Google ads bidding strategy

What are Google Ads bidding strategies? Which ones are they? What implications do they have? Which is convenient?

What are Google Ads bidding strategies?

Google Ads bidding strategy is an input to the Google algorithm, with which the advertiser shows the algorithm to publish its advertising campaigns according to specific parameters, in order to achieve results that are as compliant as possible to their expectations .

To mention some easy-to-understand examples: if the advertiser needs to always appear on the front page, always at the top of the page, he will use a bid strategy that will convey the algorithm to publish the ad always within the first 3 ads on the search engine. If the advertiser needs a branding strategy, which maximizes his presence on the web, he will choose a strategy that makes him pay as less as possible, increasing the amount of publications on the search engine, so that their website / brand is noticed as many times as possible by anyone.

Which ones are they?

We can, therefore, divide the bid strategies into 3 macro-categories:

• by position in the search engine;
• for branding;
• for conversion.

By position on the search engine:

This strategy teaches the algorithm that our advertising campaigns should always be published at the top of the page, or at least, the customer wants its ads to be as many times as possible at the top of the search engine page. Usually, the customer who has such needs, needs a quick and immediate contact with his customers, as the competition in his sector can be very strong: this means the sooner his target customers notice, the better. and more quickly they can get in touch with advertiser.

A practical example of advertisers using this bidding strategy are plumbers, electricians, manufacturing / service businesses offering last minute interventions.

Let’s consider the example of a homeowner whose boiler breaks in the middle of winter: in addition, obviously, to the great resentment, this person will have as his first goal to look for a plumber, available, near his home, who offers ready action. This means that the potential customer will probably search on the internet, from a PC or mobile phone, for keywords such as, for example, “plumber near my house”, “boiler emergency service”, “boiler repair”, etc.

Being that, at the moment, he lives in the cold, he will want to contact the first plumbers on the web. Therefore, most likely, he will focus on the first 2-3 ads, trying to understand, from the ad content, if the service offered corresponds to his needs, then he will try to contact the professionals to ask for a quote and certain intervention times.

It is therefore obvious that, in this situation, the quicker the contact offered to the customer, the more likely it is that the person who has the technical problem with the boiler will contact the plumber by telephone or form. fill in. An unfavorable point, if we want, of this bidding strategy, is that it does not allow you to optimize for conversions, or to contact customers interested in coming into direct contact with the business. Its only goal is, unlike other strategies, to publish at the top of the page and be immediately visible.

As a result, they could see, and click on the ad, both people who show real needs for the service, and curious people who don’t have any kind of technical problem to solve.

For branding:

This strategy tells the algorithm that our advertising campaigns on Google must be present as many times as possible, at the lowest possible cost. This implies a very often random publication, without therefore necessarily focusing on the real typical user. The system, in fact, learns that it must publish our ads whenever possible, within the limits of research and our budget, it does not matter if the publication takes place to users who are really interested in our product, or just curious ones, and in what position on the search engine. Research.

It is, therefore, a good strategy for all those who try to get their name / brand noticed as much as possible, because they are new to the market, or because they have to keep brand awareness high, for example. One of the unfavorable aspects is, in fact, not being able to turn to those who want to convert, or interact directly with our business. This means that, of all the low-cost clicks that will bring users to the site, only a part, more or less numerous of them, will actually bring people into contact with our business. It is therefore important that you understand what is the goal to be achieved before using this strategy.

For conversion:

this category includes different bidding strategies, all aimed at increasing the number of customers interested in interacting directly with our business. Some of these strategies by maximizing the number of customers per period, others set costs on the expense of the account within which to reach customers, still others are based on increasing revenue.

In any case, all these strategies operate a selection of upstream customers, as they offer our advertising, potentially, only to customers who are actually interested, based on their searches, and on the quality of their searches over a more or less period of time. determined. The expectation of the company promoted by Google Ads campaigns is to also potentially have fewer clicks, often more expensive (higher CPC, published on a shorter funnel), but users who reach the site more profiled, or users who have progressively shown greater interest in the service / product offered, and will consequently contact the business.

This implies an optimization work, as regards the artificial intelligence linked to these offer strategies, on the type of user that must reach our website. The basic principle is: the algorithm will avoid publishing our ads to those who search for the first time only to obtain information and satisfy their curiosity, while it will publish when the user will make targeted searches to search for the product / service of his interest.

What implications do they have?

Let’s take a trivial example on keywords, in order to better show how these strategies work:

Let’s assume that a user is looking for a plumber for the boiler, so the keywords could be “boiler repair”, “how to repair a boiler”, “boiler”, “how much does it cost to repair a boiler”, “cheap boiler”, “boiler sale “,” do-it-yourself boiler repair “.

Let’s also assume, for simplicity, not to consider the work of excluding negative keywords.

The strategy by position in the search engine will allow the activity to be shown at the top of the page, potentially within the first 2 results of the search engine, to anyone looking for any of these keywords, regardless, therefore, of the actual need. . As you will see in the dedicated article, there are some limits that we can apply to this strategy to make it more efficient.

The click maximization strategy will allow the activity to be shown anywhere on the search engine to anyone looking for any of these keywords, regardless of actual need, but at the lowest possible cost. So, by the law of large numbers, the Google Ads campaign will also reach the user who is actually interested in our service.

The conversion strategy will allow the business to be shown anywhere on the search engine to anyone looking for keywords that actually lead to conversions. Consequently, if, in the campaign history, “boiler repair” and “boiler” have brought leads, while “do-it-yourself boiler repair” and “how to repair a boiler” have never produced leads, just clicks, the system will tend to reduce our ad serving on keywords from zero conversions, as they are not useful, and will maximize the chance of serving on other keywords.

Obviously, we must also take into account that the same user can do more searches with all these keywords: it is up to the algorithm to decide the best time to show him our ad, so that he will notice us, and enter the site, when he has decided. to use a professional, for example, and not to try to repair the boiler yourself.

Which is convenient?

It is therefore possible to understand that it is difficult to establish which is the most convenient strategy of all: it is absolutely important to evaluate numerous parameters, and externalities relating to the activity to be advertised, and then evaluate how to invest money online more profitably. It is therefore absolutely necessary to make use of the support of digital marketing specialists who have previous and proven experience in this area.

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