When it comes to choosing the right bidding strategy for Google Ads, many PPC companies in India and Google Ads professionals make a crucial mistake. They apply the same bidding strategies that worked for them in other, well-established accounts previously. Here’s the problem: those Google Ads bidding strategies might not translate well to new accounts.
The key difference lies in data. New Google Ads accounts lack the historical data that enables Google’s Smart Bidding/AI to work effectively. Without this data, applying established strategies from older accounts can lead to poor results.
So, what types of bidding strategies in Google Ads should you consider when launching new campaigns? We’ll discuss that very question today, helping you avoid common mistakes and maximize your return on investment with the right bidding approach for your fresh campaign.
Google Ads Bidding Strategies to Generate Relevant Traffic
Not everyone who sees your ad is ready to convert immediately. Traffic campaigns, often overlooked by Google Ads agencies in India, trafffic campaigns are best for new brands as it offer a strategic warm-up phase. By prioritizing clicks, you build brand awareness, generate interest, and nurture leads towards conversions later.
Manual CPC:
Manual CPC empowers you to set a maximum CPC bid for each ad group or keyword within your campaign. This granular control allows you to tailor your bids based on your budget, target audience, and campaign goals. It’s ideal for the initial launch phase when you’re still testing different ad variations and keywords. By experimenting with bids, you can identify the most cost-effective options for reaching your target audience.
Manual CPC is perfect for the initial launch phase when you’re still testing different ad variations and keywords. It allows you to experiment with bids and identify the most cost-effective options for reaching your target audience.
If your campaign focuses on high-value conversions (e.g., leads or sales), Manual CPC allows you to prioritize clicks with a greater chance of conversion by setting higher bids for relevant keywords.
However, remember that Manual CPC requires ongoing monitoring and adjustments to optimize bids. Because of this, it demands a significant investment of your time and attention to detail. However, it excels when you’re just starting out or have a very limited testing budget.
Maximize Clicks:
Maximize Clicks is an automated bidding strategy that instructs Google Ads to prioritize getting the most clicks possible within your set daily budget. This approach is ideal for driving initial traffic and brand awareness, especially for new campaigns.
While Maximize Clicks automates click acquisition, you can still control your spending by setting a maximum cost-per-click (max CPC) bid. This ensures you don’t overspend on individual clicks and allows you to define your comfort level for click costs.
However, remember that Maximize Clicks is a launchpad strategy, not a long-term solution. It’s only suitable if getting traffic is your sole focus and you’re comfortable with the average cost-per-click (CPC) it generates. If your ultimate goal is conversions, use Maximize Clicks to gather valuable data, build brand awareness, and refine your campaigns for future success. Once you’ve established a strong foundation, consider transitioning to conversion-oriented bidding strategies.
Target Impression Share:
Target Impression Share allows you to set a target percentage of impressions you want your ad to receive for your chosen keywords. This strategy ensures your ad appears in a specific percentage of searches for those keywords, maintaining consistent brand visibility.
Target Impression Share helps you maintain brand presence within search results in highly competitive markets, keeping your brand top-of-mind for potential customers. This strategy ensures consistent visibility throughout your target audience’s search journey, building brand awareness as a primary goal.
However, remember that Target Impression Share prioritizes impressions over clicks, so it might not be ideal for campaigns focused solely on driving website traffic or conversions.
Google Ads Bidding Strategies for Engagement focused campaigns
Traffic ignites your campaign, but engagement fuels it. Now that you’ve built brand awareness, let’s explore bidding strategies to maximize user interaction with your ads specifically for new campaigns:
1. Target CPM: Maximize Visibility, Gather Data
Target CPM lets you set a maximum cost for every thousand impressions (CPM) your ad receives. This prioritizes getting your ad seen by a large, targeted audience on the Display Network, ideal for engagement campaigns.
Benefits for New Campaigns:
- Boost Brand Awareness: Increased impressions translate to greater brand recognition, especially during launch.
- Gather Valuable Data: Every impression provides data about your audience’s online behavior, informing future optimization.
- Spark Engagement: By reaching the right people, you increase the chances of clicks, shares, or video views.
Remember:
- Focus on Relevance: Ensure your ad placements are relevant to your target audience’s interests for optimal engagement.
- Complementary Strategy: Target CPM often works well alongside other bidding strategies, like Maximize Conversions, for both visibility and desired user actions.
2. Maximum CPV: Prioritize Video Views
Maximum CPV prioritizes getting the most video ad views possible within your budget. This is ideal for maximizing engagement with your video content, especially during launch.
Benefits for New Campaigns:
- Brand Storytelling: Video ads are a powerful way to showcase your brand and capture attention during launch.
- Boost Engagement & Recall: Video ads are more likely to generate higher engagement and brand recall compared to static image ads.
- Gather Engagement Data: Metrics like watch time and completion rate provide valuable insights into how your video resonates with your audience.
Remember:
- High-Quality Videos: Maximum CPV prioritizes views, so ensure your video content is high-quality and engaging to capture attention.
- Conversion Focus: While Maximum CPV focuses on views, it doesn’t guarantee conversions. Consider using it with other strategies like Target CPA to optimize for both views and conversions later.
3. Viewable CPM (vCPM): Ensure Ad Visibility
vCPM focuses on impressions where a significant portion of your ad is actually seen by the user. You only pay for impressions with a higher chance of generating engagement.
While both Target CPM and vCPM focus on impressions, Target CPM prioritizes getting your ad seen by as many people as possible within your budget, regardless of whether they actually see it. vCPM, on the other hand, ensures a significant portion of your ad is actually viewed before you pay, offering a more targeted approach for engagement-focused campaigns.
Benefits for New Campaigns:
- Focus on Attention: vCPM prioritizes impressions where your ad is actually seen, ensuring your message reaches the right audience for better engagement.
- Brand Awareness with Efficiency: While vCPM might cost slightly more than standard CPM, you’re paying for impressions with a higher likelihood of being noticed.
- Data-Driven Optimization: vCPM data helps you identify the best placements within the Display Network for optimal ad visibility, allowing you to further refine your campaign for future optimization.
Remember:
- Limited Reach: vCPM might limit your overall reach compared to standard CPM.
- Data Dependence: vCPM bidding relies on Google’s viewability data, which might not be available for all placements.
Google Ads Bidding Strategies for E-commerce Conversions
Traffic is great, engagement is essential, but ultimately everything comes down to conversions, right? Here, we’ll explore three key bidding strategies designed to maximize the number of valuable customer acquisitions you generate from your Google Ads campaigns for e-commerce:
1. Manual CPC
Imagine launching a new product and wanting to test the waters with potential customers. Manual CPC empowers you to do just that. It’s ideal for situations where you don’t have any historical data to run automated bidding strategies. With Manual CPC, you take the wheel, setting the maximum cost you’re willing to pay for each click on your ad. This granular control allows you to experiment with different bids for various keywords and ad groups during the launch phase. However, remember that with “great control comes great responsibility” (yeah I took it from Spiderman movie 🙂 – Manual CPC requires ongoing monitoring and adjustments to optimize bids for maximum impact and ensure you’re not overspending on clicks.
2. Target ROAS
Ever wondered how much profit you want to generate for every rupee spent on your Google Ads? Target ROAS allows you to define that exact goal. This strategy is ideal for established campaigns with historical data on conversion value, such as average order value. By setting a target return on ad spend (ROAS), Google Ads automatically adjusts your bids to maximize your chances of achieving that desired return. Let’s say you set a target ROAS of 4: for every ₹1 spent on ads, you want to generate ₹4 in sales. Target ROAS helps you achieve this goal by prioritizing clicks and conversions from users most likely to convert at your desired value.
3. Target CPA
Target CPA allows you to set a maximum cost you’re willing to pay for each conversion (sale) on your campaigns. This strategy is a great fit for Search Network and Dynamic Search Ads (DSAs). This bidding type often have a clearer understanding of customer acquisition costs. By setting a target CPA, Google Ads automatically optimizes your bids to acquire customers within your defined cost threshold. Let’s say you know it typically costs you around ₹500 to acquire a new customer. With Target CPA set at ₹500, Google prioritizes clicks and conversions most likely to result in a sale at or below that cost.
Choosing the Right Bidding Strategy:
The ideal bidding strategy depends on your campaign goals and data availability. Manual CPC offers control during launch, Target ROAS optimizes return for established campaigns, and Target CPA focuses on customer acquisition cost within Search campaigns. By understanding these strategies, you can select the best approach to propel your e-commerce campaigns towards conversion success.
Google Ads Bidding Strategies for B2B & B2C Lead Generation
Whether you’re in B2B or B2C, generating qualified leads is crucial for nurturing prospects and driving future sales. Here, we’ll explore bidding strategies specifically designed to maximize lead generation within your Google Ads campaigns:
1. Manual CPC (Cost-Per-Click):
As discussed earlier, Manual CPC offers granular control over your bids. This is particularly valuable during the initial launch of lead generation campaigns. You can experiment with different bids for various keywords and ad groups targeting potential leads. Remember, the goal here is to attract users interested in your offerings and willing to provide their contact information, be it signing up for a demo, downloading a white paper, or requesting a quote.
2. Target CPA (Cost Per Acquisition):
Target CPA shines in lead generation just like it does for conversions. Here’s a breakdown to understand its power:
- Imagine you’re a B2B software company. A qualified lead for your business might be someone who downloads a white paper on a specific industry trend or requests a demo of your product.
- You know that a qualified lead typically converts into a ₹10,000 deal on average. This means each lead has a significant value to your business.
- With Target CPA, you set a maximum cost you’re willing to pay to acquire that valuable lead. For example, you might be comfortable paying up to ₹1000 to acquire a lead who downloads your white paper, knowing the potential for a much larger deal down the line.
By setting a target cost per lead acquisition, Google Ads optimizes your bids to prioritize clicks and conversions from users most likely to become valuable leads within your defined budget. This ensures you’re not spending excessively on unqualified clicks while maximizing your reach for potential high-value leads.
3. Maximize Conversions:
Unlike e-commerce where conversions are sales, in lead generation campaigns, conversions are valuable user actions like form submissions, downloads, or quote requests. Maximize Conversions instructs Google Ads to prioritize these lead-generating actions within your set budget. This strategy is ideal for established campaigns with a good understanding of what actions convert website visitors into leads. However, be mindful – Maximize Conversions might prioritize any conversion, even low-quality ones. Monitor your campaign performance closely to ensure you’re attracting qualified leads.
4. Target Impression Share:
Imagine your company name being the first thing potential clients see when they search for terms crucial to your business. Target Impression Share allows you to achieve that kind of dominance for highly relevant keywords. Here’s how it works:
- Let’s say you’re a B2C legal service provider. Capturing leads who search for “best divorce lawyer in [your city]” is critical.
- With Impression Share, you instruct Google Ads to prioritize showing your ad for a specific percentage of impressions (like 80%) for that keyword. This ensures your ad has a higher chance of appearing at the top of the search results page, maximizing visibility for users actively seeking the services you offer.
- Target Impression Share is also ideal for protecting your brand. If a competitor is bidding on your brand name, using Impression Share with a high impression share ensures your ad appears first whenever someone searches for your brand name.
Remember: While Target ISD offers high visibility, it doesn’t guarantee clicks or conversions. It simply increases the chances of people seeing your ad.
Wrap Up
Understanding all these bidding strategies can feel like a complex task, but understanding your options empowers you to make informed decisions for your Google Advertising Management. Whether your goal is driving traffic, improving engagement, or maximizing conversions for e-commerce or lead generation Google Ads campaigns, there’s a strategy to fit your specific needs.
Still unsure which bidding strategy is the right fit for your campaign goals?
Don’t worry, HND Solutions is here to help! Asan expert PPC Company in India, we understand the intricacies of campaign optimization and can guide you towards the optimal bidding strategy to maximize your return on investment. Contact us today and let’s discuss how we can help your business achieve success with your Google Ads campaigns.
