A budget bid strategy lets you automatically optimize spend toward the key metrics you have chosen for a plan. For example, if your key metric is clicks, then your budget bid strategy automatically optimizes spend to get the most clicks at the lowest average cost per click given the amount you want to spend over the date range of the plan. If your key metric is Target CPA (Cost-per-action), then the goal is to maximize conversions. If the goal is revenue, your key metric is Target ROAS (return on ad spend).
To achieve your key metrics within the parameters of your plan, a budget bid strategy can make changes to individual campaign budgets, bids, and bid adjustments. As such, you see variations in daily or weekly spend as your plan progresses.
A budget bid strategy needs at least three weeks of performance data for each campaign in the group in order to optimize plan performance. (If you start a new campaign for which there is no historical performance data, manage the campaign manually until you have at least three weeks of data).
Learn more about how to implement a budget bid strategy.
- Google Ads Search
- Google Ads Shopping
- Google Ads Performance Max
- Microsoft Search
- Microsoft Shopping
- Baidu Search
- Yahoo! JAPAN Search
The following table lists the available options in a budget bid strategy.
| KPI: Clicks |
KPI: Conversions (CPA) Conversions value (ROAS) |
|
|---|---|---|
|
Google Ads auction-time bidding |
No |
Yes If Google Ads action-time bidding is enabled, Search Ads 360 creates a shared budget only for the active Google Ads campaigns in the group. Search Ads 360 doesn't create a shared budget for Google Ads Performance Max, Microsoft Advertising, Yahoo! Japan Ads, or Baidu campaigns. |
|
Auction-time bidding limits |
No |
No |
|
Minimum bid |
No |
No |
|
Maximum bid |
No |
No |
|
Intraday bidding limits |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Minimum bid |
No |
Yes |
|
Maximum bid |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Bid adjustments (intraday only) These are for device, audience and location |
No |
Yes |
|
Advanced controls (To allocate specific percentages of overall budget across different client accounts) |
Yes |
Yes Actual spend might differ due to factors like available inventory, bids, and any limits you set. |
How total plan spend is calculated
In budget bid strategies, the spend of each campaign in your plan is recorded and used to calculate your total plan spend. When you remove a campaign from your plan before your plan’s end date, the historical spend for the removed campaign is still included in the calculation of your total plan spend.
The recorded total plan spend is taken into consideration in the calculation of budgets for the remaining days of your plan.
Example
- Campaign A: $5,000 USD spend (removed prior to the end date of the plan)
- Campaign B: $10,000 USD spend
- Total plan spend: $15,000 USD