A very popular and business-oriented ad service predominately focused on keywords comes from Google and goes by the name of AdWords. This service allows individuals and businesses to advertise by displaying ads on Google and its advertising network. But it is not that simple to use, as there are numerous settings and different strategies that you can launch through it.
This article is intended to anyone who has recognized the potential behind the AdWords service. We are going to provide you information on AdWords bid strategies and how to use them to maximize conversions that even an experienced PPC expert can find useful. So, without further adieu, let’s dive right into it.
Automated CPC Bidding
Automated CPC bidding is a very popular AdWords-supported PPC marketing strategy these days and it has been embraced by many businesses because it works. One of the main benefits of using it is saving time by delivering highly-specific bids for all of the auctions you have entered in AdWords. As of late, Google introduced AdWords Smart Bidding, which can be used in smart bidding strategies. This service allows users to leverage a subset of automated bid strategies that use machine learning to optimize for conversions and conversion value in all ongoing keyword auctions. There are dozens of factors shaping the prices and rankings in each of the AdWords auctions; instead of having to pay attention to all of them when making a decision, automated bidding will choose and set the price you are willing to pay, considering the most relevant details of all the factors.
Pros
Automated bidding is referred to as auto pilot. And, that’s exactly what it is – a hands-free service that manages bidding inside the boundaries of your pre-set daily budget. In order to identify keywords and trends in your market and to bid on all of the ones that interest you, you will spend most of your work hours in AdWords figuring the things out and bidding. Automated CPC bidding will most definitely help you by significantly reducing your time spent in AdWords, so that you can focus on other strategies to increase conversions. Over time AdWords accounts tend to become large and operating them can become very complicated. Managing thousands of keywords is a daunting task, let alone bidding on all of them. An automated bidding strategy will help you by efficiently managing the bids on those keywords. Optimizing bids is also a task that eats up significant chunks of your work hours, especially on large accounts. An automated bidding algorithm takes many factors into consideration and is able to optimize bids in real time on as many keywords as you choose. This will allow you to start managing your account from a better vantage point. Since the automated bidding algorithm is designed to make the best use of the data, you will get outstanding bid optimization. Something that we humans are not capable of doing, since we are not equipped with that kind of power to process big data and identify patterns emerging as trends from it. Cons
All of the cons of using automated CPC strategy come from giving up control to an automated algorithm. This simply means that you won’t have full control over adjusting bids to achieve specific goals.
One of the best practices, for instance, is to increase bids for exact match keywords. With automated bidding, you won’t be able to do so and this may affect your page rank and impression share. Let’s say you forget to set the max amount for the CPC. The algorithm may set it to be so high that your daily budget gets spent in just a couple of minutes. Even if you set max CPC, the autopilot may spend your money on less than favorable keywords. If your account is new, an automated CPC strategy may be a poor option since Google doesn’t have that much data to feed its automated CPC strategy algorithm in order to get the best results.
Manual CPC Bidding
The manual CPC bidding puts the control in the hands of the PPC expert, something many professionals value.
Pros
Let’s say that you spot a brilliantly performing keyword in an Ad Group. With manual control, you can up the bid on just that keyword and get the most out of it as soon as possible. By not having to pay over the odds for far less impressive keywords, you will save a lot of money. Manual CPC AdWords bid strategy will allow you to leverage keyword trends in real time and increase your website traffic and conversions.
Cons
Have you ever seen the settings in AdWords UI, especially when you are bidding and working out your strategy? Since it is too complex Manual CPC bidding is reserved to experienced professionals, unless you are willing to play around, experiment and learn. It depends on the stakes, of course. However, management of manual bids will take too much of your precious time.
Choose Your Bid Strategy Carefully
Your business goals have to shape your decision when choosing a bid strategy. Let’s go through some examples that may help you get a better insight on this topic: Manual vCPM bidding is great for campaigns aiming to create and/or increase brand awareness. Instead of choosing how much you want to pay for a click/action, in a vCPM bidding model you will be able to choose how much you would like to pay for each time the ad is seen. You can also use this strategy if you are launching a compelling add, which will lead the viewers to click it. It’s basically a win-win situation, as you will increase brand awareness and get viewers to come to your website. If you want to bid on the conversion based on your goal cost per acquisition, then this is a valuable strategy to pursue. For CPA to work, you will have to enable conversion tracking for target search and display networks or both, just like in the CPC model. CPV is another AdWords bid strategy. It is a good option if you run video ads and your goal is to increase views or interactions with ads. CPV allows you to identify how engaged the viewers are with your content, when they drop off from watching your content and where/when they choose to watch it. CPC bidding strategies are suitable for businesses that want to attract visitors to their websites and increase its traffic. Since it provides a high level of control, flexibility, and accountability, CPC is one of the safest ways to reach out to your highly specific target audience. AdWords smart bidding is a great way to determine how different bid amounts might affect conversion value and conversions. If you want the users to take direct action on your website, this strategy is the best option for you. You can even set device-specific targets and use bid simulators to maximize the effectiveness of your strategy. A great bidding method to use if you are an intermediate PPC marketer. Google’s AdWords service is a powerful tool that can be leveraged to increase the performance of online ads and marketing campaigns. As you can see, some of the strategies are more viable for increasing website traffic, while others have a direct effect on conversions.
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