Which strategy tells Google what?
Each one is an instruction about what to buy with your budget. Google calls the method auction-time bidding: at the moment of each search it weighs signals such as the device, the person's location down to the city, the time of day and the words in the search, and bids more where a conversion looks likely.
| Strategy | What you are telling Google | When it suits an owner |
|---|---|---|
| Maximise conversions | Get as many conversions as the daily budget allows | Enquiry businesses with a fixed budget and tracking you trust |
| Target CPA | Get conversions at about this average cost each | Once you know what an enquiry is worth and have a month or two of history |
| Maximise conversion value | Get as much sales value as the budget allows | Shops sending the order value with each purchase |
| Target ROAS | Get about this much revenue for each dollar spent | Shops with steady purchase volume and a known break-even ROAS |
Target CPA and Target ROAS now appear as optional targets inside the two Maximise strategies when you set up a campaign. Tick the box and add a figure, and the strategy changes from "as many as possible" to "as many as possible at this price".
How much conversion data does Smart Bidding need?
More than most small accounts have. Google's article "Duration of the learning period for campaigns and what affects it" says a strategy can take up to about 50 conversion events, or 3 conversion cycles, to calibrate after it starts or after a big change, and the status reads Learning in the meantime. The Smart Bidding article recommends judging results over periods with at least 30 conversions, or 50 for Target ROAS.
An installer with 25 enquiries a month is waiting most of two months for a verdict. That argues for patience: change one thing at a time, and leave it alone long enough to read.
What happened when a Townsville air conditioning installer set the target too low? (example figures)
An air conditioning business in Townsville with three installers runs Maximise conversions on $2,100 a month and gets 28 tracked quote requests, about $75 each. One in three becomes a job worth $3,200 on average. Wanting cheaper leads before the hot months, the owner adds a Target CPA of $40.
| Month | Setting | Spend | Quote requests | Cost each | Jobs at 1 in 3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| September | Maximise conversions, no target | $2,100 | 28 | $75 | 9 |
| October | Target CPA $40 | $760 | 16 | $48 | 5 |
| November | Target CPA $80 | $2,150 | 29 | $74 | 10 |
The $40 target did not make enquiries cheaper. It told Google to stay out of every auction where a $40 enquiry looked unlikely, which was most of them, so spend fell by almost two thirds and the business lost four jobs, about $12,800 of work, in the month demand started to climb. A target is a ceiling on ambition as much as on cost. Set it near what you pay today, then move it in small steps.
How does CoraVision watch a bid strategy?
CoraVision reads each Google Ads campaign's bidding type every night, along with its budget, spend, conversions and conversion value, so the strategy and its results sit side by side. Cora also asks for your average sale in the onboarding call, which is what turns a Target CPA from a guess into a number you can defend. Any change to the strategy you make yourself, in your own account.
Questions
Is Smart Bidding the same as automated bidding?
Smart Bidding is the part of automated bidding that bids for conversions or conversion value. Maximise clicks is automated too, but it chases clicks and knows nothing about which ones become customers, so Google does not count it as Smart Bidding.
What happens to Smart Bidding if my conversion tracking breaks?
It keeps bidding on whatever it is told. If a broken tag stops counting enquiries, it sees a campaign that has stopped working and pulls back. If a tag counts each enquiry twice, it thinks enquiries got cheaper and spends more chasing them. Check the tracking before you blame the strategy.