The better your keyword selection, targeting, and bidding strategy, the more clicks you will get leading to your website. The better your landing pages, the more those clicks will become customer conversions.

However, Google Ads is also a highly nuanced platform, and mastering your strategy can take a great deal of experimentation, expertise, and a hefty advertising budget. This guide takes a deep dive into everything you need to know about managing your Google Ads search campaigns.

How to Choose a Bidding Strategy

Assuming that you have already completed your market research and have a keyword strategy, the first step in any Google Ads campaign is your bidding plan. Because there is only a small number of sponsored content slots at the top of every SERP, competitors bid for their desired keywords based on a complex targeting and pricing strategy.

The highest bidder wins one of the coveted SERP result spots, but your ad spend is only used based on a cost-per-click (CPC) basis. Therefore, while you may win with a high bid, you only pay if the searcher chooses to click on your ad/sponsored result.

The question is which bidding strategy to use for each campaign.

When to Use a CPC Bidding Strategy

A CPC bidding strategy involves manually setting limits on how much you are willing to pay per click and exactly which keywords to bid for. The goal is to maximize clicks while minimizing your total ad spend on high-competition keywords.

Manual CPC

Manual CPC is a bidding strategy that involves manually setting the maximum price you will pay for clicks, which also determines the maximum bid you will set for each keyword. You only pay when a searcher clicks on your ad. This allows for tighter control over your ad spend, and is best used when targeting a range of niche keywords that have a high degree of relevancy and overall lower competition for each word or phrase.

Real Client Example

We used Manual CPC bidding for a client in the video production space who had never run ads before, did not have extensive historical Google ads data and had a small budget. We chose this bidding strategy because an automated bidding strategy would have failed since there were no Conversions in the account for Google to optimize towards. Starting the campaigns with Manual CPC bidding means you can build up engagement and conversion metrics to eventually move to an automated bidding strategy, while controlling costs. 

When to Use: When a client has a new ad account and no historical data, also good for clients with a tight budget (under $2,000, depending on the CPCs)

Maximize Clicks

The goal of CPC bidding strategy is to maximize clicks without overspending on more competitive keywords. The more precise your targeting, the more likely a manual CPC strategy will result in increased clicks (and conversions) at a controlled advertising price. Skilled CPC strategists benefit the most from this approach.

Real Client Example

We used the Maximize Clicks bidding strategy for multiple individual dental offices because they were new accounts with no historical data, but enough budget to support being charged by click. Using a Maximize Clicks strategy helps get Conversion data so you can eventually move to an automated bidding strategy. This is similar to the Manual CPC strategy, but better suited to clients with larger budgets. 

When to Use: When a client has a new ad account and no historical data, but has a larger budget ($3000 – $5000, depending on the CPCs)

When to Use an Automated Bidding Strategy

Automated bidding is when you let Google take the wheel in terms of how much you will bid on specific advertising keywords. You are able to set a maximum budget and a desired result, and Google’s sophisticated algorithms will take care of the rest. A cornerstone of automated bidding is the ability to tell Google what you want from your advertising campaign. Google will then use its own data analysis to try and maximize your results in a dynamic fashion.

Enhanced Cost Per Click (ECPC)

Enhanced cost per click is a bidding strategy that automatically adjusts bids to maximize conversions. It uses auction-time signals including time-of-day, location, and browser to customize bids to search context. It is a combination of manual bidding and automated bidding, using machine learning to adapt bids based on manual settings.

Maximize Conversions

You can set your automated bidding strategy to target maximized conversions if you have Google Analytics set up to detect conversions after the click. This will spend your established ad budget bidding on keywords and targeting your bids to achieve the greatest number of conversions for your spend.

Real Client Example

This is the bidding strategy we use for the majority of our clients once we have enough conversion data. We use this because many of our clients only have two ways a user converts and they are equal in value. So, this bidding strategy should be used if there is a small number of important actions users take on the site that all have the same value. If some actions lead to higher ROI or provide a higher number of MQLs, consider Maximize Conversion Value instead. 

When to Use: If a client is looking for a high quantity of Conversions and all Conversion Actions result in a similar type of lead or have the same value. 

Maximize Conversion Value (MCV)

Conversion value is slightly different, seeking strategies that result in a larger ROI for your ad spend, targeting conversions that generate more value. This relies on setting a value for certain conversions, such as the checkout value of a purchase or sign-up completion vs simple page readership.

NEEDED: To use this strategy, you must have a value for each Conversion Action. If you do not or they are all the same value, use Maximize Conversions. 

When to Use: Use this strategy if you have a client that has many different Conversion Actions and some lead to a higher ROI than others. This is typically used for B2B businesses; for example, a user that requests a demo has a higher conversion value than a lead who fills out a contact form. 

Target Cost Per Action (Target CPA)

With Target cost per action (Target CPA) Google will try to get as many conversion actions as it can at the Cost Per Conversion you set. For example, if you choose a target CPA of $100, Google Ads will automatically set your bids to try to get you as many conversions at $100 on average.

Real Client Example

We use Target CPA for clients that have a high cost product and are worried about the quality of leads. When there is a client that is focused on MQLs, the cost of each conversion is important. If they are low quality leads and you have a high CPA for these leads, you will be wasting money. Setting a Target CPA and ensuring your ads lead to high quality conversions, will help keep your conversions actions within the client’s approved cost. 

When to Use: This bidding strategy is most common when a client has a target cost per acquisition they want to stay under. This usually comes up with B2B clients or clients with a new product that are worried about how much it will cost them to acquire customers. If the client wants to control acquisition costs, use this bidding strategy.

Target Return on Ad Spend (TROAS)

Target return on ad spend (ROAS) seeks to optimize your bidding strategy to achieve conversion value. Once you determine the value of certain actions after the click, Google will adapt to try and get you the most value for your spend.

When to Use: This bidding strategy is usually used for Ecommerce. It should also be used for clients that use ROAS as a KPI. This will help you with reporting so you can easily see if you have hit or missed their ROAS KPI.

What’s The Difference Between Target ROAS and Maximize Conversion Value? 

With both strategies, you will set a conversion value for your conversion actions, but the difference is Google is optimizing towards different things. For TROAS, Google is trying to get conversions that meet your required TROAS, while with MCV, Google is trying to get Conversions that meet your Conversion Value, without any concern for your ROAS target.

How to Choose the Correct Targeting

Targeting allows you to further refine your Google Ads strategy so that your ads are shown only to users that have a higher likelihood of being interested in your content and following through with the desired conversion.

For example, local businesses should target by location so as only to spend on searchers who are nearby and able to become customers.  Or your brand might benefit from only targeting new parents, people involved in a specific sport, or people planning to travel.

Refining your targeting can not only drastically increase the conversion rate of your ads, but also reduce the total competition for your desired keywords within targeted segments.

Location Targeting

Location targeting is highly relevant for all manner of businesses where it is not possible to win customers outside of your service range. Whether that range is within a few miles of your venue or within the bounds of your country, location targeting helps to avoid advertising to search users who would not be able to access your services.

How Should Local Businesses Set Up Their Location Targeting?

Local businesses should use location targeting that defines their service area. They should do research into how far someone is willing to travel to their location. Once they have that data, they should use radius targeting to stay within that area. If they target outside the area a potential customer will travel, they will waste their budget. 

How Should National Businesses Set Up Their Location Targeting?

National businesses may be able to provide far more widespread service through a network of locations or a network of delivery partners. However, you should segment by state or a smaller area rather than targeting the entirety of the US. Splitting up location targeting by state or DMA, allows you to set different bid adjustments and use dynamic location content in your ads. If you target the US, it will be hard to understand the differences in performance across your service area.

Audience Targeting: When to Use Each Option

Audience targeting allows you to target your ads only to people who fit into your customer profile. Lifestyle details, interests and hobbies, and specific market-related search queries can all help identify search users who are more likely to become your customers due to their personal details or their search intent.

Affinity Segments

Affinity segments identify people who have certain interests, hobbies, and habits as identified by their personal search history. This may indicate people interested in beauty products, people who travel often, or people who garden, paint, run, or bake as part of their lifestyle. Many brands benefit from affinity segments when targeting ads for their products and services.

Detailed Demographics

Demographics indicate who a user is as part of the population – details that might be collected in a census. You can target people who are married vs single, parents, pet owners, college-educated people or those with a higher income bracket for luxury goods. Some products are only useful to homeowners who can make alterations. You might only have customers in a certain age range or parents of children in a certain age range.

TIP: Before you target by demographic, look at the Demographic Insights from your audience without audience targeting. Google Ads will show you which demographic buckets your audience falls into, including Unknown. If they do not have data on your customer, the Unknown bucket will be high. If that is the case, it might not be worth it to target by Demographic.

In-Market

In-market targeting seeks to identify searchers who are ready to make a purchasing decision related to your industry. Unlike location and demographic, users often enter and leave this segment based on their recent online activity. For example, someone about to plan a vacation, buying art supplies, or actively seeking a new gym all fall into different in-market segments, and may exit those segments when their current project is complete.

When to Use: In-Market targeting is usually used by Ecommerce companies looking to find users actively searching for a product that matches what they sell.

How to Create the Best Ads for Your Campaign

We’ve talked a lot about how to bid on and target your Google Ads visibility, but what about the ads themselves? Each Google Ad appears as a search result, but they are actually finely crafted advertisements which include a headline, description, and sometimes an image to enhance visibility and interest.

Headlines

Craft headlines that match the search intent of your target keyword and audience segment. It is vitally important that your search results provide an answer to what users are looking for. Relevance is key, and the headline is what users will read when skimming their search results page.

Important: Ensure that the keywords you are bidding on are used in your Headlines.

Descriptions

The description is the text that appears below your headline, taking the place of the context clip usually included in search results. This is your chance to convince users that your landing page has what they need if they stop to read more after seeing your headline. The headline grabs attention, and the description is what inspires a click or conversion.

Should You Add Images to Your Ads?

Images are powerful in digital marketing, and this carries through in Google Ads. Google reports that images increase click-through rate by about 6%. Images increase the visibility of your ad and give users some visual context for why they might click your ad as their chosen search result. However, choose your image carefully. Detailed product images and brand images are ideal, while stock images should be avoided.

Should You Try to Get the Highest Ad Strength?

Ad Strength is a metric that tells you how closely your ad aligns with Google’s advertising best practices. It’s a good score to have, but does not always directly translate to your target performance metrics like click-through or conversions. A high ad strength is good, but you should prioritize the proven performance of your ads for your purposes.

TIP: If you are pinning headlines, Google will likely give you an Ad Strength of Poor. If the pinned ads are converting, that is more important than trying to attain a high Ad Strength score. Ignore your Ad Strength if you have tested your Ads and Ads with a lower Ad Strength are converting.  

Which Keywords Should You Bid On?

Google advertising should start with in-depth keyword research. You should bid on keywords that align with search intent related to your conversion funnel. Top-of-funnel (TOFU) content like evergreen answers to common questions connects to more general keywords while Middle-of-funnel (MOFU) and Bottom-of-funnel (BOFU) content should have more specific keywords related to your industry, product, and decision-making process.

The most competitive (and expensive) keywords tend to be in the TOFU and MOFU range, appealing to high-traffic search terms from the general audience, while more niche, specific, and long-tail keywords both tend to have less competition (cost less) and drive more intent-based conversions.

Which Keyword Match Type is Right for You?

Keyword targeting is determined by match type, which indicates just how precisely keywords need to be matched for your Google Ads to appear.

When to Use Broad Match

We only use Broad Match for keyword discovery. If your client has not run Google Ads before and does not have keyword data, it could be helpful to run Broad Match keywords for a week and see what Search Terms users are using to find the brand. If using Broad Match, set a date to review the Search Terms report, then choose which Keywords to bid on and switch them to Phrase Match. Otherwise, you will waste budget on irrelevant keywords. 

When to Use Phrase Match

This is the default match type we use for campaigns because it can encompass a variation of keywords without wasting budget. If you want to control the budget and use a match type that does not need your constant attention, use Phrase Match.

When to Use Exact Match

Use exact match for Brand campaigns to ensure your Brand campaign is only capturing branded keywords and your non brand campaigns are reserved for your service and product based keywords. Another use of Exact match, is when you know your high converting Keywords and you want to bid on those keywords with the strictest match set you can to get search terms as close as possible to those keywords. This is a good strategy if you have enough Keyword data, but you should expect your CPCs to be higher. Higher CPCs could be worth it, if these Keywords bring in high quality Conversions. 

How Does Quality Score Affect Your Campaign?

A higher quality score indicates that both your ad and your landing page are considered relevant and useful to someone searching for your targeted keyword. Quality score is not just an objective score, but also represents your relevancy ranking compared to other advertisers competing for the same keywords.

Your quality score is a diagnostic tool. It does not directly impact your campaign, but can help to indicate which ads will be more effective and result in more or higher value conversions.

Quality Score gives you insight to why or why not your ads are going to auction. Having a low quality score does not mean you will not be entered into the auction, but it means that you can improve. You should use Quality Score as a guide on which Keywords, Ads and Landing Page to give attention to when optimizing. 

How to Choose a Landing Page for Your Ads

When deciding on a Landing Page for your ads, you should be thinking of a common thread that is weaved through your Keywords, to your Ads, to your Landing Page. You want those three elements to all follow the same theme. The closer they all match to the theme, the higher your Quality Score will be. Most importantly, your landing page should address the user intent, satisfy their need, and offer your products or services as a further solution to their plans. 

Honing Your Google Ads Strategy

With this guide, market research, and your own understanding of your audience segments, you should be able to craft an effective Google Ads campaign strategy. Of course, it’s always useful to gather a few insights from experienced Google marketers who have achieved fine-tuned success in many previous campaigns. That is why  Brick & Mortar Digital offers a free Google Ads account review, sharing useful tips and professional advertising insights to businesses who are already on their way to Google Ads mastery.

We are glad to help you hone your Google Ads search campaign strategy to see more clicks, better conversions, and refined ad targeting results.