How Often Should You Change Bidding Strategies for Google Ads?

Implementing 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 maximize 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.

Smart Bidding Strategies

Smart bidding strategies, such as Maximise Conversions and Maximise Conversion Value, allow you to convey your objective to Google, aiming to achieve the highest number of conversions or revenue within your designated budget.

For example, with a $50 daily budget, you instruct Google to obtain as many conversions as possible within that limit. Google, using its data, optimizes your campaign by focusing on factors like search terms, users, days, hours, devices, and locations that have the highest probability of generating conversions at the lowest cost.

One of the main advantages of smart bidding is its ability to leverage Google's vast amount of data and machine learning algorithms. By analyzing patterns and trends in user behavior, Google can adjust bids in real-time to maximize your campaign's performance. This means that even as market conditions change, your ads remain competitive and effective.

Additionally, smart bidding strategies can be tailored to specific goals. For instance, if your objective is to increase the number of conversions, Maximise Conversions is ideal. On the other hand, if you aim to maximize the total value of conversions, Maximise Conversion Value would be more appropriate. These strategies allow you to align your bidding approach with your overall business goals, ensuring that your ad spend is utilized effectively.

Effects on CPC and Daily Spend

Implementing smart bidding strategies can lead to noticeable changes in your campaign data. Here's why:

Impact on CPC: Your cost-per-click (CPC) may increase due to the need to secure top ad positions for increased conversion potential. This means you might have to bid higher. Although an increased CPC may initially seem concerning, it's crucial to focus on the number of conversions rather than just the CPC itself. Consider this scenario: Would you prefer 10 clicks at $1 each, resulting in 1 conversion, or 5 clicks at $2 each, resulting in 3 conversions? Both cases involve spending $10, but the latter yields three times the conversions. Therefore, the key metric to focus on is the number of conversions.

Fluctuations in Daily Spend: When you set a daily budget, Google treats it as a monthly budget, which can lead to significant daily spend fluctuations. For instance, if Google determines that Monday to Wednesday provides the highest likelihood of conversions, it may spend $15 to $20 each of those days, and then allocate a lower budget of $3 to $6 for the remaining days. This monthly budget approach helps Google optimize your campaign throughout the month based on the expected conversion opportunities.

Optimal Timing for Introducing and Changing Bidding Strategies

Before diving into smart bidding strategies, it is advisable to accumulate at least 30 conversions in your Google Ads account. This milestone allows Google to gather sufficient data to identify the most effective searches, users, days, and other variables that drive conversions specifically for your account.

Although Google may recommend using Max Conversions or Conversion Value before reaching this threshold, leveraging your own data alongside industry data tends to yield better results.

When to Change Bidding Strategies:

• Initial Testing Period: Start with manual CPC bidding to gather initial data and insights.
• After Accumulating Data: Once you have at least 30 conversions, consider switching to a smart bidding strategy.
• Seasonal Changes: Adjust strategies based on seasonal trends or significant market changes.
• Performance Plateaus: If your campaign performance plateaus or declines, it might be time to reassess and adjust your bidding strategy.
• New Campaign Goals: When your business goals change, such as focusing more on revenue than conversions, switch to a strategy that aligns with these new objectives.

In Closing

Optimizing your Google Ads campaign through smart bidding strategies is a powerful way to maximize conversions or revenue. By implementing strategies like Maximise Conversions or Maximise Conversion Value, and incorporating Target CPA or Target ROAS goals, you can drive better results.

You need to be patient with fluctuations in CPC and daily spend, as these changes are intended to maximize conversions within your budget. Start with at least 30 conversions before adopting smart bidding strategies to leverage your own data for superior campaign performance.