Your bidding strategy tells Google what to optimise for and how aggressively to spend. Choosing between the main Google Ads bidding strategies is really a question of how much conversion data you have and how much control you need.
The Main Bidding Strategies
The strategies you will actually choose between:
- Manual CPC: you set the maximum bid per keyword or ad group. Full control, full workload.
- Maximise Clicks: Google gets you the most clicks within budget. Useful for traffic, blind to quality.
- Maximise Conversions / Conversion Value: Google bids to get the most conversions or revenue within budget.
- Target CPA / Target ROAS: the same, but steered towards a cost-per-acquisition or return-on-ad-spend target you set.
When Manual Bidding Makes Sense
Manual CPC suits three situations: a brand-new account with no conversion data yet, a very small budget where every click must be deliberate, and branded campaigns where you simply want to hold the top position cheaply. The downside is that you cannot adjust bids per auction the way Google's system can — you are setting one bid for thousands of different situations.
When Smart Bidding Wins
Smart Bidding adjusts the bid for every single auction using signals you cannot see: device, location, time, browser, the exact search wording and more. It needs two things to work: accurate conversion tracking and enough conversion volume (roughly 15–30 conversions a month per campaign is a sensible floor). With those in place, Smart Bidding almost always beats manual bidding on cost per result.
Switching Without Losing Performance
Do not jump straight from manual to a tight Target CPA. Move in steps: first Maximise Conversions with a budget you are comfortable with, let it learn for two to three weeks without interference, then introduce a Target CPA or Target ROAS set close to what the campaign actually achieved — not the number you wish for. A target set too aggressively just chokes delivery.
Mistakes That Break Bidding Strategies
The classics: changing budgets and targets every few days (each change restarts learning), counting soft actions as primary conversions (the system optimises for the wrong thing), and judging a strategy after three days. Give any change at least two weeks and judge on cost per conversion or ROAS, not on CPC. For a managed setup, our Google Partner team handles bidding as part of Google Ads management — and the FAQ covers common questions.
FAQs: Google ads bidding strategies
Is Smart Bidding better than manual bidding?
With accurate conversion tracking and enough conversion volume, Smart Bidding usually wins because it adjusts bids per auction using signals you cannot set manually. Without conversion data, start manual or with Maximise Clicks.
How many conversions does Smart Bidding need?
A sensible floor is around 15–30 conversions per month per campaign. Below that, performance is unstable — consolidate campaigns or use a softer conversion to build volume.
Why did my Target CPA campaign stop spending?
The target is almost certainly set below what the auction can deliver. Raise the target towards your actual historical CPA and let the campaign recover before tightening gradually.
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