions passing conversion values through Google Ads within 30 days.
How to Calculate
ROAS bids generate the maximum amount of conversion value and take into account the desired return on ad spend as chosen by the advertiser.
The advertiser must enter the Target ROAS as a percentage using the following formula:
Conversion value ÷ ad spend x 100% = Target ROAS percentage
For example, if a business spends $200 and this generates $1,000 in revenue (or conversion value), then the ROAS is 500%.
$1,000 ÷ $200 x 100% = 500%
It’s useful to work backwards by determining how much ROAS the business needs in order to be profitable. The above is essentially saying the business needs to make $5 for every $1 that’s spent on Google Ads.
How to identify which Smart Bidding strategy should you use?
Best Practices
Campaigns need to have 30 conversions a month to be affective.
Implement a non-last-click attribution model
Add audience lists at the account level
Campaigns should not be budget-constrained
Impression share should not be maxed out
Test for at least 30-60 days.
When constrained by budget use Maximize Strategy.
Most Common Pitfalls
Using too aggressive of CPA or ROAS goal
Analyzing performance when the strategy is still in the learning period
Overlooking high conversion delay when analyzing performance
Looking at the wrong metrics
Campaign is budget constrained
Making constant changes to campaigns
Analysis
To get an accurate understanding of your performance with Smart Bidding, it’s important that you don’t run your analysis too early. There are two factors that impact how long
you should wait before assessment:
Learning period
The learning period is the period of time in which Google Ads gathers the performance data it needs to optimize your bids.
The more stable, long-term data points they have, the better they can form predictions and optimize to meet your goals.
It typically takes 2 to 3 weeks for the algorithm to calibrate for a newly implemented bid strategy, although this largely depends on the amount of conversion data present.
Time Lag for Conversions
Tools > Search Attribution
Paths > Time Lag
The average time it takes for a click to result in an online conversion is your standard time lag for conversions.
You can see exactly how many days are left in your campaign’s learning period in your Bid Strategy Report.
Check the Right Metrics Based on Bidding Strategy
When using tCPA, compare Actual CPA with Campaign Target CPA.
When using tROAS, compare Actual ROAS with Campaign Target ROAS.
When using Maximize Conversions, analyze conversion volume.
When using Maximize Conversion Value, analyze conversion value.
Google Academy Training
Here is a pdf of the video slides for quick referencing.
Here are the slides from the Sebo Google Training on May 7, 2020.
