Using an ad group bid strategy is the perfect method for keeping your monthly costs standard without monitoring countless keywords.

Google ads are the king of pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. Their search volume is far and away the highest globally, and their ads ecosystem is arguably the most developed. One of the keys to the successful management of Google ads is mastering the ad group bid as part of a manual bidding strategy.

Other management strategies exist: multiple campaigns with few ad groups and keywords in each, or keyword bidding, tweaking every possible search term. Ad group bidding is the best of both worlds, allowing for control and maintaining a distance from overly involved management.

This article will outline the ideal campaign structure and provide three reasons why the ad group bid is the best management method when using manual bidding.

Ideal Google ads structure

Let’s go over the best structure for a straightforward search campaign. The first, and most significant point, is the importance of using manual bidding.

In short, manual bidding beats automated bidding for managers who want control over their campaign.

Let’s assume there’s just one search campaign. There are instances for multiple campaigns, such as a low-spending one for researching search terms and a performance one for high-quality keywords, but we’ll stick with one campaign for this article.

Each ad group corresponds to a different service or product page. Within that ad group are all the keywords that could potentially lead to that particular page. For example, Algorithmic Global has many restoration companies as clients—any keywords leading to a water damage service page should be in the same ad group.

The keywords in each ad group are all relevant to the service, and there are three ads in each ad group—two text ads, one responsive search ad.

The ad group bid

Even if your campaign isn’t structured exactly like the above recommendations, you can still benefit from the ad group bid.

There are three key reasons why the ad group bid is the best management strategy:

• Keeps campaign bids set
• Reduces keyword tweaking
• Allows for pricing relative to service or product type

Let’s take a look at all three.

Keeps campaign bids set

Whether you’re running your ads, or running ads for a client, the campaign bid reflects how much money the business spends each month. The daily spend amount determines it—Google averages this amount over the entire month.

There are days when the campaign won’t spend the entire amount. The leftover difference is added to other days, so the campaign’s spending should be standard by the end of each month, based on the daily spend.

Well, altering the campaign bids changes the amount Google spends. With multiple campaigns and multiple accounts, there’s a chance that they won’t spend the predetermined amount.

Or worse, they’ll spend more.

Keeping campaign bids set by only tweaking ad group bids ensures your campaigns spend the proper amount each month.

Reduces keyword tweaking

Each ad group could contain dozens, if not hundreds, of keywords. Strategies that call for keyword bidding require an enormous time investment in maintenance.

Using an ad group bid strategy reduces that time cost, giving managers more time for analyzing data.

In theory, there are only as many ad groups as there are service or product offerings. So, however many services or products you advertise is how many bid amounts require your attention.

There will be some bid amounts for high-spending keywords, telling you the bid amount isn’t sufficient for the first page of Google search results. One thing to keep in mind: that designation isn’t permanent or even standard at all times. It just means that at the peak search volume, the bid is insufficient.

Your ad still serves at other times, potentially giving you a bargain.

Allows for pricing relative to service or product type

The last benefit of the ad group bid strategy is what makes it a happy medium between campaign and keyword bidding strategies.

Not every ad group bid has to be the same. They shouldn’t be.

The ad group bid should reflect the cost of the service. Let’s go back to the restoration company example: commercial vent cleaning doesn’t generate as much revenue as water damage restoration. So, bids for the water damage restoration ad group are much higher than the commercial cleaning ad group.

A tiered ad group bid strategy guarantees that you don’t spend too much for a click when the same service or product is for sale.

Google ads management with Algorithmic Global

Ad group bids are a powerful tool for ensuring total monthly spend amount, preventing over-management, and guaranteeing consistent click cost for every service or product. It relies on manual bidding, a key control aspect for PPC managers not content with automated bidding.

While other strategies exist, the one that harnesses the power of the ad group bid is the best for taking advantage of Google’s massive search volume.

Are you interested in expert Google ads management? The team at Algorithmic Global can help! Give us a call or reach out to us via our contact page, and our experienced team will follow up with you and find out how we can work together on your digital marketing!