• Home
  • Services
    • Digital Marketing
      • Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
      • Local SEO
      • Technical SEO
      • Digital Marketing Strategy
      • Pay Per Click (PPC) Marketing
      • Link Building Services
      • HARO Link Building
      • Google Analytics Service
      • Conversion Rate Optimization Services
      • White Label Services
      • Franchise SEO
      • Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
    • Web Design
      • Custom Website Design
      • WordPress Website Design
      • eCommerce Web Design
      • ADA Compliance Services
      • Video Production
      • Video Testimonial Services
      • Product Photography Services
      • Drone Video and Photography Services
      • Email Marketing Services
      • SMS Marketing Services
      • Website Hosting
      • SEO Content Writing Services
    • Social Media Marketing
      • Social Media Management
      • Social Media Advertising
      • Social Media Brand Management
      • Reputation Management
        • Reputation Management Software
        • Online Reputation Repair
        • Franchise Reputation Management
        • Social Media Reputation Management
    • eCommerce Marketing
      • eCommerce Optimization
      • eCommerce SEO
      • eCommerce PPC
      • Shopify Web Design
      • Shopify SEO
      • Walmart Marketplace
      • Target Plus Marketplace
      • Amazon Marketing
        • Amazon SEO
        • Amazon Advertising/PPC
        • Amazon Storefront & Branding
        • Amazon Seller Consulting
        • Amazon Posts Management
        • Amazon DSP Advertising Management
  • Work
    • Case Studies
    • Portfolio
    • Logo Designs
    • Video
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Why Choose Us?
    • Awards & Recognition
    • Thrive Gives Back
    • SEO Code of Ethics
    • Client Testimonials
    • Industries We Serve
    • Media & Press Information
    • Thrive Camp Awards
  • Learn
    • Blog
    • Thrive Growth Formula
    • Franchise Marketing Guide
    • SEO Buyers’ Guide
    • Google Page Experience Guide
  • Careers
  • Contact
866-908-4748

GET PROPOSAL

Google Ads Bidding Best Practices New Tactics Learned at Google Headquarters
Google Ads Bidding Best Practices: New Tactics Learned at Google Headquarters

Jun 14, 2018 by Katie Jarzabek | Leave a Comment

JOIN OVER 3,000

Subscribers who get fresh content to help their business weekly.

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Search

Categories

It is important to periodically evaluate your Google Ads bidding strategies to make sure you are maximizing your budget, minimizing wasted spend, and capturing the most conversions possible. By not bidding efficiently, you can miss valuable conversions and quickly waste your budget.

I was lucky enough to attend a training at the Google headquarters in Austin, TX to learn more about new bidding strategies and automated bidding techniques in Google Ads.

Google Ads SMART Bidding

Google’s automated bidding uses machine learning to make bids on your behalf. Automated bidding rapidly evaluates data to set optimal bids in every auction for each customer, based on past behavior they had in the browser. Google calls this true action-time bidding, where they identify a conversion opportunity and optimize the bid for you.

Let’s take a deeper look at the new PPC bidding strategies to get a better understanding of them.

Brand Awareness Campaigns

Google recommends using Target Outranking Share or Target Search Page Location bidding if brand awareness is your marketing goal. Brand awareness is a great way to gain visibility for your company or a new product that your company is launching.

Target Outranking Share will help your ads outrank your competitors’ ads. This is a great way to give your competitors the boot when it comes to getting their ads in the number one position of the Google search results page. However, it can also get very expensive, very quickly.

For smaller budgets, Google recommends the Target Search Page Location strategy. This will show your ads at the top of the search results page or at least on the first page, but not necessarily in the first position.

Conversion-Centered Campaigns

If your marketing goal is to increase conversions (leads), there are many bidding strategies you can choose from Enhanced CPC, Target CPA, or Max Conversions. These strategies are great for lead generation and e-commerce companies.

If you are wary of automated bidding and want to start small, consider Enhanced CPC. This is Google’s semi-automated bidding strategy, allowing you to retain control of the core bid.

With Enhanced CPC, the bids you set will automatically adjust up or down based on each click’s likelihood to result in a conversion. This adds a layer of real-time optimizations.

Target CPA is a fully-automated bidding strategy that gives Google all the control. It automatically sets bids during each action to get as many conversions as possible, within your target CPA goal. It is great for maximizing conversions while still considering conversion cost.

To use Target CPA bidding you must have conversion tracking set up in your Ads account. Keep in mind, when you initially start using Target CPA, the cost-per-acquisition will start high while Google optimizes the bidding algorithm, but that should lower over time. Google recommends allowing the system to “learn” for at least 4 weeks.

If you don’t have explicit CPA/ROAS (return on ad spend) goals, then the Maximize Conversions strategy is for you! This is fully automated bidding that will spend your budget intelligently.

Google will set bids in an auction to get as much conversion volume as possible, within your campaign budget. If you have had success using Enhanced CPC, try Maximize Conversions. It is great for micro-seasonality. But remember, only use this if you don’t have CPA or ROAS goals.

The last type of bid strategy is Target ROAS (return on ad spend). This is a great bidding strategy if you are tracking revenue associated with conversions and want to maximize it at a specific ROAS target.

For Target ROAS bidding, Google automatically sets bids for each auction to earn as much revenue as possible, based off goals you’ve defined. This is a great strategy if you have an unconstrained budget. The only prerequisite Google has with this strategy is that campaigns have 50 conversions in the last 30 days.

No matter what bidding strategy you decide, it is important to periodically evaluate the performance of your campaigns. Marketing goals change, bidding strategies may change with them.

Looking for help with managing Google Ads campaigns? Let’s chat!

Share
Tweet
Pin
Share

Filed Under: Google, Online Marketing, Pay-Per-Click, Internet Marketing Tagged With: Google Ads, tips for google adwords, optimizing google adwords, Google AdWords, PPC, ppc marketing, PPC Ads

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Katie Jarzabek Google Ads Specialist

About Katie Jarzabek

Katie is a PPC Specialist at Thrive Agency. She lives in Texas with her husband and 5 pets. She has been doing PPC since 2014. She loves cooking, drinking coffee, and taking hikes with her dogs.

  • More Posts (3)

More Related Posts

  • Enterprise Marketing 5 Quick Wins To Elevate Your Franchise Business_1280x720 Enterprise Marketing 5 Quick Wins To Elevate Your Franchise Business Marketing is critical to the success of a business. So as a company opens up new franchises (or branches), it must ramp up its campaigns. But instead of focusing only on increasing...
  • Thrive Agency Named Google AdWords™️ Premier Partner Thrive Agency Named Google AdWords™ Premier Partner Thrive is excited to announce that we have been awarded Premier Partner Status by Google Adwords™! Since 2005, Thrive has been growing rapidly, all while striving to deliver a...
  • 4 Things To Look For In A PPC Company In Dallas 4 Things To Look For In A PPC Company In Dallas Think of a pay per click  agency as a brokerage firm and your PPC specialist as your stockbroker. Like the stockbroker, it's a PPC specialist's job to make sure you get the mo...

Thrive Internet Marketing Agency is a full-service digital marketing agency. Attract, Impress, and Convert more leads online and get results with Thrive.

CALL 866.908.4748

Contact UsThrive Gives Back

growing businesses since 2005

Made with in 25 cities around the world

  • ARLINGTON
  • ATLANTA
  • AUSTIN
  • BALTIMORE
  • CHICAGO
  • CLEVELAND
  • DALLAS
  • DENVER
  • HOUSTON
  • JACKSONVILLE
  • KANSAS CITY
  • LAS VEGAS
  • LOS ANGELES
  • LOUISVILLE
  • NEW YORK CITY
  • MIAMI
  • MINNEAPOLIS
  • PHOENIX
  • NEW ORLEANS
  • ORLANDO
  • PHILADELPHIA
  • PORTLAND
  • SAN ANTONIO
  • SAN DIEGO
  • SEATTLE

© 2023 - Thrive Internet Marketing Agency / Locations / Write For Us / Refer Thrive / Terms / Privacy Policy / Scam Alert / Sitemap