Different Types of Google Ad Bid Strategies

Google Ads is a great way to grow your business, but it can be a complex platform to understand. If done correctly, the correct Google Ads strategy and management can increase traffic to your website, sales, and net sales.

However, if you’re a business owner, you likely have a million little fires to tend to at any one time. Hiring, procurement, legal, operations, and other tasks consume your precious free time. When you do have time for marketing, you likely don’t have the familiarity with Google Ads to dive into all the different levers you can pull.

One of the most important levers you can pull when managing Google Ads is your bid strategy. These algorithm directions are a great way to match Ad campaigns to your overarching business needs. Knowing which bid strategy is right for you can be the difference between success and failure, and it’s crucial to be aware of the topline differences between each.

These are just a few terms, definitions, and strategies you could use in a Google Ad campaign. Please consult our team for a customs consultation if you have a specific business need to review.

Maximizing Your Bidding in Google Ads

This is more than a specific bidding strategy as an umbrella term covering a few different bidding types. In this grouping, you’re directing Google to use an automated bidding strategy to “maximize” a defined metric. We’ll get into which works best for specific goals and industries, but the general idea is to let Google know your end goal and then utilize Google’s algorithms to help you reach that end goal.

Clicks

In a maximize clicks bidding strategy, Google attempts to get you as many clicks as possible from the daily budget you have specified.

• Pros: Great for getting traffic to a website.
• Cons: That traffic might be less high quality.
• Best For: Brands looking to increase web traffic, even if some of the traffic isn’t ideal.
• Not For: Brands looking to measure return on ad spend.

Conversions

A Maximize Conversions value is a great way to increase the number of “conversion” actions you have received from Google. This can be any action undertaken by a potential customer. Depending on your unique needs, it could be calling your hotline, submitting a quote form, signing up for a newsletter, or purchasing from an e-commerce store. Ensure your conversion actions are adequately set up and recorded for the best results.

• Pros: Great for increasing specific actions that you want to measure.
• Cons: When you focus on maximizing conversions, you’re making the conscious decision to focus on users who are likelier to convert. This can lead to higher-quality web traffic, but it can net you less web traffic than a Maximize clicks strategy. Knowing the difference is incumbent on your PPC agency or point person.
• Best For: Brands who want to increase the number of sales or leads received but cannot put a specific dollar amount on every conversion action. Think of a law firm measuring calls about a potential case. Some cases could be much more lucrative than others, and it makes more sense for the law firm to maximize the number of Google Ads conversions than try to assign specific dollars to specific calls.
• Not For: Brands looking to build awareness or traffic. Maximizing conversions will net you fewer impressions and clicks than other bid strategies.

Conversion Value

Maximizing conversion value increases the value of the average order you receive. Think of a jewelry reseller looking to focus on high-dollar bulk orders versus smaller one-offs.

• Pros: Great for increasing dollar value.
• Cons: Maximizing conversion value is an excellent strategy for those who can measure dollar value accurately, but it needs to be tested head-to-head with a Maximize Conversions strategy. Suppose your goal is maximizing the return on your Google Ad spend. In that case, it’s worth remembering that sometimes, many smaller conversions could be more significant than a few large purchases and vice versa. Because of this, we always recommend testing out both bid strategies to determine what works best for you.
• Best For: E-commerce stores.
• Not For: Industries with large amounts of variation from job to job should avoid a Maximize Conversion Value Bid Strategy. (Again, think of our law firm example.)

Manual CPC

A manual cost-per-click strategy is a more advanced bidding strategy, and we do not recommend it for beginners. Google operates on a “pay-per-click model” where advertisers are only charged for every click their ad receives. Google uses an automated bidding market to determine who ranks for specific searches. Advertisers willing to pay higher dollar figures per click, provided that their ads are high-quality and relevant to the investigation, will show them higher on the page. In Google’s automated bid strategies, the nuts and bolts of the bidding are automated and never touched by the PPC manager.

However, in a manual cost-per-click strategy, the PPC manager can bid higher on specific keywords and adjust bids based on results.

• Pros: This is highly focused on specific keywords to maximize the budget. The PPC manager also has much more control over their levers.
• Cons: Manual CPC bidding is time-intensive and laborious, often stopping many PPC managers from implementing it.
• Best For: Brands willing to pay more for specific, high-quality keywords and have the bandwidth to monitor and adjust bids frequently.
• Not For: Advertisers with small budgets and low bandwidth.

Partner With JSL

Are you interested in growing your business with Google Ads? Contact JSL Marketing & Web Design for your free PPC consultation and strategy session today!