Hi guys, i am still pretty green with conversion optimizing. Is it better to use manual bidding or the conversion optimizer? What are my considerations in deciding which is the best for my campaign?
Personally speaking I prefer manual bidding especially if adwords conversions don't match the conversions of your e-commerce platform....
thanks ctrlinternet! besides the ability to chooses the cost you want for each conversion, I can't see what other advantage is there for conversion optimizer over manual bidding. Anyone can share with me regarding this?
...Once you set it the bid will apply to the ad group level, instead of the keyword level. Therefore make sure you have: - Small, tight ad groups - Reliable conversion tracking - The keyword-level performance inside each ad group is homogenous enough (for instance, if an ad group contains 2 significant, high-volume keywords which have a large ROI gap between them - split the ad group before setting the CPA bids) Even if the conversion tracking tracks something different than actual sales (like leads, mouse-hovers etc.) - you can still use Conversion Optimizer effectively by attributing a value to each "conversion", based on each ad group's revenue. Check if there's a good correlation between "conversions" stream and sales (i.e. more "conversions" produces more real sales)
Conversion Optimizer do have a great advantage: Google "sees" and optimizes "on the run" many slices of data, to match the required ad-group-level bid. We, as AdWords users, are very limited in predicting which bid will be best for each keyword. A keyword is basically a cluster of search terms, and each one of them is triggered in multiple dimensions: time, location, website (Google's and partners sites). Let's say a keyword had a 3% CTR and 2% conversion rate in the last 30 days. Google is the only one who can see the detailed picture. For instance, a specific partner website this keyword had only 0.5% CTR and 0% conversion rate - then Google automatically excludes this site for that keyword. So what's the catch? Google tries to maximize its own revenue (i.e. your cost), so it will try to generate as many "conversions" as possible, within the CPA bid restriction (more-or-less...) If the campaign has a proper structure then it'll be a win-win situation for both Google and you. Else - only Google will benefit.