When setting up a new Microsoft Advertising (formerly known as Bing) campaign, there are so many things you need to know that sometimes it can seem overwhelming. One of them is the bidding strategy you are going to use. In this article we will look into the differences between the various Bing bidding strategies.
Bing Bidding Strategies
Enhanced CPC (smart)
You set your ad group and keyword bids and Bing adjusts your manual bids for clicks that seem more or less likely to lead to a sale or conversion on your website.
Maximize Clicks (automated)
Automatically sets your bids to help get the most conversions for your campaign while spending your budget.
Maximize Conversions (automated)
Automatically sets bids in real time to get as many conversions as possible within the budget.
Target CPA (automated)
The advertiser sets the budget and the target CPA (cost-per-acquisition), and Bing automatically sets the bids to help get as many conversions as possible at or below the target cost-per-acquisition.
Target Return On Ad Spend (automated)
You set your budget and your target 30-day average return on ad spend (ROAS), and Bing automatically sets your bids in real time to get you to this average.
Target Impression Share
You set your budget, where you want ads to appear, and your target impression share, and Bing automatically sets your bids.
Differences Between Bidding Strategies
Bidding is setting the highest price that you are willing to pay each time someone clicks your ad.
Manual and automated are the types of bidding strategies that an advertiser can choose from.
With manual bidding an advertiser sets and controls the cost per click without any artificial intelligence (AI) assistance or smart solution. Manual bidding is best if:
- You have a limited budget
- You have a small amount of historical data
- You want more control over your campaigns and the ability to make quick changes
- You have a lot of time for campaign monitoring.
In March, Bing announced that all campaigns without any automated bidding strategies in place will be automatically migrated to Enhanced CPC. Therefore, manual bidding is not available in the Bing interface anymore.
Automated bidding, also known as smart bidding, is an AI-led keyword bidding strategy that uses algorithms to optimize bids according to your campaign goals. Smart bidding is best if:
- You have large PPC accounts
- You have a lot of historical data
- You want to reduce the time you spend on campaign monitoring
- You have specific goals
- You lack the expertise for manual bidding
Bing uses a variety of signals to inform its bidding strategies, such as browsing activity, operating system, search queries, and ad copy. The system also makes bid adjustments in real time based on the time of day, day of the week, user location, and device type..
If you are interested in understanding all of the different smart bidding strategies in the Google Ads channel, you can do so here.
Get in touch with the SEM professionals at Aronson Advertising to help you determine the right Bing bidding strategy for your business. Contact us today online or by calling (847) 297-1700
