Automated Bidding…When Are You Going to Give It a Try?

Sometimes, improving campaign performance is simply a matter of knowing which algorithm to use and when.

For example, one of our clients sells a novel landscape maintenance tool. When they came to us, their revenue numbers were okay and their return on ad spend was 2.2x. That was acceptable, but not where they wanted it to be.

Taking Advantage of Automation

Since this client has fairly good brand awareness, we decided to see if we could improve the performance of their branded terms. They were running a branded campaign, but it wasn’t performing nearly as well as it should have been.

After looking into things, we felt like they would be a perfect candidate for Google’s “Target ROAS” automated bid strategy.

We talked things over with the client and identified what ROAS we wanted to hit with this ad campaign. Then, once we had everything set up correctly, we told Google what ROAS to shoot for and switched on automated bidding.

Within a couple of weeks, the results were obvious.

The client’s return on ad spend jumped from 2.2x to 4.03x. But that didn’t happen at the expense of revenue. Instead, revenue actually increased by 414%!

Of course, automated bid strategies aren’t a silver bullet for marketing. They’re great for some campaigns…and terrible for others. But in general, if you know when and where to use them, they can be a huge asset in your campaigns.

However, as great as automated bidding can be, it’s still not a set-it and forget-it tool. It takes constant monitoring, adjustments and the appropriate signals to make it work. 

90%+ of the time we hear clients say that automated bidding didn’t work, the problem is that they weren’t providing enough of the right signals. The good news is, there is almost always a way to rectify and optimize this.

More often than not, though, if you take the time to get things set up properly, automated bidding (with human oversight) is one of the best ways to get great results from your marketing campaigns.

Conclusion

Automation isn’t right for every business, but sometimes it’s just what you need to get the results you’re after, so it’s usually worth a try. If it doesn’t work, you can always switch back.

Of course, this isn’t the only way to improve your ecommerce campaigns.

For eight other proven tactics we love to use with our clients, check out this eBook. Or, simply let us know you’d like some help here or in the comments and we’d be glad to show you all the hidden potential in your campaigns.