When it comes to choosing among bidding strategies for your Facebook or Google ad campaigns, the options can seem rather confusing. Why do some ad campaigns burn through their budget so quickly, while others can’t seem to spend anything? What it comes down to is the bid strategy. In this article, we’ll give you a brief overview of each bidding strategy for Facebook and Google and when you should use it. Hopefully, this will simplify things for you!
Table of Contents
Facebook bidding strategies
Facebook Lowest Cost Bidding strategy
This is the default option, available for every type of Facebook ad campaign, no matter what your objective is. Facebook will try to spend your budget as quickly as possible and land you as many ad spots as possible – for the lowest price possible. Use this Facebook bidding strategy when: You’re testing a new marketing strategy or focused on generating quick results without much focus on the cost per result.
Highest Value
This Facebook bidding strategy focuses on quality over quantity, Facebook isn’t concerned with landing you the highest number of conversions, but rather the highest value purchases. This will likely give you a better ROAS (return on ad spend). Use this Facebook bidding strategy when: It’s not the number of conversions you’re concerned about, it’s the value of each conversion. This bidding strategy is best for eCommerce businesses.
Cost Cap Bidding
This strategy works by setting a limit on the cost per action (CPA). Best used for Traffic, Engagement, App installs, Lead Generation, Conversions, and Catalog sales campaigns. You can’t use this strategy for brand awareness or reach campaigns. Use this strategy when: You’ve already run some ads to build brand awareness, and now you’re moving into the consideration or conversion phase but need to cap your costs at a certain level.
Bid Cap Facebook Bidding Strategy
This is a more advanced strategy where you set a hard limit on how much Facebook can bid for an ad spot. Unlike Cost Cap, where Facebook may bid higher or lower than your limit while making sure the average bid stays around your limit, bid cap is a hard limit of every single bid. Use this strategy when: You have very accurate data on what ad spots might cost. If you’re new to running ads, steer clear of this one for a while.
Minimum ROAS
Similar to Bid Cap, this Facebook bidding strategy is more advanced. In order to utilize it, you’ll need to have a solid history of running Facebook ads and have a verified business account. You can only use this strategy for 3 types of campaigns; App Installs, Conversions, and Catalog Sales. Use this strategy when: Facebook can measure the revenue generated from your app, website, or through Facebook Messenger.
Google bidding strategies
Google Maximize Clicks bidding strategy
This Google bidding strategy can be used as a standard strategy in a single campaign or as a portfolio bid strategy across multiple campaigns. The aim of Maximize Clicks is to get as many eyeballs on your website as possible. Use this Google bidding strategy when: You have a funnel that is proven to convert and all you need is more people on your website.
Target Search Page Location
This Google bidding strategy is only available as a portfolio bid strategy. The aim here is to increase the chances of your ads popping up on the first page of a Google search or in one of the top ad spots. Use this strategy when: You’re looking to hit that top spot in a Google search
Target Outranking Share
This Google bidding strategy allows you to choose a competitor’s advertising domain and outrank it in ad position. Google then sets your search bids to meet that goal. This strategy is also only available as a portfolio bid strategy. Use this strategy when: You want to beat out a specific competitor for that top spot in a search!
Target CPA (Cost per Acquisition)
This strategy is designed to help you land as many conversions as possible at your target CPA. Google will set Search or Display bids, and some conversions may come in at more or less than your target. Use this strategy when: You already have a thorough understanding of how much it should typically cost in ad spend in order to gain a conversion for your business.
Enhanced Cost Per Click Google Bidding Strategy
With this strategy, Google makes adjustments to your manual bids in order to gain as many conversions as possible while trying to maintain the same cost per conversion. It’s an optional feature when using a Manual Cost Per Click strategy. Read More: Google Ads Strategy 2023 Use this strategy when: You want the best of both worlds – manual and automated bidding strategies.
Target ROAS
This strategy sets bids automatically with the aim of giving you as much conversion value as possible with your set ROAS (return on ad spend). This strategy is available both as a standard for singular campaigns or as part of a portfolio bid strategy. Use this strategy when: It’s not the number of conversions you’re concerned about, it’s the value of each conversion (quality over quantity).
Maximize Conversions
Unlike Target ROAS, this strategy focuses on getting as many conversions as possible for your ad budget. Google optimizes for more conversions, rather than more spending per conversion. This strategy can be used in individual campaigns but isn’t available for a portfolio bid strategy. Use this strategy when: You’ve got a big ad budget, and you want as many conversions as possible!
How to choose the best Bidding strategy for your ad campaign?
Choosing the right bidding strategy for your Facebook or Google ad campaign can feel rather daunting when you’re just starting out. In order to select the best Bidding strategy for your campaign, you’ll need to take into consideration what you’re looking to gain from the ads, what your budget is, and how you measure performance. As you gain more confidence in running ads, you should definitely experiment with different bid strategies for different ad campaigns. It’s best to start with simple strategies first; such as Lowest Cost on Facebook and Maximize Clicks on Google. Once you’re comfortable with those, then you can move on to more advanced options.
