How to Set Up Smart Bidding in Google Ads

Key takeaways

• To use Smart Bid, you can choose one of three options: add a bidding strategy to a new campaign, edit an existing campaign, or select multiple campaigns at once.

• Smart Bidding relies on machine learning and information, such as your campaign's goal, to optimize your bidding strategy.

• Four Smart Bidding strategies you can use include Maximize Conversions bidding, Target CPA, Target ROAS, and Maximize Conversion Value bidding.

Using Smart Bidding in Google Ads can help you manage your budget effectively. You can learn how to decide which Smart Bidding strategy is right for your campaign. If you’re ready to start building your digital marketing skills, consider earning a Google Digital Marketing & E-commerce Professional Certificate, where you will have the opportunity to gain in-demand skills in areas such as social media strategy, search engine optimization, email marketing, and more.

What is Smart Bid?

Smart Bidding in Google Ads uses machine learning to optimize the process of bidding for ad space with Google’s network partners. Using the information you provide about your goals, budget, and business objectives, Google Ads will use smart bid strategies to help drive higher conversions.

How to use Smart Bid: Setting up Smart Bidding in Google Ads

You have three choices for how to set up Smart Bidding in Google Ads. You can either:

1. Add Smart Bidding as your bidding strategy when you create a new search campaign.

2. Edit an existing campaign to use a smart bid strategy

3. Select a bidding strategy for multiple campaigns at the same time.

Let’s take a closer look at each of these choices.

1. Add Smart Bidding while creating a new search campaign. 

To create a new campaign, start on the homepage of your Google Ads account. Click the Campaigns icon, followed by the Campaigns dropdown menu, then click Campaigns for a third time. Click the Plus icon and select New Campaign.

a. Select the objective of your campaign of sales, leads, website traffic, or a campaign without a goal's guidance. 

b. In the campaign type window, choose Search. 

c. Tick any boxes in Select the results you want to get from this campaign that are most applicable to your business. Enter a name for your campaign as well, and press Continue.

d. In the next screen, click Budget on the left and enter your daily average budget.

e. For your Bidding strategy, select either Conversions or Conversions value. Maximizing conversions will help you increase profit, while maximizing conversion value will help you increase sales and find leads. Enter your Campaign settings and your preferences for Keywords and ads, where you can add a schedule for your ads to appear and include an ad rotation that fits your needs. Review your campaign, then click on Publish campaign when ready.

Read more: How to Set Up Google Ads Conversion Tracking on Shopify

2. Edit an existing campaign to use a smart bid strategy. 

If you want to change your bidding strategy for an existing campaign, click the Campaigns icon, followed by the Campaigns dropdown menu, then select Campaigns for the third time. Click the checkboxes next to each campaign you want to include in your changes. 

a. Next, click Edit > Change bid strategy. Choose between Use existing portfolio bid strategy and Create new portfolio bid strategy. You'll need to enter the settings if you’re creating a new strategy. For an existing strategy, you’ll have the option to choose from a list. 

b. Click Apply to finish setting up a smart bid strategy for your existing campaigns. 

3. Select a bidding strategy for multiple campaigns.

You can use the last option to add a smart bidding strategy to multiple campaigns at once, and you also have another option to change more than one campaign’s bid strategy at once. From your Google Ads homepage, click the Tools icon and select Bid strategies.

a. Click the Plus icon and choose which bidding strategy you plan to add.

b. Enter a name for your strategy and select which campaigns you’d like to include. You’ll need to adjust any specific settings in the next step. When you’re ready, click Save. You can return to this menu to add or edit campaign bidding strategies in this menu. 

What are the four Smart Bidding strategies?

The four Smart Bidding strategies are Maximize Conversions, Target CPA, Target ROAS, and Maximize Conversion Value. Explore these strategies in more detail:

• Maximize conversions bidding: Use advanced artificial intelligence to optimize your bids and drive conversions while staying within your budget.

• Target CPA bidding: Short for cost-per-action, it allows you to set a target cost per conversion and automatically place bids strategically based on your conversion odds.

• Target ROAS bidding: Using Google’s AI, Target ROAS bidding adjusts your bids as users search for your product based on the predicted value of a conversion.

• Maximize conversion value bidding: With this strategy, you get to set the value to maximize, whether that’s profit margin, sales value, or another variable, and you will use AI to place bids accordingly.

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