Choosing the best bid strategy for your campaign is a vital part of running ads on Google and something that will make or break performance. This is true for both generic and brand bidding. There's no question about it - choosing the wrong bid strategy will lead to poor results compared to selecting a bid strategy that aligns with your objectives.
In this article, let's explore what this means for Brand Google Ads campaigns and highlight some of the best options for brand, all of which come from experience. What's interesting is the best bid strategy for brand is NOT what Google recommend. Google generally recommend Maximise Conversions, however as you'll learn this usually leads to an increase in costs, including CPC and CPA.
How to choose a bid strategy in Google Ads
As a starting point, consider these variables when deciding on the best Google Ads bid strategy for your campaigns:
Objective: What's the purpose of your campaign and what would you like it to achieve. For example, if your objective is to drive leads or sales, a conversion focused bid strategy is the best choice, such as Maximise Conversions or Maximise Conversion Value. To maximise visibility in the search engine results, then Target Impression Share may be the most suitable.
Conversion tracking: Check whether or not conversion tracking has been set up correctly and accurately. This is important because many of Google's bid strategies are automated - they will automatically optimise to drive the highest number of conversions. If conversion tracking is missing or inaccurate, a conversion focused bid strategy will not work very effectively.
Revenue: If you are tracking conversions, are you also recording revenue? This is important because 'Maximise Conversion Value with Target ROAS' is arguably the most optimal bid strategy for ecommerce brands or businesses that assign revenue to their conversions. If you are tracking revenue, it's worth experimenting with this bid strategy.
Campaign type: The type of campaign you are running is also an important factor when deciding on the right bid strategy. This means wether your campaign is for brand keywords or generic keywords, as well as Google Ads campaign type, which include Search, Display, YouTube, Performance Max, etc.
In general, these factors will help determine the best bid strategy for your campaign. However, there's a catch and for brand keywords, the rules are slightly different...
Why brand bidding differs from generic campaigns?
Brand bidding in Google Ads differs to generic bidding because those who are searching for your brand already know about your business. They are a warmer audience, actively searching for you and behaving differently to users who search for generic keywords.
Since brand users are behaving differently, let's treat them differently from a bid strategy perspective. This could mean capturing the maximum number of users as possible, since we know they will perform well. This could also prevent competitor ads from taking them.
It may also be beneficial to pay less for brand keywords compared to generics. You want to capture them but perhaps you don't need to spend a fortune doing it. Or if you rank well organically and don't have any competitors bidding on your brand, but still want to show brand ads to enhance user experience and better manage the customer journey.
For generic keywords, using conversion-focused bid strategies is always going to be the most optimal because Google will use automation and machine learning to show ads to those who are most likely to convert.
It's best practice to separate out Brand and Generic keywords into their own campaigns, which is ideal for management and reporting, plus it allows you to tailor your bid strategy for each.
3 best bid strategies for brand campaigns
Here are the top bid strategies for brand campaigns, all of which can be effective depending on your unique situation, along with the variables we mentioned earlier on.
1 - Manual CPC
Using Manual CPC bid strategy for brand campaigns is my number one choice. It enables you to keep cost-per-click (CPC) down and you can still maximise impression share by increasing spend accordingly. You'll retain more control over your bids and how much you spend.
Using Manual CPC does go against Google’s recommendation, however, I find automated bid strategies can drive up CPC unnecessarily for brand keywords. For example, on so many occasions I've switched from Maximise Conversions to Manual CPC for brand and impressions and clicks have stayed the same, while average CPC gets halved. This results in spending much less on the brand campaign whilst maintain traffic and visibility.
2 - Target Impression Share
Another excellent bid strategy for brand campaigns is Target Impression Share. I'm finding that this bid strategy can work just as well, or in some cases even better, than Manual CPC. It's definitely worth experimenting with this bid strategy for your brand campaign if you haven't yet tried it.
Target Impression Share allows you to input what percentage of impression share you would like to achieve, your maximum bid and then Google will aim to get as close to this as possible. Entering 100% impression share as the target can lead to a surge in CPC, just a heads up, instead lower it to 95%.
For those unfamiliar with impression share, it's a really useful metric that tells you what percentage of impressions your ads are showing for, relative to the number of impressions that are available based on your campaign and settings. E.g. if you have 60% impression share, your ads are showing for 60% of the available impressions.
3 - Maximise Conversions
In general I'm not a fan of using Maximise Conversions bid strategy for brand, however, some advertisers like to use it and there are some cases where it is effective. This largely relates to brands who want to drive as many conversions, BUT they are unable to maximise impression share.
If you're not able to capture all of your brand traffic due to the volume of people searching for your brand or budget limitations (e.g. you would prefer to spend your budget on generic keywords / new audiences), then Maximise Conversions could work for brand. Even if it increases your average CPC, it'll prioritise showing ads to users who are most likely to convert.
So to recap, Manual CPC and Target Impression Share are great options for maximise impression share and lowering costs. Maximising impressions share means you'll still capturing users who convert and these bid strategies help lower CPA and increase ROAS. Whereas Maximise Conversions could work in some cases where you are happy to pay more for brand traffic, providing it generates conversions.
Use experiments to find the best bid strategy
My main recommendation when it comes to choosing a bid strategy for your brand campaign - in fact, for all campaigns - is to experiment with bid strategies.
What works for one account may not work for another and this is something I see time and time again. I manage one account that's using Manual CPC for brand, another that's using Target Impression Share and another that's on Maximise Conversions. I've experimented with Bid Strategies in all of these accounts to determine what the most efficient bid strategy is.
Every account is unique and there are a number of variables that could influence what the best option is, so experimenting is really important.
What experts on LinkedIn think
I posted about Manual CPC for Brand on LinkedIn and it generated a lot of interest from fellow Google Ads Consultants. It was encouraging that the majority of comments either agreed that Manual CPC was the best fit, or they recommended using Target Impression Share. Some mentioned Maximise Conversions, but on the whole Manual CPC and Target Impression Share take the crown.
For help with your Google Ads campaigns, for more information about choosing the right Bid Strategy or anything else paid media related, get in touch via the form on my website or connect with me on LinkedIn.
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