How Often Should You Change Bidding Strategies for Google Ads?
May 30, 2023Implementing a smart bidding strategy can have a significant impact on optimizing your Google Ads campaign. Strategies such as Maximise Conversions or Maximise Conversion Value provide a powerful way to maximise conversions or revenue within your allocated budget.
To further enhance your results, you can incorporate Target CPA or Target ROAS goals. However, the question arises: How often should you change bidding strategies? In this blog post, we will explore the benefits of smart bidding and discuss the optimal timing for introducing and modifying these strategies.
How Smart Bidding Works
Smart bidding uses Google’s machine learning to set bids in real time during each ad auction.
Instead of using a one-size-fits-all bid, the system looks at many signals—like user device, location, and even the time of day—to decide how much to bid.
How it works in practice:
- Data Collection: Google gathers historical data from your campaigns along with real-time signals during each search.
- Bid Optimisation: Based on this data, it automatically raises or lowers your bid to help you get more conversions or more valuable conversions.
Example: If your goal is to maximise conversions and you have a $50 daily budget, the smart bidding system adjusts your bids on a per-auction basis. It might bid higher when it predicts a search is more likely to convert and lower when the chances are slim.
This data-driven approach helps align your bids with your business goals—whether that’s keeping your cost per acquisition low or maximising overall revenue.
Budget, CPC, and Daily Spend: What to Expect and How to Optimise
Smart bidding can change how you see your costs. Because the system adjusts bids in each auction, your cost-per-click (CPC) may not always be steady. Some days you might see a higher CPC if the system believes those clicks are more likely to convert. This dynamic bidding also means your daily spend might fluctuate—even if you set a fixed daily budget.
What this means for you:
- Daily Fluctuations: Google may spend more on days when it sees high conversion potential and less on slower days. Over the month, these adjustments tend to balance out.
- Higher CPC, Better Conversions: While you might pay more per click sometimes, the aim is to get more valuable conversions. For instance, paying a bit more for a click that leads to a sale can improve your overall return on ad spend.
- Monitoring is Key: Keep an eye on your campaign performance reports. Watch your average CPC and overall spending to ensure the adjustments are in line with your business goals. Regular checks can help you fine-tune your settings if needed.
This approach helps you make the most of your budget by allowing Google’s machine learning to spend your dollars where they’re likely to make the most impact.
When and Why to Change Your Bidding Strategy
Figuring out the right time to change your bidding strategy can keep you ahead and help you get more bang for your buck. Here are some common triggers for change:
- Initial Learning Period: If you’re just starting, using manual or enhanced CPC bidding to collect conversion data is often best. Once you gather enough data (typically at least 30 conversions in a month), switching to a smart bidding strategy can help optimize your results.
- Seasonal Trends: Your audience’s behavior may change with the season. For example, during a high-demand period, you might benefit from a strategy that aggressively maximizes conversions. In quieter times, a more controlled approach might be better.
- Performance Plateaus: If your current strategy isn’t improving performance—say your conversion rate stagnates or your cost per acquisition starts rising—it might be time to experiment with a different bidding strategy.
Shifting Business Goals: When your objectives change (for example, shifting from generating leads to boosting revenue), choose a strategy that aligns with your new goals. Switching from Target CPA to Target ROAS or Maximise Conversion Value could provide better results.
👉When to Add a Maximise Conversions Bidding Strategy in Google Ads
Best Practices for Continual Optimisation
Even with automated strategies, you need to keep improving. Here are some best practices to keep your bidding strategy optimised:
- Regular Monitoring: Check your performance reports frequently. Look at key metrics like conversion rate, CPA, and ROAS to see if the strategy is meeting your goals.
- A/B Testing: Experiment with different strategies on a small scale before rolling out major changes. Test variations in bid adjustments, ad copy, and landing pages to identify what works best.
- Quality Score Improvements: Work on enhancing your ad relevance and landing page quality. A higher Quality Score can help lower your CPC and improve ad positions.
- Leverage Audience Insights: Use data on device, location, and user behavior to refine your bid adjustments. This helps ensure you’re targeting the right audience at the right time.