Google Ads automated bidding is underrated. It’s often unfairly maligned too, for being costly. The fact though, is that automated bidding has many perks. It can save time. Automated bidding takes the guesswork out of auction bidding. Also, it allows you to pick the best strategy for your business goal. But, which of the following is a core benefit of google ads automated bidding?
That’s what we are going to find out today. If you run Google Ads, or Linkedin ads or any other PPC platform, you will face this conundrum. Do you bid manually, or do you choose automated bidding? DIY marketers often harp on how manual bidding saves them money. But what about the risks that come with it?
A lot of businesses are unaware of the ideal bidding strategies. Let’s dive in and take a look at Google Ads automated bidding.
What is Google ads automated bidding?
Google ads is a powerful advertising platform that uses a combination of AI and machine learning. Automated bidding is a hands-off strategy for marketers. You create an ad, select a business goal and you let Google do the heavy lifting.
Google’s powerful algorithms then determine the best bidding strategy for you. The system bids on your behalf, often outbidding your competition. This can reduce your ad spend too.
How does automated bidding compare to manual bidding?
Whether it’s Facebook Ads or Google Ads, manual bidding is easy to get a hang of. You set a max CPC. Get done with the keyword research. Set a daily budget. The platform will not bid more than that amount.
The caveat is that you need to have an in-depth understanding of the process. How do you determine the max CPC? Is it enough to get you ad-clicks and outperform your competitors? Are you overbidding, when you can in fact save money?
The process is easy to understand for sure. But it requires extensive research. Something that only a skilled PPC team can do. That said, sometimes, even the most elaborate performance metrics aren’t enough to make a precise bid. We rely on educated guesses based on what Google shows us.
Automated bidding on the other hand is more robust. Google has access to tons of signals. It leverages all of these to adjust the bid. Does that mean that automated bidding is superior to manual bidding?
Just like everything in digital marketing, it’s not always binary. There are times when automated bidding can drain your budget. It then turns into a liability rather than an asset to your marketing goals.
At Rockstar Marketing, our PPC team often uses a combination of both. Sometimes we use automated bidding when it best suits the business goal and budget. But, our team carefully oversees the entire campaign. We pause and tweak whenever the situation demands.
What are the different types of Google ads automated bidding?
Before we dive into the answer for, ‘Which of the following is a core benefit of google ads automated bidding’, lets understand automated bidding. There are 6 types of automated bidding strategies in Google Ads. Each one of these comes with its own share of pros and cons.
Maximise Clicks
Many of our clients run traffic-oriented campaigns. These campaigns have a singular goal. To drive as much traffic as we can to the landing page or website. Maximise Clicks is the automated strategy that best suits these types of campaigns. You just have to set a daily budget. Google Ads will adjust the bids to generate the maximum traffic within that budget.
The bids might increase at times and reduce at times. It just focuses on getting the maximum amount of clicks by auto-adjusting the bids.
Maximise Conversions
Google ads uses your pre-set budget to optimise bids for conversions. The target here is the number of conversions. More the merrier. Not the conversion value, mind you. This is one of the better choices for brands looking at a conversion-related goal.
Maximise Conversion Value
Maximise Conversion Value is a bidding strategy that works well for conversions that have a monetary value. Like ‘Maximise Conversions’, you will set a budget. Google Ads will then auto-adjust the bids to generate the maximum conversion value from those clicks.
Target CPA/CPI
Target CPA or ‘Cost Per Action’ (CPI is Cost Per Install for Mobile Apps) is essentially ‘Maximise Conversions’ with a set target Cost Per Action. Let’s assume that each conversion action generates £50 in revenue. Google Ads will try to generate clicks that have the maximum potential to convert. It will keep the budget below £50 to ensure that your Return on Investment is positive.
Update – Integrated into Maximise Conversions Value since April 2021.
Target ROAS
Target ROAS or return-on-ad-spend (ROAS), is essentially Maximize Conversion Value with a set target. For instance, if can generate £100 from every conversion and you spend £50 to achieve that conversion, the ROAS is 200%.
Here’s the formula used to calculate ROAS:
ROAS = (Revenue / Ad Spend) x 100
Update – Integrated into Maximise Conversion Value since April 2021.
Our PPC Team uses ‘Target Impression Share’ for campaigns that demand maximum visibility. Google Ads will optimize your bids to position your ad on the top of the page.
The Benefits of Google Ads automated bidding
In the end, it all boils down to what the benefits are. Google ads automated bidding offers many advantages. The question is, which of the following is a core benefit of google ads automated bidding? Let’s find out.
Its Automated
As the name implies, this is an automated bidding strategy. Not all businesses have a dedicated PPC team. Many start-ups multitask and handle PPC marketing themselves. An automated bidding strategy spares the need to crunch numbers. Google will do everything for you, sans some basic calculations.
Which of the following is a core benefit of google ads automated bidding? It works for small businesses
Automated bidding is generally suited for small businesses and professionals. Think one-man operations with a skeletal crew.
Hands-Off Campaigns
Some businesses prefer ad campaigns that are hands-off. They just want to set everything up and let Google handle the rest. If that defines you, then automated bidding is just what you wanted. The campaign will still need optimisation, mind you. That comes with skill and expertise from a PPC management team. But at least, it will set you up without breaking your head over it.
Time Saver
The Rockstar Marketing PPC team frequently uses automated Google ad scripts. When clubbed with automated bidding, this reduces the time we spend setting up campaigns by 75%. Even if you don’t use scripts, automated bidding is a huge time saver.
Which of the following is a core benefit of google ads automated bidding? It’s Goal Specific
Google ads make it easy to select an automated campaign strategy. You have six business goals to choose from. All that you have to do is pick the closest match and set a daily budget.
Auction Time Bidding
Coming to the most important benefit of them all, auction time bidding. What happens during an auction? Google Ads will look at your bidding strategy and determine the bid for a keyword. In manual bidding, you can only use keyword-specific bidding. You conduct your research. Come up with low-cost keywords. Then you bid on it depending on your budget, competition and goal.
But those are not the sole parameters that determine the efficiency of a click. In Auction time bidding, Google ads tap into the vast troves of data at its disposal. Automated algorithms dial down into multiple data points.
What is the keyword match type? Which device and OS is the user searching from? What is the search intent? Are the users part of your target audience? What language is the search in? Are the users searching from home or from the workplace? Maybe they are searching from a holiday destination, which changes intent.
Google Ads uses all these factors to determine the likelihood of the click meeting the end goal. Then, it adjusts the bid. What’s incredible, is that it taps into your ad account history too. So it’s using existing patterns to learn. All these calculations happen in less than a fraction of a second.
Disadvantages of Automated bidding
Despite all the perks, we are selective about using automated bidding. Here are our reasons.
- We don’t have control on the budget. On some days, we spend twice the daily budget with no conversions. That’s something we’re not too fond of.
- Google takes time to learn the campaign. Until then, the ad spend and conversions are a hit or a miss.
- The data points that we mentioned sound extensive. But not all of those are relevant at all times. Some of it may be unrelated to your business. But may still affect your bid.
Which of the following is a core benefit of google ads automated bidding – Our answer
The biggest benefit is ‘Auction Time Bidding’. It’s a very efficient system that works flawlessly most of the time. Google uses every tiny bit of data available at its disposal. Further, machine learning and AI promise to change the face of automated advertising.
To sum it up
Automated bidding has its place in PPC management. But it’s best suited for businesses with a limited technical understanding of bidding. Ideally, you should work with a PPC Management team who can club automated bidding with manual bidding to deliver the best results.
Speak to us now to know how we can help improve the ROI for your campaigns.
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