4. Ignoring External Factors
While Smart Bidding is highly adaptive, it can’t predict seasonal trends, promotions, or external market shifts without proper input.
Make sure to use Google’s seasonality adjustment tool to account for temporary shifts in user behavior during sales or promotions, or even national events that could change a user’s online behavior.
5. Underutilizing Advanced Features
Many advertisers set up Smart Bidding, but fail to use advanced options like bid simulators, audience layering, or custom conversion values.
This limits their ability to optimize performance.
Try testing out some of these additional campaign or ad group layers to understand the potential outcomes, and use audience insights to refine targeting.
Best Practices For Smart Bidding Success
Smart Bidding can be a game-changer in the results of your campaigns, but it’s not a magic wand.
To get the most out of this powerful tool, you need to pair automation with thoughtful planning and regular oversight.
By following these tried-and-true best practices, you’ll not only improve campaign performance but also avoid the common pitfalls that trip up many advertisers.
1. Feed The Algorithm With Clean, Accurate Data
Conversion tracking is the backbone of Smart Bidding. Errors in tracking or unverified conversions can lead to misguided optimizations.
When fed with clean and accurate data, the algorithm has the best chance to produce fruitful results.
But when fed with inaccurate data points, your Smart Bidding strategy will wreak havoc on your performance.
Garbage in, garbage out.
Be sure to regularly audit your conversion tracking setup. Ensure every key action (purchases, form submissions, calls, etc.) is tracked accurately and attributed correctly.
For ecommerce campaigns, make sure to include transaction values to correctly use Maximize Conversion Value or Target ROAS strategies.
2. Set Realistic Goals
Unrealistic CPA or ROAS targets can choke the algorithm, resulting in limited impressions or poor bid adjustments.
If you’re not sure what to set your campaign targets at, review historical campaign datasets to set achievable targets.
For example, if your average CPA is $50, don’t set a Target CPA of $20 right away. Start closer to your historical average and adjust gradually.
This also pertains to your daily budget. If your daily budget is only $50 but your average CPA target is $50, this will severely limit ad serving because it’s holding back finding the user most likely to convert.
3. Layer Audiences And Signals
While Smart Bidding works on its own, adding audience segments or demographic layers can give the algorithm more context.
Try using remarketing lists, in-market audiences, and customer match data to guide Smart Bidding towards higher-value users.
You can add audience segments as “Observation Only” to start with if you don’t want to narrow on those users specifically yet.
Depending on their performance, you can always adjust your bids up or down, or even exclude them altogether.
4. Leverage Seasonality Adjustments
Google’s seasonality adjustment feature lets you signal to the algorithm about anticipated spikes or dips in demand.
Before a major sale or holiday, input a seasonality adjustment to help the algorithm prepare for the surge in conversions.
Additionally, make sure to increase your daily budgets to account for those holiday surges.
5. Monitor Performance With The Right Metrics
Don’t rely solely on Google Ads’ automated suggestions and insights.
Do your due diligence and analyze auction insights, search impression share, and audience performance to identify trends and areas for improvement.
6. Run Experiments To Validate Strategies
Testing is critical to understanding what works.
Google Ads Experiments allows you to split test Smart Bidding strategies without risking your entire budget.
For example, say you’ve been running a campaign on Maximize Conversions, but are looking to narrow in on a specific CPA target.
You can set up an experiment to test a Target CPA strategy against the Maximize Conversions to see what performs better for your goals.
That way, you’re not dramatically shifting the behavior of the account overnight and introducing a lot of volatility into performance.
The Bottom Line On Smart Bidding
Smart Bidding in Google Ads has evolved to become an indispensable tool for PPC marketers.
Its ability to leverage machine learning and real-time data is unmatched, but like any tool, its success depends on how you use it.
By aligning your strategy with your goals, feeding the algorithm accurate data, and monitoring performance regularly, you can unlock its full potential.
Remember, automation doesn’t mean you’re off the hook – it means you have more time to focus on strategy, creativity, and scaling your campaigns.
With the right approach, Smart Bidding isn’t just smart – it’s transformational.
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