When reaching your target audience and growing your business in a competitive digital landscape, Google AdWords is a powerful tool to achieve it. But there’s much more to Google AdWords than creating ads, engagement rate, and conversion ratio. 

Google Ads provides a variety of bid methods customised to various types of campaigns. You want to ensure that you’re targeting the relevant keyword, attracting the right audience, and optimising the landing page for conversions, everything while sticking to your budget.

But knowing which bidding strategies for Google Ads to pick or which Google AdWords Management to work with can be baffling; that’s why we wrote this guide. 

In today’s guide, we’ll break down the best Google AdWords bidding strategies for businesses and show you how to choose the right one for your goals.

So, whether you’re a small business new to PPC or an established business that wants numbers in your favour, you’ll find our today’s guide helpful in structuring your bidding strategies and campaigns.

But before we delve deep, let’s wrap our heads around what, why, and how of the best bidding strategy AdWords!

What, Why, and How of Google’s AdWords Bidding Strategies?

What is an AdWords Bidding Strategy?

AdWords bidding strategies aren’t just about placing a bid; it’s a tactical approach to create a tailored campaign in Google AdWords that determines when and how your ads will appear. 

A well-created AdWords bidding strategy ensures your budget is invested wisely, delivering maximum impact in the competitive world of online advertising.

It’s an essential part of any successful AdWords campaign because it can help you with:

• Getting more conversion for your money invested.
• Save your money by preventing the ads from showing for irrelevant searches.
• Help you improve your click-through rate (CTR) and conversion rates.
• It gives you control over when and where your ads pop up.

Why is Different Bidding Strategies for Google Ads Important?

Different bidding strategies are essential for Google Ads because they allow you to achieve different goals. Bidding is a parameter that tells Google how much you are willing to pay for clicks, conversions, impressions, or views. 

For instance, if you want more conversions for your money, you might use a target CPA bidding strategy.

Overall, using different bidding strategies for Google Ads is essential for achieving your marketing goals. They align with diverse campaign goals – maximising clicks, achieving a target ROI, or securing prime ad positions.

By choosing the best bidding strategy AdWords campaign, you can get more conversions for your money, save money, improve your CTR and conversion rates, and control when and where your ads show up.

How do AdWords Bidding Strategies Work?

Displaying ads on Google might seem straightforward enough, but there are a lot of nuances, and understanding them is the linchpin of online success.

Here’s how different bidding strategies for Google Ads works –

• Firstly, when someone searches for a keyword on Google, Google conducts an auction to determine which ads will appear in the search results.
• Following that, the highest bidder for the relevant keyword creates the ad and has their ad displayed at the top of the page, followed by the next top bidder for those keywords, and so on.

It’s important to note that Google is the biggest PPC platform in the world. Unlike other bidding platforms, Google considers various factors, such as the quality score, ad and landing page relevance, target audience relevance, and competition.

Also, your bidding strategy tells Google how much you’re willing to pay for each click on your ad. Google will then try to get you as many clicks as possible within your budget.

Proven Best Bidding Strategy AdWords

1. Target Cost-per-Action (CPA): One of the most common AdWords bidding strategies, target CPA, is aimed at maximising conversions at or below the CPA one specifies. With target CPA, one can set their desired cost per action for each campaign or ad group, and Google will try to get them as many conversions as possible within the budget, helping ensure control and profitability. Since there is a streamlined bidding process, target CPA is the best bidding strategy AdWords for any business with multiple campaigns.
2. Target Return on Ad Spend (ROAS): Target ROAS is a smart AdWords bidding strategy that optimises campaigns for a given return on ad spend. Here, Google utilises historical data to adjust the bids according to the likelihood of an ad reaching that target. This AdWords bidding strategy is a great way to improve your campaign performance and get more value out of your ad spend. However, it’s important to note that target ROAS bidding is only available once the campaign has reached a minimum number of conversions and is not a guarantee that you’ll get your desired ROAS. It’s essential to set realistic goals and monitor your campaign performance closely.
3. Maximise Conversions: As the name suggests, this AdWords bidding strategy aims to get as many conversions as possible within the campaign budget limit, regardless of the cost per action or CPA. In a maximised conversion strategy, the advanced machine learning algorithm will target segments most likely to convert, resulting in spending beyond the daily budget. This bidding strategy is a great way to improve campaign performance and get more conversions for your money. However, it’s important to note that maximising conversions can be expensive, so it’s essential to set a budget that one is comfortable with.

Bonus Tip: Want to get the most out of the best bidding strategy AdWords? Use negative keywords to prevent the ads from showing for irrelevant searches, which will, in return, help you save money and get more clicks. 

4. Maximise Conversion Value: How can we talk about different bidding strategies for Google Ads and not have a word about maximum conversion value? This AdWords bidding strategy gets the highest possible conversion value within a campaign budget. It optimises conversion value instead of the number of individual conversions. Similar to the maximum conversions we discussed earlier, this strategy is proven to be effective and efficient for eCommerce businesses, but one needs to be careful with this strategy as it can overshoot the advertising budget. If you own an eStore and are worried about managing your advertising budget, it’s recommended to partner with Google AdWords Management. Whether creating the advertising campaign or managing the AdWords bidding strategies, a reputable AdWords Agency is the best bet.
5. Enhanced Cost-per-Click (ECPC): Enhanced cost-per-click, ECPC, is an advanced AdWords bidding strategy that uses machine learning to automatically adjust the bid for clicks more likely to lead to conversion. Consider it an automated version of manual CPC bidding. This strategy utilises auction-time signals to tailor the bids to every user search. But what differentiates ECPC from manual CPC bidding is that in ECPC, the Google ads algorithm makes adjustments on the manually set bid based on past data to reach more and increase the click-through rate (CTR) and conversion rate (CVR).
6. Maximise Clicks: Maximise clicks is an automated AdWords bidding strategies that helps you get as many clicks as possible within the campaign budget. In this strategy, you need to set your average daily budget, and the Google Ads system will automatically manage the bids to bring the most clicks possible within the budget. It’s the most efficient way to increase your brand awareness, drive more traffic, and persuade customers to take desired actions. Also, monitor the campaign performance closely. Make sure to adjust the campaign budget and other settings as needed to ensure that you’re getting the results you want.
7. Manual CPC Bidding: Imagine you’re at an auction, and you’re bidding on a painting. You have a set budget in mind, but you’re also determined to get the painting. So, you start bidding slowly and carefully, watching to see how high the price goes. Manual CPC bidding is like that. You set a maximum bid for each keyword, but Google will try to get you clicks as close to your bid amount as possible. This way, you can still get the clicks you want without overpaying. The best part is that these AdWords bidding strategies provide a granular level of control. But wait! There’s a flipside of this strategy as well. This strategy is time and resource-intensive, meaning one needs to dedicate more time and resources to get the desired results from the campaign. And if you’re juggling multiple campaigns, it can lead to a large amount of work and dissatisfactory results. So, if you want the campaign to be under your total control and help get those quality leads and sales, it’s better to outsource the advertisement workload to an agency that provides AdWords management services.
8. Target Impression Share: Target impression share is a great tactic to be leveraged if you’re looking to increase your brand awareness and visibility of your business, products, or services. In the target impression share strategy, the bids are automatically set with the goal of showing the ad at the absolute top of the page, on the top of the page, or anywhere on the page of Google Search results. This strategy can ensure you get your ads seen on the first page of search results for a specific percentage of relevant searches. Target impression share helps you achieve your visibility goals and can be used as a stand-alone or as part of a portfolio bidding strategy.
9. Cost per Thousand Impressions (CPM): Cost per thousand impressions is a Google AdWords bidding strategies that allows you to pay for every thousand times your ad is shown on YouTube or the Google Display Network. You can set a maximum bid for every thousand times your ad is shown, and Google will try to show your ads as close to your bid amount as possible for a set period of time.
10. Target Cost per Viewable Impressions (tCPM): Regarded as one of the best Google AdWords bidding strategies, target cost per viewable impression, or tCPM, is a sound strategy that helps you set how much you’ll be paying on average for every 1,000 impressions on Google’s search results.  It is an automated AdWords bidding strategy, which means Google adjusts your bid to optimise how many impressions your ad gets. So, if you want to increase your brand awareness and reach a highly engaged audience while only paying for ads that people see, and that too on a limited budget, tCPM is hands down the best bidding strategy AdWords any Google Ads specialists want to employ for their advertising campaign.
11. Cost per Viewable Thousand Impressions (vCPM): Unlike different bidding strategies for Google Ads, where you pay even for views from people who skipped the video ad, in cost-per-viewable thousand impressions (vCPM) bidding, the focus is on getting the highest possible impressions at your daily budget for your Google Display Networks ads. Since vCPM is a manual bidding approach you can employ if your advertising is intended to raise awareness but not necessarily drive clicks or traffic, it is considered one of the most cost-effective AdWords bidding strategies. This bidding strategy can be especially effective for digital marketers who want to reach a large and diverse audience. The country we service, Australia, is a highly digitised country with over 90% of adults utilising the internet on a day-to-day basis; by using vCPM, Australian digital marketers can ensure that their ads are seen by the right people at the right time and in the right place.
12. Cost per View (CPV) Bidding: CPV bidding is a Google AdWords bidding strategy for those who want to build awareness with YouTube video campaigns and get the ads shown to people who are most likely to watch them. You pay only when someone watches the ad for at least 30 seconds (or the entire duration if it’s shorter than 30 seconds) or interacts with it, whichever comes first. As the default strategy in Google Ads for your video campaign, what makes the CPV bidding strategy one of the best Google AdWords bidding strategies is its cost-effectiveness in improving campaign performance and getting more conversions.

What’s the Best Bidding Strategy AdWords for My Business?

Unfortunately, and as diplomatic as it may sound, there’s no one-size-fits-all strategy for AdWords bidding strategies – it’s all permutation and combination, a bit of good from all strategies possible. The best bidding strategy for AdWords for you depends on your specific business goals and campaign budget. 

If you’re looking to increase brand awareness and reach a large audience, you might want to try Target Impression Share or vCPM bidding. If you’re looking to get more conversions for your money, you might want to try Target CPA or Target ROAS bidding. And if you’re looking to get as many views as possible for your video ads, you might want to try CPV bidding. But as we said earlier, while there are many bidding strategies, the best way to find out is to experiment and see what works best for your business.

Are you feeling overwhelmed with all the options out there? No Wucka’s! Whether you’re looking to increase brand awareness, drive conversions, or reach a large audience on a shoestring budget, you need a Google AdWords Management agency by your side to fine-tune your advertising campaign and augment your chance of winning and shining.