Video Transcript
Alright — let’s get into it.
If you’re about to start a brand new Google Ads campaign then take note as the bidding strategy you start with will most probably make or break the whole thing.
Get it wrong, and you’ll either blow through budget and end up with nothing to show for it…
or stare into space wondering why your ads aren’t showing at all
Let me show you, the best bidding strategy to kick off a new campaign with, explain why it works, and when you should change it.
When a campaigns fresh out the box — Google’s in essence flying blind.
No conversion data. No audience signals. No trust.
And that’s a problem.
It’s having to guess who to show your ads to. Don’t get me wrong it is cleverer than simply guessing but it’s not far off.
Without data, they’ll either show your ads to the wrong people…
or hardly show them at all.
Smart bidding campaigns like Performance Max and Demand Gen rely heavily on data. They need to know what a converter looks like before they can go find more.
That’s why I don’t use smart bidding or smart campaigns right at the start.
At this stage you need to keep as much control as possible and feed Google with as much correct data as possible first.
How exactly do you do that then?
Theres probably a lot of different ways people will recommend out there but heres the way I do it
I will always start with
A Maximise Clicks strategy and ill set a manual cost per click cap.
What this does is say to Google
“Send me as much traffic as you can for my budget, but keep the cost under control.”
The reason I start like this is because at the beginning you’re in a learning phase.
So you want to see which keywords are triggering your ads, what keywords are getting clicks, and whether your landing pages are actually converting.
Yes Smart campaigns can do this to
But with a smart campaign you’ve got no control over it and could potentially burn through your budget to quickly.
By utilising a max clicks strategy you’re going to get the most clicks for your budget which gives you more data to play with.
By limiting the cost per click as well you’re controlling this even further and the more data you have the more informed decisions you can make.
Its upto you what you set your maximum cost per click to but try and be as sensible as possible. Have a look in the keyword tool to see roughly what Google would be charging for keywords you think would convert and go somewhere in between.
You can always increase it if the conversions aren’t coming.
All you have to do now is keep an eye on what search terms are resulting in clicks and conversions and start getting rid of the useless ones by adding them as negative keywords.
DO this daily so it doesn’t become a ridiculously long task and over time you will refine your campaign and start building up some really useful data for Google.
Use this for new Search campaigns, lead gen, and early eCom testing.
Just remember
When setting the bidding strategy to maximise clicks DONT LEAVE THE COST PER CLICK UN CAPPED.
Google will happily bid high if you don’t put limits in place.
Once you’re getting around 15–30 conversions in a 30-day period — that’s when you can think about switching your bidding strategy.
Googles really good at finding customers once it has the data so before you change make sure your data isn’t fluky data.
And by that I mean don’t change after one solid month of conversions. I tend to leave my campaigns as long as possible usually between 3 and 4 months.
This way I can be sure that Im doing the right thing
But what are my options for switching?
Theres a few options to choose from.
Lets take a look
The first one to consider is Maximise Conversions — This ones great for for lead gen campaigns or low-ticket items where volume is key and the value for each conversion is similar or the same.
Whereas If you’ve got a mix of low and high-ticket products with different values and you want Google to prioritise the higher value ones then go for Maximise Conversion Value instead.
What Google does here is goes after the conversions that will result in higher value conversion rather than treating all products equally.
You could also set a target ROAS but I would say to
Only move to a Target ROAS once you’ve got consistent revenue enough conversion data behind you again over a large time period.
Google ads are very effective but they’re way too easy to break so before changing anything be cautious and make sure you’ve got enough data to back it up.
[Midway Sales Pitch]
If you’re running Google Ads in the home and garden space and you’re not getting the results you want — let me take a proper look.
Head to www.rocketreachppc.com and request a free audit.
No Nonsence. No pressure.
I’ll personally go through your account and give you a straight-talking video roadmap showing exactly what needs fixing.
If you want me to implement it — great. If not, no worries.
Either way, you’ll walk away with real, useful advice.
Go to www.rocketreachppc.com now.
Before I wrap up lets cover a few common mistakes I see people make around bidding strategies that’ll just help you a long a little bit more.
Avoid us Target cost per acquisition to early — for teh same reason as everything ive just said. It won’t work effectively without historical data.
Make sure your trackings working properly – If youre trackings off then it doesnt matter what bidding strategy your using smart or manually. Neither will be able to get it right. it.
I know ive said it before but its important so don’t forget your CPC cap — as suddenly you’ll be paying £15 a click for traffic thats got no chance of converting
Get a good base and Google will look after you
Start simple and Focus on learning.
Let the data build and once conversions are coming in consistently over time. Shift to a smarter bidding strategy.
You’re not trying to be clever — you’re trying to be profitable.
Hope you’ve enjoyed the video
If you have,
feel free to give it a like and if you’re feeling extra generous please subscribe as it really helps.
Thats it from me, thanks for watching and ill see you in the next one
