Bidding optimization is the process of strategically adjusting your bid to achieve your marketing goals. Paid searches are based on a bidding process, the higher the bid the higher the ad however there are different strategies to optimize the bidding process. One bidding strategy is called manual cost-per-click (CPC) bidding. This strategy is one of the more hands-on, requiring lots of time and attention. Manuel CPC allows the business to set and adjust the bids for the correct keyword or ad group level. However, for a small business, this strategy must be used with caution because of the patience and knowledge required. So, for a small business, it is most likely not worth your time until you gain more experience in bidding.
Another type of bidding strategy is automated bidding. Automated bidding is when Google and/or the search engine are in control of your bidding. Automated bidding takes control of factors like clicks, conversions, views, and impressions. The system will automatically set a bid based on the likelihood that your ad will be clicked on. Automated bidding might be a good choice for your small business if you must run specific campaign goals or are not very experienced in running campaigns or bidding. However, automated bidding does require a larger budget than other strategies.
Smart bidding is another type of bidding strategy. Smart bidding is like automated bidding however, it is not the same. Smart bidding is a conversion-focused automated bid strategy. With smart bidding, you get four key benefits to help you save time and money with your ad. These four benefits are advanced machine learning, a wide range of contextual signals, flexible performance controls, and transparent performance reporting. Smart bidding works for small businesses because it can be optimized with data from all your campaigns which saves you time. However, like all the other strategies it does come with some disadvantages. One of these is that it takes time for Google to learn your campaign and a mistake is not as easily reverted compared to other strategies.
To be able to optimize your bidding, you want to make the most profit by paying the least amount. There are different practices your business can focus on to do this. To start, your business should consider its goals with bidding. Also, it should test the type of business strategy that you are using. Going back and looking at your results and testing different options is important to optimize your bidding. Another thing is that as a small business, you cannot rush the process, you want to wait until you have enough data to make any big decisions about your bidding strategy.
Some specific strategies that a small business can use to optimize their ads include focusing on longer and for specific keywords. Also, geo-targeting is super helpful to a local business because you can attract customers by using the specific region or city you are located in. When using keywords, you also want to think about negative keywords. This will help by not wasting your money on a click that will result in no benefit to your business. As a small business, you can also focus on smaller, more defined customers that might be overlooked by larger businesses sometimes.
As a small business, the attention to detail, while a little more time-consuming, is what gives you a one-up on larger businesses. The same goes for optimizing bidding strategies. Choosing the best fit for your business and taking the time to collect data and analyze your results will help you get the most out of your bidding strategy.
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