Have you ever been at the point of setting up a new Google Ads campaign or tweaking an existing campaign and wondered, “What is the best bid strategy for my campaign and current objectives?”

If so, you’re not alone. In this guide, we’ll explore the various bid strategies available, their benefits, and how to choose the right one to meet your specific business objectives.

When setting up a new campaign, the first thing Google Ads asks is about your objectives. Are you focused on conversions like form fills, phone calls, or product purchases? Or are you simply looking to generate traffic? The right bid strategy depends on these objectives.

The Main Bid Strategies

We’ll focus on bid strategies for search campaigns, as most advertisers run search campaigns in Google Ads. Here’s a breakdown of the different types of bid strategies:

1. Smart Bidding Strategies
2. Automated Bid Strategies
3. Manual Bid Strategies

Smart Bidding Strategies

These are designed to optimise for the actions you want users to take on your site, such as filling out a form or making a phone call. Smart bidding uses automated machine learning and signals from users’ behaviour on the web to make informed bidding decisions.

• Maximize Conversions:
  • Objective: Get the most conversions within your budget.
  • Requirements: Conversion tracking must be set up.
  • Pros: Easy to set up and requires minimal manual adjustments.
  • Cons: Will spend the full budget set for the campaign.

• Target CPA (Cost Per Acquisition):
  • Objective: Achieve a specific cost per conversion.
  • Requirements: Historical data on conversion rates.
  • Pros: Controls cost per conversion.
  • Cons: Campaign may not spend budget if the target CPA is too low.

• Maximize Conversion Value:
  • Objective: Maximize the value of conversions.
  • Requirements: Conversion tracking and value tracking (e.g., revenue).
  • Pros: optimises for high-value conversions.
  • Cons: Requires accurate value tracking.

• Target ROAS (Return on Ad Spend):
  • Objective: Achieve a specific return on ad spend.
  • Requirements: Conversion value tracking.
  • Pros: optimises for profit margins.
  • Cons: May not spend full budget if the target ROAS is too high.

• Enhanced CPC (Cost Per Click):
  • Objective: Adjust manual bids to maximize conversions.
  • Requirements: Basic understanding of manual bidding.
  • Pros: Provides some automation while maintaining control.
  • Cons: Less effective than fully automated strategies.

Automated Bid Strategies

These strategies do not focus on conversions and are generally less advisable unless in specific scenarios.

• Maximize Clicks:
  • Objective: Get the most clicks within your budget.
  • Pros: Increases traffic quickly.
  • Cons: Not optimised for conversions.

• Target Impression Share:
  • Objective: Achieve a specific impression share.
  • Pros: Useful for brand protection.
  • Cons: Not optimised for conversions and can be expensive.

Manual Bid Strategies

Manual bidding is mostly obsolete due to the effectiveness of automated strategies.

• Manual CPC:
  • Objective: Control bids at the keyword level.
  • Pros: Full control over bids.
  • Cons: Requires expertise and time-consuming.

Choosing the Right Strategy

For most advertisers, smart bidding strategies are the way to go. They leverage Google’s machine learning to optimise for the actions that matter to your business, ensuring you get the best results possible with minimal manual intervention.

However, automated and manual strategies have their place in certain scenarios. If you’re just starting out and need to generate quick traffic or if you have specific brand protection needs, these might be worth considering.

Need Help?

If you feel your campaigns are not working as effectively as they could, and would like an expert to review your account, then feel free to get in contact with us and we’ll have one of our specialists get in contact with you.

Broad Match keywords can be a common pitfall with Google Ads campaigns, often leading to unnecessary wasted ad spend. This article will guide you through:

• Understanding Broad Match keywords
• Identifying if they’re causing wasted ad spend
• Getting the most from Broad Match within your campaigns

Understanding Keyword Match Types

Google Ads offers three main keyword match types: Exact Match, Phrase Match, and Broad Match. 

Each match type has distinct characteristics:

• Exact Match: This is the most precise form of targeting, which includes the exact keyword or very close variants. Exact Match keywords will appear with brackets, for example [Google Ads management], this will target the exact term as it appears and searches closely related to this specific term.
• Phrase Match: This match type has slightly wider targeting. Phrase Match will appear with quotes, e.g. “Google Ads management” and can include searches that contain the keyword, like “best Google Ads management services.”
• Broad Match: The broadest of the three, this match type targets a wide range of search terms related to your keyword, even if they aren’t directly relevant. Broad Match will appear without quotes or brackets, e.g. Google Ads management. This could attract searches like “how to manage ads on Google” or “ads management companies.”

The Pitfalls of Broad Match Keywords

While Broad Match keywords can cast a wide net and attract a diverse audience, they often lead to:

• Increased Costs: As Broad Match keywords expand your campaign’s targeting, this can lead to a significant increase in costs.
• Irrelevant Traffic: Broad Match keywords can target search terms that aren’t completely relevant to your products or services, and which have a low probability of resulting in a sale for your business. 

Why Broad Match Keywords Are Commonly Used

Despite their downsides, Broad Match keywords are frequently recommended by Google for a few reasons:

• Wider Reach: They can help advertisers reach a broader audience, potentially uncovering new customer segments.
• Google’s Recommendations: Google staff and the interface itself often suggest the use of Broad Match keywords to increase a campaign’s exposure and, by extension, ad spend (which is great for Google). Recommendations to “change all keywords to Broad Match” can potentially help to drive more conversions but come with a significant caveat: you may pay a very high price for those additional conversions.

Assessing Broad Match Performance

To determine if Broad Match keywords are potentially wasting your ad spend, follow these steps:

1. Check Your Keywords: In the Google Ads interface, navigate to “Keywords” and apply a filter to identify Broad Match keywords.
2. Analyse Performance: Look at metrics such as conversion rate, click-through rate (CTR), and cost per conversion. High costs with low conversions indicate poor performance.
3. Search Term Report: Use the search term report to see what queries are triggering your Broad Match keywords. Filter the report by match type to focus on Broad Match terms.
4. Add Negative Keywords: Identify irrelevant search terms and add them as negative keywords to prevent future ad spend on those terms.

Best Practices for Using Broad Match Keywords

If you decide to use Broad Match keywords, follow these criteria:

• Conversion Tracking: Ensure you have reliable conversion tracking set up. Without it, assessing the effectiveness of Broad Match keywords is challenging.
• Smart Bidding Strategies: Use conversion-based smart bidding strategies like “Maximize Conversions” or “Target CPA” to leverage Google’s algorithms in optimising ad spend.
• Proven Performance with Exact/Phrase Match: Ensure that your exact and phrase match keywords are already performing well. Broad Match keywords are best used to expand on already successful campaigns.
• Daily Monitoring: Regularly review your search query reports and add negative keywords to filter out irrelevant traffic.
• Budget Considerations: Only use Broad Match keywords if your goal is to increase daily spend after saturating search volume with exact match keywords.

Conclusion

Broad Match keywords can be a double-edged sword. They offer the potential for broader reach but come with the risk of higher costs and irrelevant traffic. By understanding their role, carefully monitoring their performance, Broad Match can be used to drive higher sales at a profitable rate.

Need Help With Your Google Ads Account?

If you feel your campaigns are not working as effectively as they could, and would like an expert to review your account, then feel free to get in contact with us and we’ll have one of our specialists get in contact with you.

One of the most salient features within the new Google Ads interface, is the introduction of the Optimization Score.

Google has always been experimenting with ways to influence advertisers’ decisions, and how they manage their account, and the Optimization Score is just the latest addition to their repertoire.

The Optimization Score is clearly linked to the various recommendations for improved account management made by Google, but many advertisers still perplexed as to what the score actually indicates, what it affects, if any anything, and whether or not they should pay attention to it.

How The Optimization Score Affects Your Campaigns?

It’s important to note that your Optimization Score has no direct affect on the performance of your campaigns.

Unlike your keywords’ Quality Score, which can affect things such as average CPC, and Ad Rank, the Optimization Score will have no influence on any of your campaign metrics.

This is important to understand, because some advertisers may mistakenly believe that if their account has a low Optimization Score, this indicates that their campaigns are poorly setup, or are performing badly.

Why Google Makes Suggestions

As mentioned above, the Optimization Score is connected to the recommendations made by Google.

These recommendations are made by Google for several reasons:

1. To help improve the performance of advertisers campaigns.
2. To encourage advertisers to implement new features (for example Responsive Search Ads when they were first introduced), so that these features can be tested, and Google can observe the effectiveness of these new features and improve them.
3. To encourage advertisers to expand their campaigns, increase their budgets, and spend more through Google.

Thus, the Optimization Score is there to encourage you to pay attention to the recommendations.

And the recommendations are there to encourage you to make specific changes within your account.

Should You Pay Attention to The Optimization Score?

Some of the recommendations made by Google can be highly beneficial, depending on yours or your client’s objectives.

It is therefore well worth reviewing all of the recommendations made by Google.

If you are managing the account on behalf of a client, it is also worth maintaining a perfect Optimization Score, to help indicate that you are keeping a close eye on the account.

However, as mentioned above, the Optimization Score has no influence over the performance of your campaigns. A high Optimization score does not necessarily indicate that the campaign is performing well, or vice versa.

How to Get a ~100% Optimization Score

The Optimization Score is there to encourage you to pay attention to the recommendations being made by Google.

The score therefore simply indicates how many of recommendations you have either applied, or dismissed.

To get a 100% Optimization, you therefore just need to either apply OR dismiss, all of the recommendations within the account.

If you do not consent to any of the recommendations, then you can simply dismiss all of the recommendations, and achieve a 100% Optimization Score.

All Changes Within Your Account Are Your Responsibility

When reviewing, and or applying the recommendations from Google within your account, it is of extreme importance to understand that all the changes made within your account are your responsibility.

Google will accept no responsibility for the consequences arising from any of the changes made within your account; even those changes that were recommended by Google.

It is essential therefore, that you scrutinise every new keyword, every increase to your budget, and all other adjustments before you apply them within your account.

Need Help With Your Google Ads Account?

If you feel your campaigns are not working as effectively as they could, and would like an expert to review your account, then feel free to get in contact with us and we’ll have one of our specialists get in contact with you.

Automated Rules can help you to save time and manage your Google Ads account more reliably and efficiently.

There are a variety of different changes can be made within an account using automated rules, that can save you time on repetitive tasks.

Some of The Things You Can Do With Automated Rules

Campaigns

• Enable or pause campaigns – at specific date or after specific performance
• Increase or decrease campaign budgets
• Receive email alerts

Keywords

• Enable or pause keywords
• Change keyword bids (if using manual or enhanced CPC)
• Receive email alerts

Ads

• Enable or pause ads
• Receive email alerts

Limitations of Automated Rules

Automated rules can be extremely useful, but they have limitations. There are certain complex changes that would be very useful, but that you cannot make, such as pausing all campaigns once the aggregated spend across those campaigns meets a certain amount.

This limitation of not being able to aggregate data across separate assets extends to keywords and ads also.

Always Preview The Changes of the Automated Rule

When setting up automated rules you’ll be given the option to ‘Preview’ the changes that the automated rule will make.

You should always take this option to double check that the rule you have set up will have the effect that you intend.

It’s important to note here that the system will simulate the changes that would be made if the rule ran immediately.

So if your rule is set to pause a campaign at a specific date in the future, and that campaign is currently paused, the Preview will indicate that there will be zero changes.

Always Check The Changes of the Automated Rule

Automated rules can make the management of an account easier, but they don’t absolve you of your responsibility as the account manager.

You should always check that the intended change has been made by the automated rule.

There’s even the option to receive ‘Email Results’ which can serve as a useful reminder. I recommend selecting to receive alerts ‘Every time this rule runs’.

Conclusion

Automated rules can be an effective way of improving the speed and reliability of account management.

However it’s important to note that they can be a double edged sword, as if used incorrectly they can result in unintended changes being made to campaigns.

It must be stressed that these changes can prove to be very costly, and so it is therefore essential to always double check the changes made by automated rules.

Need Help With Your Google Ads Account?

If you feel your campaigns are not working as effectively as they could, and would like an expert to review your account, then feel free to get in contact with us and we’ll have one of our specialists get in contact with you.

What Are SKAGs?

No SKAGs are not some kind of illicit drug.

They are a way of structuring your campaigns so that each individual keyword is matched with a unique text ad which is specific to that keyword.

Each and every keyword has its own ad group, hence the name: Single Keyword Ad Groups.

Even separate match types (i.e.. Exact, Phrase, Broad) are split into separate ad groups.

Advantages of SKAGs

Simple Structure

When using SKAGgs, there’s no decision that needs to be made about which keywords should be grouped together, whether it’s based on relevance or some other factor.

Each and every keyword will have its own ad group by default. This really simplifies the process of structuring your campaign.

Quick to Setup

Because of the simplicity, the SKAG structure can be very quick to setup when using a combination of Excel/Google Sheets and Google Ads Editor.

With a simple formula within Excel, the keyword can be used to define the ad group name, and can be used to write parts of ad headlines and descriptions. The campaign can then be easily imported using Google Ads Editor.

Ad Copy Can Be Specific to Each Keyword

As mentioned above, using the SKAG structure, the ad copy can be unique to each keyword. This can help to significantly improve the overall performance of a campaign by helping to:

• Engage prospective clients with ad copy that matches their search query
• Improve click-through-rates
• Improve ad relevance
• Improve Quality Scores

Disadvantages of SKAGs

Lack of Volume

An issue with the SKAG structure can arise when there are many keywords that have been included within the targeting of a campaign, which do not have a high search volume.

This can result in a large number of ad groups which are generating little or no impressions and clicks.

Ad groups with a very small amount of data can be difficult to optimise, as it is a challenge to see which ads are working best, and what would be the optimal bid to use, when there is limited data to influence your decision.

Can Be Cumbersome to Manage

The SKAG structure results in the maximum number of ad groups. This means that there are more ad groups to manage, which means more ad sets to review, and more bids to optimise.

Depending on how the campaign is being managed, this can result in more time being required to manage the many different ad groups.

Conclusion

The SKAG structure is one of the simplest, and quickest to setup. SKAGgs can also perform very well because of the ability to easily match keywords with relevant ad copy.

However there are draw-backs to using the SKAG structure, and there may be a more effective structure for meeting the objectives of your campaign.

Need Help With Your Google Ads Account?

If you would like assistance in implementing the SKAG structure for one of your campaigns, or if you feel your campaigns are not working as effectively as they could, then feel free to get in contact with us and we’ll have one of our specialists get in touch with you.

To begin building a search engine marketing campaign, the first thing that you need is a list of the search terms, or keywords, that you’re going to be targeting.

Targeting specific keywords will allow you to reach prospective customers who are searching for your product or service.

But in order to find the keywords which are being used by your target market, you need to use a keyword research tool, and that’s where the Google Ads Keyword Planner comes in.

The Google Ads Keyword Planner

The Keyword Planner allows you to see a list of all of the relevant terms that your customers are searching for in Google in order to find products and services like yours.

This tool is free to use. All that is required is a Google Ads account, which is quick and easy to setup.

Keywords for SEO and PPC Campaigns

It’s important to note that the Google Ads Keyword Planner is useful, not just for finding keywords for a Google Ads or PPC (pay per click) campaign, but also for SEO (search engine optimisation) campaigns.

Keyword Intent

Possibly the most important aspect of keyword research and keyword selection, is understanding the intent of keywords.

Everytime a person makes a search through Google using a keyword, they’re looking for something specific, and in order to determine whether that keyword will be good to target will depend on our ability to understand what that person is looking for.

Using a search campaign for a law firm as a hypothetical example, here are three keywords we may encounter during our research:

Keyword 1: “solicitors london”

Intent: Looking to hire a solicitor in the London area.
This would be a good keyword to include within our search campaign, as targeting this keyword will help us to generate clients that are looking for the services of a solicitor.

Keyword 2: “solicitors salaries”

Intent: Interested to find out how much solicitors earn.
This is likely being used by people who are considering becoming a solicitor. So targeting this keyword would not generate the right sort of traffic.

Keyword 3: “top law firms in london”

Intent: May be looking to hire one of the top solicitors in the London area, or, may simply be looking for a list of the top law firms for research purposes.
is more of an ambiguous keyword. Some people using this keyword may be looking to hire the top law firm in London. However some people may simply be carrying out research for an article or project of some kind. Therefore this keyword would be risk to add to the targeting of our campaign.

By ensuring that your campaign only includes keywords that have the intent of someone looking to purchase a product or service like yours, you will have the best chances of success.

Forecasting

The Google Ads Keyword Planner, although being useful for SEO campaigns, is primarily designed to carry out research for Google Ads campaigns.

For this reason the forecasting feature will give an indication of what performance be expected with the selected keyword targeting when used within a Google Ads campaign.

Here are some of the key campaign metrics you can get forecasting data for:

• Search volume: giving an indication of the number of monthly searches being made
• Clicks: the estimated number of clicks your ad will receive
• Competition: indicating the level of competition from advertisers within the paid results
• Average Cost Per Click: how much on average advertisers pay for a click on their ad

Conclusion

Although the Keyword Planner is mainly designed for carrying out keyword research for Google Ads campaigns, it’s a useful tool for all search campaigns, including SEO.

The forecasting data from the tool comes directly from Google and can therefore be seen to have a high degree of reliability.

The tool is also free and easy to use, making it a good option whether you are a beginner or are highly experienced when it comes to carrying out keyword research.

Whichever tool you choose to use, it’s essential to understand the intent of each and every keyword that you choose to target within your campaign.

Business owners and companies often look to Google as a source of new customers and sales. Google is used by everyone to find answers to every question, and solutions to every problem, and it’s one of the primary ways prospective clients search for products and services they’re interested in purchasing.

It’s therefore easy to recognise the value of a website ranking on the first page of Google for a product or service related keywords.

Such a ranking can help drive sales, generate new customers, and help propel the growth of a business.

But what does it take to take to get a first page ranking in Google? What’s the best method for achieving this?

How to Rank on the First Page of Google – The Options

Within the SERPs (search engine results pages) there are two main categories of results:

1. Paid ads
2. Organic site listings

For the majority of web users, there is little or no distinction between these two types of listings. However these two types of listings are very different.

Although they ultimately achieve the same goal: allowing website owners to place their website on the first page of Google; there is a big contrast in the way this is achieved.

While appearing in the paid ads section of the results page requires setting up a Google Ads, and paying Google directly for clicks; appearing within the organic results is achieved through SEO, or search engine optimization.

Google Ads Vs SEO

Costs

Possibly the most salient difference between Google Ads and SEO, is the cost of these two forms of marketing.

With Google Ads, advertisers pay Google directly for each individual click on their ad. Advertisers enter an auction together for each keyword they’d like to target, and the cost per click is therefore determined by the level of competition.

Clicks for the most lucrative and the most competitive keywords have therefore become very expensive, with the average cost per click in some sectors reaching as high as £30 or more.

Conversely, website owners do not need to pay Google to appear within the organic listings. But as implied by the term ‘search engine optimisation’, they do need to optimise their website. And this process of optimisation costs either time or money, or both.

Time Span

To succeed in the organic rankings, websites need to have an excellent user experience, and a high level of promotion.

Although a responsive, fast loading, website, with engaging content can be built relatively quickly; the promotion required to rank a website for competitive keywords can be a lengthy process.

Websites require backlinks (links from other websites) to build their authority, and this process can take weeks, months, and even years.

Ranking a website organically can certainly be a worthwhile endeavor, but it does require persistence and patience.

To have a website placed within paid ads section of the results page, only requires a Google Ads account, and the budget required to pay for clicks.

It doesn’t take years, months, weeks, or even days to achieve a first page ranking, it can take as little as a few hours.

Because of this, a business owner can rank their site on the first page of Google for their chosen keyword, and begin generating new sales and clients, almost instantly.

Position Within Results

These days web users won’t navigate past the first page of the results. This means that if a website is not placed on the first page of the results for a given search term, it likely won’t see much in the way of traffic from that term.

Web users also generally don’t scroll down to see all of the results on the first page. This makes the top of the page prime real-estate.

Google knows this and so has clevely position the paid ads (where Google generates its revenue) at the top of the page.

The organic listings are then placed below the paid ads.

This gives an inherent advantage to Google Ads.

Conclusion

Google Ads and SEO are two very different forms of marketing which ultimately achieve the same goal.

Because of the differences in time span, costs, and position, business owners will need to decide which form of marketing will best enable them to meet their marketing objectives.

However, it is not a question of either Google Ads or SEO, as both forms of marketing complement each other.

Need Help With Your Google Ads Account?

If you feel your campaigns are not working as effectively as they could, and would like an expert to review your account, then feel free to get in contact with us and we’ll have one of our specialists get in contact with you.

With the improvements that have been seen to the efficacy of the smart bidding strategies on offer by Google, Manual CPC bidding is becoming less and less relevant.

Advertisers are seeing more and more, that campaigns that are using automated bidding strategies such as Target CPA are able to outperform those that are using manually optimised bids.

However, despite this, there are still instances where the use Manual CPC bidding is not only more effective, but essential.

Within this article we’ll review the advantages and disadvantages of using Manual CPC bidding, and the situations where it should, and should not be used.

Disadvantages of Manual CPC Bidding

Potentially Poorer Performance

Google’s smart bidding strategies are able to tap into a wealth of data on the behaviour of users in order to help drive calculations for bids.

With this in mind, it is no surprise that many advertisers are seeing improved performance when transitioning from manual CPC to a smart bidding strategy such as target CPA.

Requires Experience and Expertise

Knowing how to effectively optimise bids based on the individual performance of keywords requires a certain level of experience and expertise.

This can make setting manual bids difficult for those who have not yet developed a high level of proficiency with Google Ads.

It’s Manual…

An obvious downside to using Manual CPC bidding is that… well, it’s manual. Account managers will be required to log in on a regular basis in order to review performance and make adjustments to the bids accordingly.

This doesn’t just include keyword bids, but also bid adjustments for device, schedule, locations, and demographics.

Time Consuming

The time required for continually optimising keyword bids adds up over time. If using an automated bidding strategy, this time could instead be invested in further analysis and development of the campaign’s strategy.

Advantages of Manual CPC Bidding

New Campaigns With Little or No Conversion Data

Newly setup campaigns that do not yet have any performance or conversion data cannot take advantage of smart bidding strategies.

Automated bidding strategies such as Target CPA require campaigns to have at least 30 conversions within the last 30 days in order for them to work effectively.

In this circumstance Manual CPC bidding gives the advertiser the ability to optimise their bids without having to wait for a certain volume of conversions.

When Automated Strategies Can’t Cut It

There are instances where automated/smart bid strategies are just not able to meet the campaign’s targets or objectives.

This is why it is important to test the effectiveness of smart bidding strategies versus manual bids.

When smart bidding strategies are failing to meet targets, the remedy is to optimise bids the old-fashioned way.

Full Control

Manual CPC is the only bidding strategy that gives advertisers full control over their bidding. This is as long as the option for Enhanced CPC is unchecked, of course.

This gives the advantage of not having to rely on the efficacy and reliability of Google’s automated bidding strategies, and gives the ability to fully control costs, and ensure that bids are being optimised in-line with the campaign’s objectives.

Conclusion

Manual CPC is not better, or worse, than any of the other bidding strategies available. Its comparable efficacy will depend on the individual circumstances of the campaign in question.

For this reason, Manual CPC should be tested along with the other bidding strategies which are applicable to the objectives and targets of the campaign.

There will however, at least for the time being, always be circumstances where the Manual CPC bidding strategy will be relied upon.