Do You Understand “Flexible Bid Strategies” in AdWords?

The engineers at Google who develop AdWords are constantly busy, looking for ways to give advertisers more options. This is generally great because it gives us a better system and more control. No doubt, though, it also leads to some confusion. Flexible bid strategies are a perfect example of this, so I’ll try to explain this feature clearly.

When you create a new campaign in AdWords, you select a method of bidding. For example, you might choose an automatic bid setting–such as one that tells AdWords to get as many clicks as possible for your budget. Or you might choose manual bidding, which allows you to set the exact bid yourself. Or perhaps you choose CPA—or, “cost per acquisition” bidding for that campaign.

The bid method you choose will affect all ad groups and keywords in the campaign. This is the way it has always been–and still is. Flexible bid strategies, however, give you a way to override this traditional structure. You simply create a “bidding strategy” by choosing several options at the account level–and then apply them with flexibility to whichever campaign, ad group, or keyword that you’d like. This allows you to apply automated bidding exactly where you want it–without being constrained by the individual campaign structure. It also allows you to use certain bid strategies that are otherwise unavailable.

The types available:

These are the different flexible bid strategies that are available. Remember that they are set in the shared library of your AdWords account. You simply create one or more strategies, and then apply them to campaigns, ad groups, or perhaps keywords in your account.

1. Maximize Clicks–this is to help you get the most clicks within the target budget amount.

2. Target Search Page Location–this strategy automatically adjusts your bids to help get your ads to the top of the search results page, or (AS ANOTHER OPTION) on the first page of Google search results.

3. Target Outranking Share–this strategy sets your bids to help outrank another domain’s ad in search results, like for when you want to outrank certain competitor.

4. Target Cost Per Acquisition–this automatically sets bids to help you get as many conversions as possible, While reaching your average CPA goal. (This is the flexible version of Conversion Optimizer)

5. Enhanced Cost Per Click–this allows AdWords to increase your bid up to 30% based on the perceived likelihood of a conversion.

6. Target Return On Ad Spend— this strategy automatically sets your bids to maximize your conversion value while trying to reach an average return on ad spend

Hello. My name is Barry, and I love Google AdWords! Would you like to connect with me? If so, send me an email at this address: