Since we dealt with the question of what is the best bid strategy for your Google Ads campaigns in the last blog post, this time we will address the question of what are the best practice bid strategies for Google Shopping.
Basically, we are again faced with manual vs. automated bid strategies.
Manual bid strategy for Google Shopping?
With the manual bid strategy in Shopping campaigns, a maximum CPC standard bid is first defined at ad group level. This applies to all product groups within the respective ad group. The defined standard bid also applies to all new elements added to the ad groups in the further course.
With the manual bid strategy, you have the most control by placing bids yourself from product group down to product level, but this can cause a lot of manual effort. This includes regular adjustments of the click prices and consideration of external influences such as the competitive situation and demand.
Auto-optimised CPC is a combination of manual and automatic strategy. Here, manually defined bids are automatically adjusted by Google depending on the probability of a conversion. If Google classifies the conversion probability as high, the bids are adjusted accordingly upwards by up to +300%. If the probability is low, the bids are adjusted downwards, even to -100%.
Automated bid strategies for shopping campaigns
In the shopping context, Google basically offers three automatic bid strategies. These include:
- Maximise clicks (available for Standard campaigns only).
- Target ROAS, (available for Standard campaigns only)
- Maximise conversion value (available for Smart and Standard campaigns).
Below we would like to go into a little more detail about each strategy:
Maximise clicks: The bid strategy “Maximise clicks” focuses on the utilisation of the given daily budget with the background of maximising clicks. This strategy is particularly suitable if the overriding goal is to maximise website traffic.
Target ROAS: Return on Advertising Spend describes the average value in percent of how many euros a campaign has brought for every euro invested. In practice, this means that you define a target value or average value in advance (e.g. 500%). The algorithm then tries to optimise the performance to this value or to achieve 5 times the turnover of your budget.
Maximise conversion value: If you want to optimise the conversion value or turnover without achieving a specific ROAS, it is advisable to use the “maximise conversion value” strategy. The bids are allocated in such a way that you achieve the highest possible conversion value for your campaign with your budget by trying to use up the average daily budget.
What has now emerged as best practice for Google Shopping in the past?
The choice of the right bid strategy for your Shopping campaigns currently still depends on the choice of campaign type. While only “Maximise conversion value” is available to you in Smart Shopping, maximise clicks, target ROAS, maximise conversion value and manual or auto-optimised CPC are available to you in Standard Shopping campaigns.
In our many years of experience in the Google Ads universe, the bid strategies “Target ROAS” and “Maximise conversion value” have proven to be best practice. In most cases, revenue or the goal of generating maximum sales comes first. If you already know that you want to get the maximum possible sales out of your existing budget, then “Maximise Converson Value” is recommended. Note, however, that your daily expenses can be maximised. If, on the other hand, you want to work towards a profitability target, such as 500% of your budget, then a target ROAS strategy is more appropriate.
Conclusion: Whether target ROAS or maximise conversion value – it is important that you are aware of whether you want to work towards a profitability target with the necessary expenditure or a budget target with maximum possible turnover. Please note that maximum possible revenue does not necessarily have to be profitable.
If you still want to use other bid strategies, you have the possibility to choose a wider range of bid strategies for your shopping campaigns with our bid management tool BiddingLab. We offer the following bid strategies for your Shopping campaigns:
- Target ROAS
- Target CPA
- Maximise clicks
- Maximise conversions
- Maximise conversion value
- Maximise impressions
If you are interested in getting more performance out of your shopping campaigns, please contact us and we will take a closer look at your campaigns as part of our account check and discuss with you how BiddingLab can support you.
