Choosing the right PPC bidding strategy can make or break your campaigns. Get it right, and you maximise your results within budget. Get it wrong, and you could burn through your spend before seeing any meaningful return. One of the biggest problems we see in client Google Ad accounts, whether they’re running their own accounts
Choosing the right PPC bidding strategy can make or break your campaigns. Get it right, and you maximise your results within budget. Get it wrong, and you could burn through your spend before seeing any meaningful return.
One of the biggest problems we see in client Google Ad accounts, whether they’re running their own accounts or have used an agency, is an over-reliance on following the Google rep recommendations with the bidding strategies.
In this blog, we’ll give you the benefit of our experience in choosing the right bidding strategies for your campaigns, using examples from campaigns we’ve run to show how each strategy delivers different results based on your initial objectives.
PPC bidding strategies aren’t just a toggle option in your Google Ads account. They set the direction for your campaigns that can determine how your valuable budget is spent.
Pick the wrong bidding strategy, and you could see inflated costs, unpredictable conversions, and a lack of trust in your campaign performance.
Manual CPC
Max clicks
Max conversions
Target CPA (cost per acquisition)
Target ROAS (return on ad spend)
Max conversion value
Target impression share
Manual cost per click involves you manually controlling bids for individual keywords. It can be useful for controlling costs, especially when you’re testing new keywords or entering new markets with your campaigns.
It’s also good if you have a limited budget and little room for experimentation, and when you’re having a problem with conversion tracking.
However, it lacks the flexibility for large sets of keywords or campaigns with multiple goals, as bids remain the same regardless of what the data tells you (unless you make the change yourself, which takes up your time).
For example, you could use manual CPC to test some new keywords before moving to a max conversion bid strategy once you have enough data.
Enhanced CPC was an extension of Manual CPC, before it was phased out by Google in March 2025.
This involves using Google’s algorithm to get the most clicks on your ads within your budget.
Google won’t determine if traffic is high or low intent. It’s purely aimed at getting clicks and is best suited when large numbers and data are the aim.
For example, using max clicks can be a good tactic when promoting webinars and lead gen content, when creating retargeting lists, or when brand visibility through ads is more important than quality leads (you just want to get your name out there).
However, because the aim here is quantity, not quality, it’s not recommended to use this bidding strategy if conversions are the ultimate goal.
This works the same way as max clicks, but Google’s algorithm works to deliver the most conversions for your budget, not just clicks.
You do need reliable conversion tracking and campaign data set up before using max conversions, as Google’s algorithm needs this information to determine who is more likely to convert.
Without reliable data, Google’s algorithm can’t optimise effectively, meaning you risk wasting budget or skewing future performance.
We also wouldn’t recommend this type of bidding strategy for any campaigns with a seasonal aspect (like Christmas sales), as this data could skew the campaign data and throw off the algorithm.
Instead, use this for long-term steady campaigns that you can optimise predictably over time.
This involves you setting a cost per acquisition for your campaigns, and then Google’s algorithm automatically adjusts your bids to hit your target cost of conversion.
We’d recommend you use this only if you have reliable CPA data already that you can use as a benchmark.
Set your CPA too low, Google’s algorithm won’t give you the traffic levels you need to actually get a conversion (because it’s limiting your spend).
If you set it too high, you’ll get the traffic, but your actual CPA in your campaigns will be higher than usual, which reduces your ROI.
If you’re going to use this bidding strategy without historical data, you can use competitor research or industry benchmarks as a starting point and then monitor your results.
If you’re using historical data, a good strategy can be to set your CPA slightly above your average (to give some room for the algorithm to work) and then make adjustments as you go if the cost is too high.
One thing to consider is that any changes you make to this bidding strategy restart the algorithms’ learning phase, so don’t make too many changes too often.
Return on ad spend gives you a specific return on revenue based on your spend, for example, 4:1 (£4 return for every £1 spent).
This is a good metric for measuring conversion value on your ad spend and works well for campaigns that generate variable order sizes (like eCommerce businesses).
Like CPA, you shouldn’t set overly ambitious ROAS targets to start with, as this can reduce the amount of traffic you get, which impacts how many conversions you can get.
It’s better to start slightly higher than your historic average CPA and then adjust.
ROAS shouldn’t be used in isolation, as it only takes into account ad spend and not the overall cost of fulfilling an order.
For example, you might generate £4 for every £1 spent on ads, but if you’re then spending another £2 to fulfil the order, then you’re only making £1 for every £1 spent.
Max conversion value is a smart bidding strategy that uses Google’s algorithm to set bids that get the highest sales value, no matter what the ROAS is.
It’s best used for eCommerce businesses pushing high-value campaigns during peak trading periods (like Christmas or Black Friday) and those looking for short-term revenue spikes, even with higher costs.
One thing to think about, although this is an automated bidding strategy, you shouldn’t just set it and then let it run. It’s still going to take some oversight to make sure you’re not overspending.
With max conversion value, you’re telling Google to get as much sale value as possible out of your budget, even if it means a higher cost per sale overall.
So, while your sales value could go up, you could also blow through your budget a lot faster, which could reduce the ROI of this bidding strategy.
Targeting impressions is a good bidding strategy if your goal is pure visibility of your brand at the top of search.
It’s not something you’d use necessarily if you’re looking for a good ROI, but rather if you wanted to set a strategy to guarantee you appeared in top position.
We use it most often for branded campaigns, when you want your brand to appear in top position for your brand name, or for time-sensitive campaigns where visibility is most important, like new product launches or offers.
With so many bidding strategies and adjustments to be made within each strategy, it can be hard to tell if you’re using the right strategy or not.
To help, here are a few signs that you could be moving your account’s campaigns in the wrong direct.
This likely means you’ve set your bidding strategy to maximise clicks, when you really need a max conversion strategy.
This likely means you’ve set your return on ad spend too high and haven’t made the necessary adjustments to bring it back under control.
This is a sign that your cost per acquisition or return on ad spend strategy is too low, meaning Google’s algorithm is struggling to deliver the traffic.
This often happens when you switch between bidding strategies too often and aren’t giving Google’s algorithm the time it needs to learn and start optimising your campaigns.
The bidding strategy you use for PPC campaigns will change over time as your goals change, or as you collect campaign data and make adjustments to improve returns.
If you’re just starting, go with a manual CPC strategy to gather data while retaining full control of your ad spend, which you can adjust yourself.
If you’ve had lots of traffic but now want to start scaling conversions, you can move to a max conversion strategy, or if you’re already there, consider moving to a target CPA using historical CPA data as a benchmark to test and adjust.
If trying to improve revenue generation, we’d consider setting your bidding strategy to a target ROAS, and if your goal is purely visibility, then impression share is the best strategy.
When thinking about switching between bidding strategies, we’d recommend that you use Google Ads experiments before making sweeping changes.
Google Ads experiments let you set a hypothesis and then test it (comparing your original campaign to the experiment) to see which performs better against your goals.
This helps you to generate real data before making changes that could impact the performance of your campaigns.
Setting the right bidding strategy for your PPC campaigns can either give your campaigns room to scale and improve ROI over time, or can set your ceiling for success too low.
Even with AI and Google’s algorithm taking some of the heavy lifting away from bidding strategies and campaign management, it still takes experienced oversight to make sure your bidding strategy is correct and giving you the best return based on your goals.
If you want a free PPC audit and some expert advice on how to improve your campaign performance, our PPC agency can help.
Just get in touch, and we’ll set up your free strategy review.
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