Google Ads Optimising Your Bidding Strategies with Jonny Hyams (episode 136)
by Chloe ThomasJonny Hyams is the head of client services at Digital Gearbox, driving sales and great ROAS for their clients across Google Ads and other channels. This is a bonus episode because we have so much to cover in Google Ads at the moment. In this special episode, we explore what affects everything on this topic… bidding strategies.
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About Jonny
After studying English literature at the university, Jonny worked at a high-street bank for several years. It was there that he got the opportunity to find out what jobs were available by interviewing clients.
He got interested in marketing and eventually ended up working for Digital Gearbox.
Google Ads Bidding Strategy 1: Manual Bidding
Manual bidding still exists and can still work. However, Jonny’s advice is for you to experiment with the smart bidding strategies because these have access to data points and audience signals you don’t get via manual bidding.
He also says it’s possible that Google will remove manual bidding at some point in the future, so it’s best to look at other bidding strategies.
Google Ads Bidding Strategy 2&3: Maximise Impressions and Maximise Clicks
These two bidding strategies don’t take into account conversions, so you don’t want to be using either of these two.
Maximise impressions only cares about how often your ad is seen, while maximise clicks only care about how often it’s clicked on.
These can end up being expensive, but you get very little from them.
Google Ads Bidding Strategy 4: Maximise Conversions (with and without CPA targets)
Maximise conversions works to generate as many conversions as possible while spending the entire budget you set on the campaign. However, this is all about volume and doesn’t take into account the value of these transactions.
What you can do to improve the return on your investment is to enter a target CPA or cost per action. In eCommerce, this would be the maximum you’re paying per order.
With both options – with or without a target CPA – Google will inevitably optimize towards generating low-value transactions because, as mentioned, it’s going for volume and not higher-value purchases.
Google Ads Bidding Strategy 5: Maximise Conversion Value (with and without ROAS targets)
When you know your target revenue, you may choose to go with maximise conversion value with a target ROAS, and Google will try to achieve your target for you.
There’s also the option to use maximise conversion value without a target ROAS, and Google will spend your entire budget to generate as much value for you as possible. However, as you spend more, your revenue is unlikely to increase at the same pace. That is why Jonny recommends having a target ROAS in place to make it more likely for you to achieve your target revenue.
Insider Tips
If we’ve inspired someone to take their first step with Google Ads – what do they need to know to give themselves the best chance of success?
It’s important that you have accurate conversion tracking in place, so learn how to set that up or have someone do it for you.
Once you’ve started of course you’ve got to ‘keep optimising’! So what’s your favourite way to improve Google Ads performance?
Review your search term reports. You need to know what your ads are showing for, even with automated bidding.
Also, continue to add negative keywords for low-quality and irrelevant search terms.
If someone listening wants to learn more about Google Ads is there one cheap/free resource you’d recommend?
Jonny has two recommendations:
- Reddit, where you can find communities around Google Ads and PPC
- The Digital Gearbox blog
Crystal ball time – what’s coming up in the next 6-12 months that we should be getting ready for in Google Ads?
Jonny says there could be more automation happening with Google, possibly the phasing out of standard shopping campaigns, and also reducing keyword match types further.
Interview Links
Jonny on Social media:
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