This document discusses 19 different AdWords bidding strategies for achieving goals like maximizing profit, clicks, or conversions within a budget. It explains strategies like manual CPC, automatic CPC, enhanced CPC, and target CPA bidding as well as more advanced strategies involving bidding rules, scripts, and modifiers. The document recommends testing different strategies to determine the best approach for an advertiser's specific objectives and campaign performance.

1. 19 ADWORDS
BIDDDING STRATEGIES
Your Competitors Don’t Know

2. Not Happy With Your
AdWords Bidding Strategy?

3. Let’s make you as happy as this!

4. WHAT ARE
YOUR GOALS?
First Things First:
If your goal is to make more profit,
then keep conversion volume and
cost per conversion balances in mind.

5. 1. Your max cost per click (CPC) bid.
2. Your quality score.
3. Your ad extensions and relevance.
Here’s how the AdWords auction rapidly considers
your ranking of ads:

6. These days, there are hundreds of
different bidding combinations.
Let's touch on the bigger ones so you
can customize them to your liking.

7. MANUAL CPC
AdWords Bidding Strategy #1:
Set bids at either the ad group
or keyword level.This allows you to stay
in control, but can take more time to
optimize.

9. • Keyword level bids override ad group level bids.
• Keyword level bids also allow for the highest level of
control.
• Ad group level bids set the same bid to all keywords/
placements in that ad group.
BEST FOR:
Advertisers who want tight control
over spending.

10. AUTOMATIC CPC
AdWords Bidding Strategy #2:
Set a daily budget for a specific campaign
and have Google automatically adjust
bids to get the most clicks.

12. • Get the most clicks within your daily budget for a
specific campaign.
• Warning: You goal isn’t to get clicks. Your goal is to get
conversions. Test to see if this is a good fit.
• Downside: Doesn’t allow you to set max CPC bids at
the keyword level.
BEST FOR:
Drastically reduced budgets where you don’t
want to lose impression shares too quickly.

13. ENHANCED CPC
AdWords Bidding Strategy #3:
Give Google the freedom to increase
or decrease your bids by 30%.

15. • Google uses historical conversion data and sets
algorithms to predict likely conversions.
• Google will ⬆ CPC bid by up to 30% for likely
conversions. Google will ⬇ your max CPC bid by up to
30% for unlikely conversions.
• We found this strategy to work best for the AdWords
Display Network, not so much on Search.
BEST FOR:
More conversions while maintaining
or reducing your cost per conversion.

16. CPA BIDDING
AdWords Bidding Strategy #4:
Allow Google to adjust bids to average a
specified cost per acquisition goal that
you’ve set.

18. • Needs at least 15 conversions over 30 days to become
active.
• Set budget caps to limit ad spend.
• Measure performance before and after implementing
the new strategy.
BEST FOR:
AdWords Display Network, since it has many
more factors to adjust for compared to the
AdWords Search Network.

19. CPM BIDDING
(COST PER THOUSAND IMPRESSIONS)
AdWords Bidding Strategy #5:
Set target bids that accumulate after
1,000 impressions.

21. • Available for Display Network campaigns only.
• Charges you for impressions of your ads (even if below
fold) and not clicks.
BEST FOR:
Branding and awareness campaigns, not so
much for direct response campaigns.

22. TARGET SEARCH
PAGE LOCATION
AdWords Bidding Strategy #6:
Target specific locations on the search
results page.

24. • Test out if you find certain ad positions perform better
than others.
• You might find that lower ad positions perform better
than higher ones.
BEST FOR:
Controlling the location of your ads for best
performance balance between CPA and
conversion volume.

25. TARGET CPA
AdWords Bidding Strategy #7:
Set bids for most conversions within
your CPA goal.

27. • Include as many or as few campaigns as you want
• Campaigns share the same CPA goals.
BEST FOR:
Reaching your CPA goal with
most possible conversions.

28. TARGET
OUTRANKING SHARE
AdWords Bidding Strategy #8:
Enter your competitor's domain and tell
Google how often you want to outrank
them.
+1
+2

30. • You can set target outranking share %.
• You can set automatic or manual bid automation.
BEST FOR:
Performance goals based on
outranking competitors.

31. MAXIMIZE CLICKS
AdWords Bidding Strategy #9:
Maximize your number of clicks and
automate your bidding within a set
budget.

33. • Warning: This could lead to a lower quality of clicks
and conversions.
BEST FOR:
Increasing site visits and clicks on low traffic
keywords while staying within a budget.

34. TARGET RETURN
AD SPEND (ROAS)
AdWords Bidding Strategy #10:
Hit your ROI goals and set a percentage
of targeted return on ad spend.

36. • Your conversion values or Google Analytics
ecommerce revenue values are taken into account.
BEST FOR:
Hitting ROI goals.

37. BID MODIFIERS
AdWords Bidding Strategy #11:
Run reports based off various metrics and
see where it’s advantageous to increase or
decrease bids depending on performance.

39. Segment campaigns and ad groups to see:
• Device performance.
• Day of week or time of day performance.
• Geographic performance.
BEST FOR:
Segmenting campaigns and ad groups
to drill down on performance.

40. BIDDING RULES
AdWords Bidding Strategy #12:
Set criteria to change bids and budgets.

42. • Set rules at the campaign, ad group, ad or keyword
level.
• Click “automate” button and select rule type.
BEST FOR:
Automating rules based on specific
thresholds and goals.

43. BIDDING SCRIPTS
AdWords Bidding Strategy #13:
Automate your AdWords activity on a
time interval and various set metrics.

45. • Allows for greater customization beyond AdWords
rules.
BEST FOR:
Automating more intricate rules based on
specific thresholds and goals.

46. BIDDING FOR SALES
(NOT CONVERSIONS)
AdWords Bidding Strategy #14:
Track which keywords are generating
sales, not just leads or conversions.

47. • Not all keywords are created equal.
• Some keywords will have a higher sales rate than
others.
• Bid more aggressively on keywords with higher sales
rates.
• PPC traffic should be treated differently with distinct
cost per conversion goals.
BEST FOR:
This is not for eCommerce advertisers, but for
lead gen and SaaS advertisers that want to
track the entire sales cycle.

48. JAN
27
SEASONAL TRENDS
AdWords Bidding Strategy #15:
Adjust your bidding strategy based on
seasonal trends.

49. • Bid more aggressively when conversion rates are
higher.
• Bid less aggressively when conversion rates are lower.
BEST FOR:
Conversion rates that go and up and down
based on seasonality.

50. 50%
OFF
DIFFERENT KEYWORDS,
DIFFERENT OFFERS,
DIFFERENT MARGINS
AdWords Bidding Strategy #16:
Split test your landing page CTAs to find
conversion rate increases or decreases, and
then adjust bids from there.

51. • Different keywords bring in different margins and
revenue amounts.
• Keep track of performance changes: close time, sales
per closing rate.
BEST FOR:
Testing and tracking performance
changes and causes.

52. BID BUMPING
AdWords Bidding Strategy #17:
Temporarily boost bids to achieve
higher quality scores.

53. • Temporarily pay a higher CPC and get a higher click-
through-rate (CTR) = higher quality score.
• Lower your bids afterwards for lower average CPC
and conversion cost.
• Maintain performance levels.
BEST FOR:
Lower average CPCs by increasing quality
scores and hoping they stay high.

54. RLSA COMPETITOR
BIDDING
AdWords Bidding Strategy #18:
Bid more aggressively on competitor
searches for visitors who have
previously visited you.

55. • Add an RLSA audience to an existing competitor
search campaign.
• Add a more aggressive bid modifier to your
competitor name keywords.
BEST FOR:
Being okay paying high CPCs for keywords
now that they have higher conversion intent.

56. BIDDING ON BRANDED
KEYWORDS
AdWords Bidding Strategy #19:
Add your brand name to the keyword
phrase you’re bidding on. This can
increase your overall account health
and account quality score.

57. • Increase your overall account health.
• Test new UVP messages and landing pages to see if
you can outperform your own site.
BEST FOR:
Improving account health, performance,
and brand equity.

58. Your bidding goals can quickly change
depending on performance fluctuations
or landing page testing.
Don't "set it and forget it”.
Also… Keep In Mind:

59. WHY?
Higher conversion rates can allow you
to have more aggressive bidding
strategies.

60. Now Get To Testing!

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