Still running a good 20+ accounts with manual cpc. For this industry (home services) I struggle to see how any signals would help, as most ideal customers don't go searching around for weeks, but might search Google once, click one of the top ads and contact right away. Infact if they've been searching longer, watching TH-cam videos etc but are still searching, it's likely not a good fit for our clients as they've got an extremely tricky problem or they're very fussy! I'm torn with testing smart bidding on most accounts as we don't have huge budgets and one or two months of experimenting could cause real issues with lead flow if it doesn't work out!
I have been in a similar position. Low budget campaign without large conversion volume in an industry where you might think smart bidding doesn't work. However after testing, I've got better results with smart bidding every time. Results will be worse for the first few weeks, but it does end up better generally speaking. Definitely worth a test!
Would you say that a new account without any data should immediately use Smart Bidding? Because I've heard that it's best to use Manual Bidding for the first few weeks or months until you have enough data to change to smart bidding
Typically if the account has data I got straight to target CPA/ROAS for a new campaign. But if it's a new account and campaign, max clicks is a good place to start. It will give you traffic quality data without the crazy cpc smart bidding can do
I see no difference whatsoever. I am advertising for very low search volumes (local business in healthcare), so do not have enough conversions for any AI algorithm to find any meaningful trend to optimise anything. So I rather have manual CPC knowing that these "smart" algorithms do not screw up anything. Every time I go to smart bidding campaigns my already low conversions drop even further with generally much higher CPA/CPC on average.
I ran Head-to-Head experiment for 1 month manual vs target CPA and got similar CPA. I did notice that with automatic bidding there were more conversions and I could increase the daily budget. Thing is, that I don't know which one is better in terms of ROI, it is hard to monitor this metric for most of the businesses. What I do find interesting, is when my manual bids are not at the top of the page I get less irrelevant phone calls, probably the top page search ads filter those ones. It still doesn't mean I get higher ROI with manual CPC but I hate to get irrelevant phone calls so I kept manual CPC. Following your positive energetic video I will give it a second chance next month. Perhaps you can post a video to suggest actions for ROI improvement even for businesses that don't sell online.
Glad to hear that your experiment for target CPA worked well. It is indeed hard to measure ROI as opposed to CPA. I think that's a great video idea! Watch this space!
well I agree with you , but for example take a locksmith nieche where there are a lot of click fraud that even click ease can’t prevent 100% and on smart campaigns it’s overbidding on many keywords , compare to manual that get more conversions and less cost per click and lower cpa. what would you suggest for that business ?
If you run on smart bidding with a realistic target CPA you should be able to beat manual. Not immediately, but within 30 days you should be in a good position. Then you can test lowering the CPA target. I haven't seen this strategy lose to manual CPC for search campaigns before
Hey Darren, your video on the evolution of Google Ads bidding strategies was incredibly insightful! The key takeaway for me was how Google's shift towards smart bidding is transforming the game. It's all about understanding user intent rather than just keywords. Now, my question is, how do you recommend someone who's been using manual CPC bidding for a while transition to smart bidding smoothly? Are there any specific strategies or tips you'd suggest for a seamless switch? Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!
I have just done this with a client and they've had their best 2 months this year since doing it. Advice will be to set a CPA target in line with with what you're already achieving, give it 30 days. The performance might go down initially, but it will improve. Usually I see results sooner than 30 days! Then you can start playing with the CPA target to improve it
Smart will still usually work. Google has an unimaginable number of signals. Remember it's not just about the service, Google will know from a user perspective who is more likely to convert just based their interactions with Google. I would test target CPA
In 95% case, smart bidding will beat manual. Manual still has its place tho for any emergency service where the algorithm can't predict conversion intent. Something like an emergency plumber, nothing will signal Google that the query will lead to conversion, where manual cpc helps control the placement and make sure we stay on top.
There may be a niche use case like that where the downside of manual CPC isn't bad, but I'd still want to test a target CPA, because Google can still see historic short term behaviour. e.g. how many searches did they perform for the service, etc. Still have access to a lot more short term data than we can see. Though falling back to manual CPC if the test fails is a perfectly good strategy
@@neelsdelange5828 target CPA (tcpa) bidding is setting a target cost per conversion instead of setting bids for individual keywords. Google will aim to get conversions within the cost per conversion set. Same for tROAS but instead of cost per conversion it's a target return on ad spend
Is it better and safer to start a brand new campaign with manual bidding, then transit to smart bidding after a month or so, to give the AI sometime to learn from the data?
I think sometimes a max clicks strategy followed by a troas or tcpa is a good way to get search term data at a lower cost early on in a campaign. That's usually a good transition
My experience is the same sir. Great video. Sharing the facts. That's what it's about. A point worth stating, PPC experts still are worth their weight in gold as far as I'm concerned.
Haha, I'm just going by the results I've got. I've now migrated dozens of accounts away from manual CPC at this point and it's driven huge gains in improvement. I'm guessing anybody who is an advocate for manual CPC is working extremely low budgets. In which case it's ok, but if you're pushing for more results, you want to use smart bidding
Need help with your campaigns. Book an in depth audit today 👉 darren-taylor.com/
Dear Darren,
we have grown our company alot with your help. Just remember you are in our prays. Love from Australia.
That's amazing to hear. It's why I do what I do. Thanks for watching
Great video. I always wonder about manual bidding. Thanks for telling us how you really feel, it's not easy to find people willing to do that on here.
Thanks for watching! I used to love manual bidding with all the control, but results speak for themselves
Still running a good 20+ accounts with manual cpc. For this industry (home services) I struggle to see how any signals would help, as most ideal customers don't go searching around for weeks, but might search Google once, click one of the top ads and contact right away. Infact if they've been searching longer, watching TH-cam videos etc but are still searching, it's likely not a good fit for our clients as they've got an extremely tricky problem or they're very fussy!
I'm torn with testing smart bidding on most accounts as we don't have huge budgets and one or two months of experimenting could cause real issues with lead flow if it doesn't work out!
I have been in a similar position. Low budget campaign without large conversion volume in an industry where you might think smart bidding doesn't work. However after testing, I've got better results with smart bidding every time. Results will be worse for the first few weeks, but it does end up better generally speaking. Definitely worth a test!
Would you say that a new account without any data should immediately use Smart Bidding? Because I've heard that it's best to use Manual Bidding for the first few weeks or months until you have enough data to change to smart bidding
Typically if the account has data I got straight to target CPA/ROAS for a new campaign. But if it's a new account and campaign, max clicks is a good place to start. It will give you traffic quality data without the crazy cpc smart bidding can do
I see no difference whatsoever. I am advertising for very low search volumes (local business in healthcare), so do not have enough conversions for any AI algorithm to find any meaningful trend to optimise anything. So I rather have manual CPC knowing that these "smart" algorithms do not screw up anything. Every time I go to smart bidding campaigns my already low conversions drop even further with generally much higher CPA/CPC on average.
I’m with you, saved by manual cpc
Well said mate. Been on the smart bidding + broad for several months now and 9/10 it crushes manual. Great vid, plus love the background…Sega4Ever
Haha thanks for noticing the background! And yes, I agree, Google has finally got their automatic bidding right!
does the +broad match type still works ?
@@AnasEttamraoui nope, modified broad match with the + no longer works and instead acts like phrase
I ran Head-to-Head experiment for 1 month manual vs target CPA and got similar CPA. I did notice that with automatic bidding there were more conversions and I could increase the daily budget. Thing is, that I don't know which one is better in terms of ROI, it is hard to monitor this metric for most of the businesses. What I do find interesting, is when my manual bids are not at the top of the page I get less irrelevant phone calls, probably the top page search ads filter those ones. It still doesn't mean I get higher ROI with manual CPC but I hate to get irrelevant phone calls so I kept manual CPC. Following your positive energetic video I will give it a second chance next month. Perhaps you can post a video to suggest actions for ROI improvement even for businesses that don't sell online.
Glad to hear that your experiment for target CPA worked well. It is indeed hard to measure ROI as opposed to CPA. I think that's a great video idea! Watch this space!
Thanks for this Darren, forgive me if this is obvious but is Smart Bidding different to using Performance Max?
Performance Max uses smart bidding, so if you're using performance Max, you're automatic bidding 👍
well I agree with you , but for example take a locksmith nieche where there are a lot of click fraud that even click ease can’t prevent 100% and on smart campaigns it’s overbidding on many keywords , compare to manual that get more conversions and less cost per click and lower cpa. what would you suggest for that business ?
If you run on smart bidding with a realistic target CPA you should be able to beat manual. Not immediately, but within 30 days you should be in a good position. Then you can test lowering the CPA target. I haven't seen this strategy lose to manual CPC for search campaigns before
Hey Darren, your video on the evolution of Google Ads bidding strategies was incredibly insightful! The key takeaway for me was how Google's shift towards smart bidding is transforming the game. It's all about understanding user intent rather than just keywords. Now, my question is, how do you recommend someone who's been using manual CPC bidding for a while transition to smart bidding smoothly? Are there any specific strategies or tips you'd suggest for a seamless switch? Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!
I have just done this with a client and they've had their best 2 months this year since doing it. Advice will be to set a CPA target in line with with what you're already achieving, give it 30 days. The performance might go down initially, but it will improve. Usually I see results sooner than 30 days! Then you can start playing with the CPA target to improve it
Whst do you think about instant need like tow cars ads? I think that manual works better than smart bidding.
Smart will still usually work. Google has an unimaginable number of signals. Remember it's not just about the service, Google will know from a user perspective who is more likely to convert just based their interactions with Google. I would test target CPA
In 95% case, smart bidding will beat manual. Manual still has its place tho for any emergency service where the algorithm can't predict conversion intent. Something like an emergency plumber, nothing will signal Google that the query will lead to conversion, where manual cpc helps control the placement and make sure we stay on top.
There may be a niche use case like that where the downside of manual CPC isn't bad, but I'd still want to test a target CPA, because Google can still see historic short term behaviour. e.g. how many searches did they perform for the service, etc. Still have access to a lot more short term data than we can see. Though falling back to manual CPC if the test fails is a perfectly good strategy
For Shopping Ads Campaign and a relatively new account with less conversion data, do you recommend manual cpc or target roas to start with?
Would love to know your thoughts on audiences... a client asked me if I was using those and I had to tell them no
If you're using tcpa or troas then they are ignored. Google will just optimise as needed
what is tcpa/troas?
@@darrentaylordigital
@@neelsdelange5828 target CPA (tcpa) bidding is setting a target cost per conversion instead of setting bids for individual keywords. Google will aim to get conversions within the cost per conversion set. Same for tROAS but instead of cost per conversion it's a target return on ad spend
Will maximize clicks improve conversions? I means does it utilizes Google AI during auction?
It uses AI but only to get as many clicks as possible, it doesn't care about conversions
By working together, these organizations can help to combat click fraud and protect businesses and consumers from this type of fraud.
It's gotta be the law that ensures this stops. These platforms aren't going to police it!
Is it better and safer to start a brand new campaign with manual bidding, then transit to smart bidding after a month or so, to give the AI sometime to learn from the data?
I think sometimes a max clicks strategy followed by a troas or tcpa is a good way to get search term data at a lower cost early on in a campaign. That's usually a good transition
that makes sense. thanks for sharing!@@darrentaylordigital
My experience is the same sir. Great video. Sharing the facts. That's what it's about. A point worth stating, PPC experts still are worth their weight in gold as far as I'm concerned.
100% businesses still need PPC expertise. Even with smart bidding!
Every google expert on YT has opposite opinions - dont know who / what to believe lol.
Haha, I'm just going by the results I've got. I've now migrated dozens of accounts away from manual CPC at this point and it's driven huge gains in improvement.
I'm guessing anybody who is an advocate for manual CPC is working extremely low budgets. In which case it's ok, but if you're pushing for more results, you want to use smart bidding
I can if you want to see my manual cpc account
If I see your manual CPC account, I guarantee that you will get better results with a smart strategy
So what your basically saying is my TH-cam channel is over 😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣🤣
It's been nice knowing you. 😂
@@darrentaylordigital hahahaha gonna go make unboxing videos instead... much less stress