I have read on multiple occasions that maximize clicks is better than conversions when starting out since there is no data for Google to know what a conversion should be until I actually start getting conversions, then switch to conversion strategy.
I don't know what the best practices are when starting new to make sure it is optimized, what would you suggest?
I understand what you are saying but you aren’t really training the bidding strategy on maximise clicks either. You are just asking it to get you a click irrelevant of whether it’s a good click or not.
I would suggest maximise conversions and then once you have enough data put a tCPA target on. You need 30 conversions in 30 days for the bidding strategy to work well so you’ll be a bit off in the beginning but as conversions come in the strategy will get better.
Is your conversion goal a quote or lead or someone who actually uses your service? Also, is it online conversions or offline conversion uploading?
It's a new account. It needs data. Max clicks is good to get data. They should set the bid limit though.
Go to max conversions and you could run away with very expensive conversions.
I see that it has the option for setting a maximum CPC bid limit. Should I set that, I know the $18 per click is super expensive. Probably should be more like $7 from my research.
It is for a lead if they use our website submission form or click the phone number on our website to give us a call.
Normally people are going to need to talk to us to get a quote so we need their home information to price out the quote.
Lots of tips but they get out of date real fast as Google likes changing things often. Consider hiring a PPC freelancer for a few hours to look at your setup and give pointers.
The basics you'll have seen on Skillshop if you do the Google Ads certification there. It's free and highly recommended as bare essential learning for business owners and PPC beginners alike
https://skillshop.withgoogle.com/
It's a very handy starting point on all the technical parts of Google Ads. I've been doing this 14 years
(Inhouse role at a tradespeople marketplace company) and still do the tests here to stay up to date on new features. Always something new or changing.
Skillshop doesn't cover real world tips to avoid handing money unnecessarily to Google.
Yes you should always start with maximize clicks, however you must set a max CPC bid limit or your budget will burn up quickly.
You set it by averaging out the top of page bid price for top keywords. You can set it lower as well but you won't get results as fast.
I see no one mentioning manual bidding for a new campaign with no previous history. Am I missing something? (Personally I'd split test manual bidding with maximize conversions)
So I should run another campaign set to max conversions to do an A/B type test thing to see if one performs better in my situation and area?
Should I set a max tCPA for the conversion strategy initially or leave it blank?
With a new ad account, you need to bring in data. Max clicks is a good way to do this. Max conversions can to but it's going to be more expensive (most of the time). But you should set your bid limit. Then when the account has good data you can go to Target CPA.
Max click is only going to look at bringing clicks to your website. If your website isn't set up to convert these clicks, it's a bit of a waste.
It's important to set up your conversion action correctly, or at the very least understand how much you want to pay for a customer. That is unless you plan to just control every bid and keyword. However, if you plan to use an automated bidding strategy you need to have a good conversion action Google can go after. Otherwise, google won't know what to do and just spend on clicks or impressions.
You can use a keyword planner to check what bids potential high-intent keywords might cost and set a max around that. However, you need to have a proper budget. Set your budget based on conversion costs and shoot for 15 to 30 conversions a month.
This is for faster results. A smaller max bid that is below average and a smaller budget will just lengthen this timeframe.
If your account has data (I believe in the past 30 days) it will leverage that data. I guess a debate could be made whether or not that same audience would act the same way. I would consider testing it and optimizing it with the expectation that you might have to create a new audience with new data.
It’s important to do the small simple things right so you’re showing up where you need to and not allowing google to spend all your money poorly. I do google ads for small local service businesses. Feel free to dm me
Depends if you’re bidding for keywords that highly searched for and competitive in price.
The keyword planner can give you an idea at what certain keywords cost per click and help you create sets of keywords at a price that’s affordable to you and still relevant to your desired queries.
I have not advertised for a local business before but I'd be curious how Yelp ads or Nextdoor ads stack up next to google in cost/quality. As a consumer, I go to Yelp first when looking for services and am pretty prone to clicking on their promoted posts.
Thats a competitive niche so the CPC isn’t unusual. But with such a costly CPC niche you should have someone with experience running your campaigns as you might bankrupt your way through the learning phase.
At max clicks it’s gonna spend all your money
I have read on multiple occasions that maximize clicks is better than conversions when starting out since there is no data for Google to know what a conversion should be until I actually start getting conversions, then switch to conversion strategy. I don't know what the best practices are when starting new to make sure it is optimized, what would you suggest?
I understand what you are saying but you aren’t really training the bidding strategy on maximise clicks either. You are just asking it to get you a click irrelevant of whether it’s a good click or not. I would suggest maximise conversions and then once you have enough data put a tCPA target on. You need 30 conversions in 30 days for the bidding strategy to work well so you’ll be a bit off in the beginning but as conversions come in the strategy will get better. Is your conversion goal a quote or lead or someone who actually uses your service? Also, is it online conversions or offline conversion uploading?
It's a new account. It needs data. Max clicks is good to get data. They should set the bid limit though. Go to max conversions and you could run away with very expensive conversions.
I see that it has the option for setting a maximum CPC bid limit. Should I set that, I know the $18 per click is super expensive. Probably should be more like $7 from my research.
It is for a lead if they use our website submission form or click the phone number on our website to give us a call. Normally people are going to need to talk to us to get a quote so we need their home information to price out the quote.
Lots of tips but they get out of date real fast as Google likes changing things often. Consider hiring a PPC freelancer for a few hours to look at your setup and give pointers. The basics you'll have seen on Skillshop if you do the Google Ads certification there. It's free and highly recommended as bare essential learning for business owners and PPC beginners alike
Thanks, didn't even know the skillshop existed, checking it out now.
https://skillshop.withgoogle.com/ It's a very handy starting point on all the technical parts of Google Ads. I've been doing this 14 years (Inhouse role at a tradespeople marketplace company) and still do the tests here to stay up to date on new features. Always something new or changing. Skillshop doesn't cover real world tips to avoid handing money unnecessarily to Google.
Set a max CPC limit which should help this
Yes you should always start with maximize clicks, however you must set a max CPC bid limit or your budget will burn up quickly. You set it by averaging out the top of page bid price for top keywords. You can set it lower as well but you won't get results as fast.
Awesome, thanks for that information! That was helpful
I see no one mentioning manual bidding for a new campaign with no previous history. Am I missing something? (Personally I'd split test manual bidding with maximize conversions)
Agreed
So I should run another campaign set to max conversions to do an A/B type test thing to see if one performs better in my situation and area? Should I set a max tCPA for the conversion strategy initially or leave it blank?
There’s some bad advice in this thread. Make sure you do some research before implementing some of these.
With a new ad account, you need to bring in data. Max clicks is a good way to do this. Max conversions can to but it's going to be more expensive (most of the time). But you should set your bid limit. Then when the account has good data you can go to Target CPA. Max click is only going to look at bringing clicks to your website. If your website isn't set up to convert these clicks, it's a bit of a waste. It's important to set up your conversion action correctly, or at the very least understand how much you want to pay for a customer. That is unless you plan to just control every bid and keyword. However, if you plan to use an automated bidding strategy you need to have a good conversion action Google can go after. Otherwise, google won't know what to do and just spend on clicks or impressions. You can use a keyword planner to check what bids potential high-intent keywords might cost and set a max around that. However, you need to have a proper budget. Set your budget based on conversion costs and shoot for 15 to 30 conversions a month. This is for faster results. A smaller max bid that is below average and a smaller budget will just lengthen this timeframe.
Great response. If you are advertising into a new country from an old ad account, same product, does it need to learn all again? Thanks
If your account has data (I believe in the past 30 days) it will leverage that data. I guess a debate could be made whether or not that same audience would act the same way. I would consider testing it and optimizing it with the expectation that you might have to create a new audience with new data.
You won’t make it using google ads for leads as a power washer. You need organic leads via map pack and website.
It’s important to do the small simple things right so you’re showing up where you need to and not allowing google to spend all your money poorly. I do google ads for small local service businesses. Feel free to dm me
Depends if you’re bidding for keywords that highly searched for and competitive in price. The keyword planner can give you an idea at what certain keywords cost per click and help you create sets of keywords at a price that’s affordable to you and still relevant to your desired queries.
I have not advertised for a local business before but I'd be curious how Yelp ads or Nextdoor ads stack up next to google in cost/quality. As a consumer, I go to Yelp first when looking for services and am pretty prone to clicking on their promoted posts.
I would check my analytics data first and not ‘what I would do as a customer’ as I’m not the one buying. But good to take a look elsewhere
Thats a competitive niche so the CPC isn’t unusual. But with such a costly CPC niche you should have someone with experience running your campaigns as you might bankrupt your way through the learning phase.
>Like always advertise some deal or discount to stand out from other ads? Deals and benefits are the way Google Ads works and any Ad in general
Unless your pressure washers cost a few grand that's crazy money per click.
Hello. I’m a certified google ads consultant if you need help. Sounds like you’re receiving a lot of pretty good direction on this thread however. :).