Google Ads is a complex system. You’ve got targeting criteria to choose, ad formats, bidding options, reporting views, and more.
All that sophistication enables advertisers to achieve incredible things with the platform. But it also makes it a lot more overwhelming to master. In one Google example, a single keyword could have over one million bidding combinations!
With a seemingly unlimited amount of things to optimize, what’s an advertiser to do?
Enter: auction-time bidding.
But, before we get into auction-time bidding, it’s helpful to understand how Google’s automated bidding works.
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How automated bidding works in Google Ads
Automated bidding is just what it sounds like: instead of you manually setting your bids, Google automatically sets them for you. Google puts its advanced machine learning to work, and uses insights from your campaigns and others to automate your bids based on your goals.
With Google optimizing your bids for you, you get your time back. You can invest your time on higher-level tasks, feeling confident that Google’s got a handle on things.
When you opt in to smart bidding, you can select from six business goals, each of which has an associated bid strategy.
- If your goal is to increase site visits, Google will use a Maximize Clicks bid strategy, automatically setting your bids to maximize clicks for your budget.
- If your goal is to increase visibility, Google will use a Target Impression Share bid strategy, ensuring your ads always show up at the top of the search results.
- If your goal is to increase conversions at a certain cost per-action, Google will use a Target CPA bid strategy, automating your bids so as to achieve the maximum number of conversions within that CPA.
- If your goal is to achieve a target return on ad spend, Google will use a Target ROAS bid strategy, automatically setting your bids to maximize conversion values within that target ROAS.
- If your goal is to get more conversions, period, Google will use a Maximize Conversions bid strategy, working to get you the most conversions possible while staying within your budget.
- If your goal is to maximize your conversion value, Google will use a Maximize Conversion Value bid strategy, aiming to get you the most bang for your buck while staying within budget.
Now, how can Google achieve all this greatness? Through auction-time bidding.
What is auction-time bidding?
Auction-time bidding is a capability unique to Google Ads that enables Google to set your bid at the moment an auction happens (hence the phrase “auction-time”).
Auction-time bidding is only available with automated bidding. Here’s why that matters.
When you use manual bidding, your best option is keyword-level bidding. Keyword-level bidding provides you with a decent amount of precision in your bids, but it’s simply no match for auction-time bidding — especially if you’re using broad or phrase match keywords.
With keyword-level bidding, your precision is limited, quite literally, to the keyword level. With auction-time bidding, on the other hand, Google can account for all the various signals that give Google context for a user’s search, down to the individual user level. That means Google is taking into account things like:
- The exact wording the user typed into Google
- Your keyword match type
- The user’s device and OS
- The browser they’re using
- Their location, and the intent associated with that location (e.g. are they at home, work, on vacation?)
- Their language
- The day of week and time of day they’re searching
- Your ad creative
- Whether the user is a member of one of your campaign’s audiences, such as previous website visitors
Not only does Google factor in all that, and more, but it does so in a moment, giving you the absolute best bid for your business goals in the context of that particular user. We told you it was incredible.
How do I enable auction-time bidding on Google Ads?
Auction-time bidding can be enabled in a sub-manager account under “Bid strategies” in the left navigation panel. To create a new portfolio bid strategy, click the blue plus button, choose the type of bid strategy you want to create, name it, and enter your CPA or ROAS target.
What is the best bid strategy for Google Ads?
The best bidding strategy for Google Ads depends on the size of your account, the campaigns running, and what your goal is. Automated bidding is a great option if you have a small account with few campaigns or if you’re using automated controls to monitor keyword impressions alongside conversions and CTR.
Unlock the power of Google Ads
Auction-time bidding is just one of many impressive features available with Google Ads. There’s truly a universe of capability within Google Ads, and you want to work with a team who’s deep in it, day in and day out. That’s Your Marketing People. Learn more about our Google Ads services today.
