When running PPC ads, choosing and implementing the right bidding strategy is essential. Although PPC campaigns typically charge on a per-click basis—hence the name “Pay Per Click”—the bidding strategy determines which specific actions advertisers pay for. A campaign’s objective could range from generating video views to driving clicks or conversions, and this objective should inform the choice of bidding strategy.
Aligning the bidding strategy with the campaign’s goals is vital for success as an advertiser. For instance, if a brand aims to boost awareness, using a bidding strategy focused on conversions may not yield the most cost-effective or impactful results. Similarly, if the goal is to generate lead form submissions, a strategy optimised for reach is unlikely to deliver the best outcomes.
By matching the campaign objectives with the appropriate bidding strategy, advertisers can enhance the effectiveness of their campaigns and achieve their desired results.
Manual vs Smart Bidding Strategies
In the past, PPC experts often relied on manual CPC bidding, where advertisers set a maximum amount they were willing to pay per click. Today, automated or smart bidding strategies have largely taken over, optimising bids in real-time auctions to achieve specific campaign goals.
Without a set bid or cap, platforms like Google Ads leverage machine learning and extensive data to determine the best bid for each auction. These platforms consider a range of contextual signals, such as a user’s device, location, time of day, search history, and remarketing list inclusion, to find the most competitive bid for the advertiser’s desired outcome. Essentially, smart bidding automatically selects the optimal bid at auction time, ensuring the best chance of achieving the desired action.
Manual CPC bidding, however, remains a useful option for certain advertisers. Many brands prefer to control costs by capping the amount they pay per click, finding it an effective way to manage campaign budgets and pacing while driving traffic.
That said, manual bidding has limitations compared to smart bidding. With manual CPC, the primary optimisation lever is increasing bids, which may not offer sufficient flexibility during peak periods like Black Friday and Cyber Monday or in response to sudden surges in demand. This lack of adaptability can leave advertisers at a disadvantage if competitors enter the bidding space aggressively or boost their own budgets and bids.
What Bidding Strategies Are Available?
Bidding Strategies for Driving Traffic
Let’s begin with the simplest strategies aimed at generating traffic: Manual CPC Bidding and Maximise Clicks. These options are well-suited for advertisers focused on boosting traffic to their websites.
With the Manual CPC bidding strategy, advertisers can set maximum bids for keywords at the ad group, keyword, or placement level. For new campaigns, keyword research typically guides the initial bid amounts, but to maintain long-term competitiveness, regular adjustments are necessary. Previously, advertisers could pair Enhanced Cost Per Click (ECPC) with Manual CPC to automatically raise bids in auctions where conversions seemed likely. However, this feature was discontinued in October 2024 and will be completely phased out by March 2025.
In contrast, Maximise Clicks is an automated bidding strategy designed to generate as many clicks as possible within a set monthly budget. This strategy does not impose a cap on individual click costs but focuses on maximising traffic within the overall budget. While daily spend may vary based on demand, the monthly budget acts as a strict upper limit, ensuring costs don’t exceed the advertiser’s set threshold.
Bidding Strategies for Generating Conversions
If your campaign goal is to drive conversions, there are numerous bidding strategies to choose from. However, it’s essential to have conversion tracking in place for these strategies to work effectively. Ideally, your account should have some conversion history, possibly built up through traffic-focused bidding strategies, to get optimal results from conversion-focused strategies right from the start.
The most straightforward approach is Maximize Conversions, which aims to generate as many conversions as possible within a set average daily budget. Conversions can include actions like phone calls, form submissions, sales, add-to-carts, newsletter sign-ups, YouTube subscriptions, or app downloads. This strategy is best suited for advertisers who do not have specific cost-per-acquisition (CPA) targets or return-on-investment (ROI) constraints.
If you want to focus on generating conversions while keeping costs under control, Target CPA is a better fit. This strategy is ideal for advertisers who want to drive conversion volume while staying within a specific cost per conversion. It’s also effective when a business has multiple types of conversions with similar values — for instance, when phone calls, form submissions, and live chat enquiries are equally valuable to the business.
Note: Both Maximize Conversions and Target CPA may exceed your average daily budget by up to 2X during peak periods or unexpected surges in demand, but they will not surpass your overall monthly budget.
For advertisers with multiple types of conversions that hold different values, Maximize Conversion Value is a powerful option. For example, if you’re trying to drive both lead generation form submissions and YouTube subscriptions with video ads, but form submissions are valued at £20 each while a single subscription is worth less than £0.01, this strategy will prioritise the higher-value conversions while still capturing both types. This approach works best if there’s no strict cost cap per conversion.
When you need to optimise for the highest conversion value while maintaining a cost-efficiency target, Target ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) is the most effective strategy. It automatically prioritises conversions that are likely to deliver a higher ROAS, helping you meet your profitability goals. You can set unique ROAS targets at the campaign level or use a portfolio bidding strategy to manage it across your entire account.
Bidding Strategies for Maximising Impressions and Reach
When the objective is to maximise impressions, reach, and viewability, Google Ads offers several bidding strategies tailored to these goals.
To improve search visibility, the Target Impression Share bidding strategy is ideal. This approach helps advertisers maximise their ad’s reach or position on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). It’s commonly used to increase coverage, minimise competitor bidding on brand-related terms, or ensure visibility for brand-specific searches. Additionally, it’s effective for boosting visibility during sales, peak periods, or when leveraging demand from TV or other widespread media coverage.
For Display and Video campaigns, where the focus is typically on reach and impressions rather than direct conversions, there are specific strategies designed to optimise exposure:
- CPM (Cost Per Mille): This strategy charges advertisers for every 1,000 impressions on the YouTube or Display network. It’s ideal for campaigns focused on maximising reach rather than clicks or conversions.
- tCPM (Target Cost Per Mille): This variant allows advertisers to set a target CPM. While individual impressions may vary in cost, the overall CPM will align with or fall below the set target, helping to manage reach within a specific budget.
- vCPM (Viewable CPM): This strategy charges advertisers only for impressions that are viewable. It’s particularly useful for campaigns where clicks or conversions aren’t the primary goals but maintaining a cost cap is essential. For example, an eCommerce brand announcing upcoming sale dates to a loyal customer base might use vCPM to ensure visibility while controlling costs.
For video campaigns, CPV (Cost Per View) bidding is available, enabling advertisers to pay only when viewers engage with or watch the ad. This strategy supports both tCPV (Target Cost Per View) or maximum CPV settings, providing flexibility to control costs.
The definition of a “view” — and when charges apply — varies based on the ad placement:
- In-stream ads: A view is counted if a viewer watches at least 30 seconds or interacts with the ad.
- In-feed ads: A view is triggered when a user clicks the ad thumbnail or watches it autoplay for at least 10 seconds (or the entire video if it’s shorter than 10 seconds).
- Shorts placements: A view is counted when a user watches at least 10 seconds, watches the full ad if it’s under 10 seconds, or interacts with the ad by clicking on it.
These strategies allow advertisers to tailor their campaigns to maximise exposure, engagement, or specific actions, depending on their goals and budget constraints.
Which bidding strategy should I choose for my campaigns?
Advertisers may find it challenging to meet their campaign objectives without the right bidding strategy. The aim of selecting the optimal bidding strategy is to align it closely with the campaign’s goals. Keep in mind that multiple strategies can coexist within the same account, with each strategy tailored to a different campaign.
- If the goal is brand awareness, we recommend using viewability and reach-focused strategies such as CPV (Cost Per View) or CPM (Cost Per Mille).
- For campaigns aimed at driving traffic, the Maximize Clicks strategy is the most effective automated option.
- When the focus is on conversions, starting with Maximise Conversions is a solid approach, especially for new campaigns or advertisers who are new to PPC. Once there’s sufficient conversion data and advertisers have a better understanding of their conversion values, CPA targets, or ROAS benchmarks, they can progress to more advanced strategies like Target ROAS or Target CPA for better optimisation.
