AI Overview
The best Google Ads bid strategy depends on what your business wants to achieve. Maximise Clicks can help increase website traffic, while Maximise Conversions and Target CPA are generally suited to generating leads or sales. Maximise Conversion Value and Target ROAS are useful when different conversions have different financial values. Performance Max campaigns also use automated bidding to optimise towards conversions or revenue. Choosing the right approach requires accurate conversion tracking, realistic targets and enough performance data to make informed decisions.
Choosing a Google Ads bid strategy can have a significant impact on how your advertising budget is spent and the results your campaigns generate.
With Google increasingly relying on automation to determine when and how much advertisers should bid, businesses have more options for managing their advertising spend. However, each strategy works towards a different objective, and choosing the wrong one can result in money being spent on clicks that contribute little to your business.
For example, a company generating enquiries through its website has different priorities from an online retailer selling products at various prices. Their bidding strategies should reflect those differences.
Understanding how each approach works will help you decide which strategy suits your business and when it might be worth changing.
What is a Google Ads bid strategy?
A Google Ads bid strategy determines how much an advertiser is willing to pay when competing for advertising placements.
Every time someone makes a relevant search, Google runs an advertising auction to determine which eligible ads appear and their positions.
The outcome depends on several factors, including bids, ad quality, relevance and the context of the search.
Advertisers can manage bids manually or allow Google’s automated bidding systems to adjust them according to their campaign objectives.
Automated strategies use information such as device type, location, search context and historical performance to estimate how likely someone is to complete a desired action.
The appropriate strategy depends on whether your priority is website visits, enquiries, purchases, revenue or visibility.
Which Google Ads bid strategy is best for your business?
There are several bidding strategies available, each designed around a particular advertising objective.
When should you use Maximise Clicks?
Maximise Clicks automatically adjusts bids to generate as many website visits as possible within your budget.
It can be useful when launching a campaign, attracting visitors to a new website or gathering initial information about which search terms generate interest.
For example, a business introducing a new service might use Maximise Clicks to understand which searches attract potential customers.
However, more traffic does not necessarily mean more enquiries or sales.
Monitor the search terms triggering your ads, the quality of incoming traffic and how visitors behave after reaching your website.
When should you use Maximise Conversions?
Maximise Conversions aims to generate as many conversions as possible within your available budget.
A conversion might be a completed purchase, submitted enquiry form or qualified telephone call.
This strategy is particularly useful when your main objective is increasing the number of enquiries or sales and you value those conversions similarly.
For example, a dental clinic might use Maximise Conversions to increase appointment enquiries.
Accurate conversion tracking is essential. If Google counts every website interaction as a conversion, the bidding system may prioritise visitors who complete less valuable actions.
When should you use Target CPA?
Target Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) bidding aims to generate conversions at an average cost close to the amount you specify.
For example, if a business can afford to spend £40 acquiring a qualified enquiry, it might set a Target CPA of £40.
Google then adjusts bids according to the likelihood of achieving that objective.
Individual conversions can cost more or less than the target, and results are not guaranteed.
Target CPA is useful when you understand how much a lead or customer is worth and have sufficient conversion data to establish a realistic acquisition cost.
Setting an excessively low target can restrict traffic and reduce the number of enquiries generated.
When should you use Maximise Conversion Value?
Maximise Conversion Value focuses on generating the highest total conversion value possible within your budget.
It is particularly relevant for businesses where purchases or enquiries have different financial values.
An online retailer selling products at £20 and £500, for example, may benefit from a strategy that considers the value of each sale.
For service businesses, conversion values can also represent estimated lead values based on the likelihood of an enquiry becoming a customer.
This approach requires reliable conversion values. Without them, Google has limited information about which outcomes are financially more important.
When should you use Target ROAS?
Target Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) bidding aims to achieve a specified return from advertising expenditure.
For example, a Target ROAS of 400% means the campaign aims to generate £4 in conversion value for every £1 spent on advertising.
This strategy is commonly used by ecommerce businesses with reliable purchase tracking and a clear understanding of their revenue objectives.
However, revenue alone does not account for profitability.
A business selling products with different profit margins should consider whether its conversion values accurately reflect what each sale contributes.
Setting a very demanding ROAS target can also restrict the number of auctions the campaign enters, potentially reducing sales volume.
When should you use Target Impression Share?
Target Impression Share focuses on how frequently your advertisements appear in a specified position within Google Search results.
This can be useful for businesses prioritising visibility, particularly when advertising against competitors for searches involving their own brand.
However, maintaining a prominent position can become expensive.
Businesses should monitor whether the additional visibility justifies the cost, particularly when those searches are unlikely to generate new customers.
Is Manual CPC bidding still useful?
Manual Cost Per Click (CPC) allows advertisers to set their own maximum keyword bids.
It provides more direct control over individual bids and can be useful when managing tightly controlled campaigns or working with limited conversion data.
However, manual bidding requires regular attention and does not automatically make the same auction-by-auction adjustments as Smart Bidding.
Google also discontinued Enhanced CPC for Search and Display campaigns in 2025, removing an earlier option that combined manual bidding with automated bid adjustments.
For many conversion-focused campaigns, automated strategies are now worth evaluating alongside manual bidding.
How does Smart Bidding work in Google Ads?
Smart Bidding uses Google’s automated systems to adjust bids for individual advertising auctions.
Rather than applying the same bid to everyone searching for a particular keyword, Google estimates the likelihood of each search resulting in a conversion.
For example, two people searching for the same service may receive different bids based on signals available to the system.
Smart Bidding strategies include Maximise Conversions, Target CPA, Maximise Conversion Value and Target ROAS.
Their effectiveness depends heavily on the information provided.
If a campaign records irrelevant conversion actions, incorrect purchase values or duplicate enquiries, automation can optimise towards misleading results.
Businesses should therefore check what Google is measuring before relying heavily on automated bidding.
Which bidding strategy should you use for Performance Max campaigns?
Performance Max allows advertisers to run campaigns across several Google advertising channels, including Search, Shopping, YouTube, Display, Discover, Gmail and Maps, depending on eligibility and placement.
Unlike traditional Search campaigns, Performance Max relies extensively on automation to determine where advertisements appear and how bids are allocated.
Its bidding options focus on two main objectives:
- Maximise Conversions: Suitable when the priority is generating leads or sales and conversions have similar values. A Target CPA can also be applied.
- Maximise Conversion Value: Suitable when conversions have different values and the business wants to prioritise revenue or other assigned values. A Target ROAS can also be applied.
For example, an ecommerce retailer with accurate purchase values might select Maximise Conversion Value.
A service business measuring completed enquiries might prefer Maximise Conversions, particularly if it cannot yet distinguish the commercial value of different leads.
Performance Max also requires attention to audience signals, creative assets, conversion tracking and product information where applicable.
Because more decisions are automated, advertisers should regularly examine available reporting to understand which products, assets and campaign activities are contributing to results.
How do recent Google Ads changes affect bidding strategies?
Google Ads has undergone several changes that affect how advertisers manage campaigns.
One important development is the increasing relationship between automated bidding and broader keyword matching.
Broad match keywords allow advertisements to appear for a wider range of searches related to an advertiser’s chosen terms.
When combined with Smart Bidding, Google can assess these searches individually and adjust bids according to predicted conversion performance.
However, broad match can still attract irrelevant traffic, particularly when campaigns lack sufficient negative keywords or reliable conversion tracking.
Regularly reviewing search term reports remains important.
Google has also updated how Target CPA and Target ROAS strategies behave when campaigns are limited by budget. Changes introduced in August 2026 aim to make performance align more consistently with advertisers’ stated targets.
Businesses using these strategies should review both their budgets and bidding targets, especially where campaigns previously performed considerably better than their targets.
Changes to privacy requirements and conversion measurement have also increased the importance of properly configured tracking.
Where consent requirements apply, businesses should ensure that their measurement setup respects users’ choices while collecting the information needed to assess campaign performance.
How much conversion data do you need for automated bidding?
Automated bidding generally benefits from having enough reliable conversion information to identify patterns.
A campaign generating several qualified enquiries every day provides Google with more direct performance information than one receiving only a handful each month.
However, there is no single conversion threshold that guarantees success.
Google’s bidding systems can use historical and account-level information, although lower conversion volumes may make performance less predictable.
Before moving to a conversion-focused bidding strategy, businesses should check that:
- Important conversion actions are being recorded correctly.
- Duplicate conversions are excluded where appropriate.
- Primary conversion actions reflect meaningful business outcomes.
- Purchase values or estimated lead values are accurate.
- Campaigns have realistic budgets and performance targets.
For lead generation, connecting advertising results with actual sales enquiries can be particularly valuable.
A campaign generating 50 form submissions may appear successful, but those results are less meaningful if only a small proportion become genuine sales opportunities.
How can you tell whether your bidding strategy is working?
The most useful performance measures depend on the original campaign objective.
For Maximise Clicks, examine traffic volume, cost per click and whether visitors are engaging with relevant content.
For conversion-focused campaigns, review conversion numbers, cost per acquisition and the quality of the enquiries generated.
For ecommerce campaigns, conversion value, ROAS and profitability are particularly important.
Businesses should also consider how long customers take to complete a purchase or submit an enquiry.
A campaign promoting an expensive service may generate conversions several days or weeks after the original click.
Making frequent bidding changes before those conversions are recorded can make performance difficult to assess.
When should you change your Google Ads bid strategy?
Changing a bid strategy can be worthwhile when your business objectives change or campaign results consistently fall short of expectations.
For example, a campaign initially using Maximise Clicks might move towards Maximise Conversions once conversion tracking is reliable and the business has gathered useful performance information.
Similarly, an ecommerce campaign might move towards Target ROAS when it has established a realistic revenue objective.
Before making changes, examine whether poor results could be caused by unrelated problems, such as irrelevant keywords, weak advertisements or landing pages that discourage enquiries.
Google Ads experiments can also help compare bidding approaches before applying changes across an entire campaign.
Allow enough time for the bidding system to adjust and for conversions to be reported before judging performance.
How do you choose the right bidding strategy for long-term results?
Choosing a Google Ads bid strategy starts with understanding what your advertising is expected to achieve.
For businesses seeking enquiries, Maximise Conversions or Target CPA may be appropriate. For ecommerce businesses with reliable sales values, Maximise Conversion Value or Target ROAS may provide a better fit.
Campaigns focused on traffic or visibility may benefit from Maximise Clicks or Target Impression Share.
Whichever strategy you choose, regular monitoring remains essential.
Advertising costs, competition, customer behaviour and business priorities can all change over time.
Reviewing the quality of conversions, maintaining accurate tracking and adjusting targets when necessary will help ensure that bidding decisions remain aligned with your business objectives.
FAQs
What is the best Google Ads bidding strategy for beginners?
Maximise Clicks can be useful for gathering initial traffic data, while Maximise Conversions may be appropriate when reliable conversion tracking is already available. The choice depends on your campaign goals and the information you can measure.
Is Maximise Conversions better than Target CPA?
Maximise Conversions focuses on generating the most conversions within a budget. Target CPA aims to achieve conversions at a specified average cost. Target CPA may be more suitable when a business has established an affordable acquisition cost.
Should ecommerce businesses use Target ROAS?
Target ROAS can be useful for ecommerce businesses with accurate sales values and realistic revenue targets. However, businesses should consider profit margins and avoid setting targets that unnecessarily restrict sales volume.
Does Performance Max use Smart Bidding?
Yes. Performance Max uses automated bidding to optimise for conversions or conversion value. Advertisers can also specify a Target CPA or Target ROAS, depending on the campaign’s objectives and available conversion data.
How often should you change your Google Ads bid strategy?
Bid strategies should be reviewed regularly, but changes should generally be based on meaningful performance trends or changes in business objectives. Allow sufficient time for automated bidding to adjust and for delayed conversions to appear in reporting.