PPC Bid Management: Setting the Best Google Ads Strategy

In this guide, we’ll walk you through everything you need to know about PPC bid management — from how bidding works to how to pick the right strategy for your business. Pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns today are one of the most effective tools to drive traffic, leads and sales. However, managing your bids properly is where the real ROI lies, as just launching the campaign is not the full story. Choosing the right strategy can make or break your campaign performance, especially when Google Ads offers several bidding strategies.

The process of adjusting, setting and optimizing your maximum CPC bids on platforms like Google Ads to get the best performance refers to PPC bid management. This is the bid you’re willing to pay for a click on your ad. Google uses a combination of your bid and quality score (ad copy, relevance, landing page etc.) to determine ad position and cost, as it’s not just about who bids the most anymore. Infact, an effective bid management involves aligning bids with your campaign goals like conversions vs impressions, adjusting bids based on device, time, or location, and leveraging automation without losing strategic control.

Google Ads offers 2 main categories of bidding:

1-Manual Bidding:

This is when you set individual bids for keywords or ad groups - suitable for experienced advertisers or very small focused campaigns. This also gives you full control while requiring effort and expertise. Use this when you want full control, when you test specific keyword performance or with a very limited budget.

2-Automated Bidding:

This is when Google adjusts your bids in real time using machine learning to maximize performance for your set goal. We have several automated strategies like Target ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) and Target CPA (Cost Per Acquisition). You can also maximize conversions before switching to Target CPA once you have enough data. This is especially best for new campaigns or when you don’t have a defined CPA target yet. On the other hand, maximizing conversion value focuses on getting the most value from your conversions, which is best for ecommerce brands with varying product values.

Another simple strategy to get as many clicks as possible within your budget is through maximizing clicks. It’s best for driving traffic to a website or awareness campaigns, and by setting a maximum CPC limit, one can control the costs as well. Then you can Target Impression Share as well. It lets you control where your ads appear, be it on top of the page or anywhere else. This is best for brand awareness or competitor targeting.

Choosing the RIght Bid Strategy

If your goal is to drive sales, your strategy should be Target ROAS/ Maximize Conversion Value. If your goal is generating leads, it’s Target CPA/ Maximize Conversions. If it’s to get website traffic, you can go for Max. clicks/ Manual CPC and if it’s to improve the brand visibility, choose Target Impression Share. In a nutshell, always align your bidding strategy with your campaign objective, using available data and the budget. And for newer accounts with limited conversions, start simple and let data accumulate.

Tips for Best Bid Management

• Use Bid Adjustments: Manual adjustments by device, time, location, or audience can optimize performance, even with automation.
• Track Key Metrics: Consistently keep an eye on cost per conversion, ROAS, conversion rate and impression share.
• Monitor Budget Drain: Use shared budgets or daily caps to stay in control, as automated strategies can burn through budgets fast if not capped properly.
• Test and Learn: A/B test different strategies across campaigns. Use Experiments in Google Ads to test Target CPA vs Maximize Conversions, or Smart Bidding vs Manual CPC.
• Smart Bidding: Let Smart Bidding Learn, as smart bidding uses historical data and needs time (at least 7–14 days) to stabilize. Avoid changing your targets too often.