About Google Ads bid strategies in Search Ads 360

If you use Google Ads bid strategies instead of Search Ads 360 bid strategies in your Google Ads accounts, you can apply and manage the following types of Google Ads bid strategies from Search Ads 360:

• ECPC bidding
• Standard bid strategies
• Portfolio bid strategies

Google Ads enhanced cost-per-click (ECPC) bidding

If you’ve set up Google Ads conversion trackers and you want help with adjusting your bids to achieve more conversions, you can use a Google Ads automated bid adjustment feature called Enhanced cost-per-click (ECPC) and certain automated bidding strategies to aid you with achieving more clicks or conversions with your search and Shopping campaigns.

Enhanced CPC scans the ad auction landscape at auction time and automatically adjusts bids up or down as it determines whether a click is more or less likely to lead to a conversion. The ECPC feature can be turned on in individual campaigns where you manually set bids and it can be used to enhance other types of Google Ads click-focused, automated bid strategies such as Maximize Clicks. Learn more about Enhanced CPC in Google Ads Help.

Google Ads standard bid strategies

Google Ads includes several types of standard automated bid strategies but only the Maximize Clicks, Target CPA, and Target ROAS standard bid strategies can be applied in Search Ads 360.

Maximize Clicks

The Maximize Clicks bid strategy automatically sets bids to achieve as many clicks as possible within a specified campaign budget. With the Maximize Clicks bid strategy, you can optionally set a maximum cost-per-click amount that you’re willing to pay for each click and enable the Enhanced CPC feature.

Learn more about the Maximize Clicks bid strategy in Google Ads Help.

Target CPA

A Target CPA bid strategy sets bids to achieve as many conversions as possible at or within range of the target cost-per-acquisition (CPA) you set. 

Learn more about the Target CPA bid strategy in Google Ads Help.

Target ROAS

Target ROAS lets you bid based on a target return on ad spend (ROAS). This Google Ads Smart bid strategy helps you get more conversion value or revenue at the target return-on-ad-spend (ROAS) you set. Your bids are automatically optimized at auction-time, allowing you to tailor bids for each auction.

Learn more about the Target ROAS bid strategy in Google Ads Help.

Google Ads portfolio bid strategies

Similar to creating Search Ads 360 bid strategies, in Google Ads you can create a portfolio bid strategy to automatically optimize bids for your performance goals. Then you can apply the strategy to multiple campaigns.

After you create a portfolio bid strategy in Google Ads and sync the change into Search Ads 360, you apply the bid strategy and report on performance in Search Ads 360.

Google Ads bid strategies or Search Ads 360 bid strategies

Google Ads bid strategies should not be used in combination with a Search Ads 360 bid strategy. That is, either a Google Ads bid strategy or a Search Ads 360 bid strategy should be in effect, but not both.

Which system will work best for you? The best way to find out is to compare performance of the two systems. Keep in mind that many Google Ads bid strategies only work with Google Ads campaigns that use Google Ads conversion trackers. You can create Search Ads 360 bid strategies and apply them across an account to groups of Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising, and other types of campaigns. In addition, you can use Search Ads 360 bid strategies to optimize bids for product groups and product targets as well as keywords.

Apply bid strategies only from Search Ads 360 to prevent errors

Search Ads 360 doesn't prevent you from having both a Search Ads 360 bid strategy and a Google Ads bid strategy in effect for a campaign, ad group, or keyword. Google Ads isn't aware of Search Ads 360 bid strategies, so you could apply a Search Ads 360 bid strategy in Search Ads 360 and then sign in to Google Ads and apply a Google Ads bid strategy to the same campaign. You can also apply a Google Ads bid strategy in Search Ads 360 even if a Search Ads 360 bid strategy is already applied. 

At this point, you'll have two separate bid strategies in effect. Search Ads 360 will detect that the campaign, ad group, or keyword is also managed by the Google Ads bid strategy and display a warning message. Because the different types of bid strategies manage bids independently, you are likely to see unexpected, and unpredictable results.

To avoid this situation, we recommend that you only apply one type of bid strategy.