Should Small Businesses Use Smart Bidding in Google Ads?

bidding google ads May 06, 2024

a shop owner holding a sign that says OPEN

By: Jyll Saskin Gales, Google Ads Coach

Are you a small business owner wondering if Smart Bidding is right for you? You might have heard conflicting advice, with some experts recommending against it for smaller companies. However, I'm here to tell you that Smart Bidding can be a winner for businesses of all sizes.

What is Smart Bidding in Google Ads?

Smart Bidding is a set of Google Ads bid strategies that leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to optimize your bids for conversions or conversion value. This means that Google's powerful AI analyzes millions of signals to determine the optimal bid for each individual auction, helping you get the most out of your advertising budget.

The Benefits of Smart Bidding for Small Businesses

Smart Bidding offers several advantages for businesses of all sizes. You get to harness the power of Google's advanced AI, which is constantly learning and improving. Your bids are optimized in real-time for each auction, ensuring you're always bidding competitively. And you get access to millions of signals to optimize your ads in real time.

How to Use Smart Bidding with Low Conversion Volume

Google recommends having at least 30 conversions per month for Maximize Conversions and 50 conversions per month for Target ROAS. If your business doesn't meet these thresholds, you can still use Smart Bidding by implementing micro-conversions.

Micro-conversions are smaller actions that indicate a user is interested in your product or service. For example, an ecommerce store might track "Add to Cart" or "Start Checkout" as micro-conversions. By tracking these smaller actions, you can provide Google Ads with more data to optimize your bids, even if you have a low overall conversion volume.

Examples of Micro-Conversions

Ecommerce: Add to Cart, Start Checkout, Sign Up for Email List
Lead Generation: Visit Pricing Page, Start Contact Form, Download Whitepaper

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Ready to master Google Ads once and for all?

I’m Jyll Saskin Gales, your Google Ads Coach. I worked at Google for 6 years, bringing the best of Google's insights and ad products to the world's largest and most sophisticated advertisers. Now, I’m a Google Ads coach, consultant and teacher, working with business owners, marketers, agencies and freelancers.

I founded Learn with Jyll to make Google Ads training accessible for aspiring and experienced practitioners. My signature Google Ads training program, Inside Google Ads, is the right fit for most business owners and marketers. If you have zero marketing experience and want to ensure you understand all the jargon and terminology first, Google Ads for Beginners will get you ready in just a few hours.

Feel free to contact me with questions.

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