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Surfside PPC Podcast Episode 3 - When Should I Change My Bid Strategy? — Transcript

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0:00What's up everyone? Welcome to episode
0:02three of the Surfside PPC podcast. Now,
0:05I want everyone to get involved with the
0:06podcast. The whole point is that if you
0:09are a listener, I would like for you to
0:10ask your questions. Now, with being a
0:13listener and asking questions,
0:14basically, you just need to be a member
0:16of my school community, my Patreon, or
0:20my YouTube membership. So, one of those
0:21three options, you can ask questions
0:23from there, and that's where I will
0:24answer them. If you're looking for
0:25information on all that, go to
0:26surfsidepppc.com.
0:28You can join any of those very
0:30manageable in terms of pricing and my
0:32goal is to give you way more in
0:34knowledge than you know what you're
0:35actually spending on that. So hopefully
0:37you save a lot of money on Google ad
0:39just by listening to this podcast. So if
0:41you want to ask a question that's how to
0:43do it. Today I have two questions lined
0:44up. We are going to be talking more
0:46about bidding strategies, conversion
0:49tracking, when to make certain decisions
0:51when it comes to bidding. So, the very
0:52first question is going to be,
0:54>> "My target CPA has been set to $50 for
0:57the last month, but our cost per
0:58conversion is around $75. What is the
1:01best way to handle this if I want to get
1:03my cost per conversion down?" We have
1:05our conversion tracking is set up, and
1:08for the last 30 days, our cost per
1:10conversion is $75. For our campaign
1:13setting, we have our target CPA set
1:17around $50. So, does it make more sense
1:20for us to try to get this cost per
1:23conversion down to 50 or where should we
1:25set our target CPA? What should that
1:28target be based on the results of the
1:30last 30 days and based on ideally a
1:33conversion being $50? So, very good
1:35question and kind of the battle that you
1:38go back and forth with in Google Ads.
1:40It's actually really funny. Like years
1:41ago when I would manage Google ads, you
1:43would have a client that was
1:44consistently around $30 cost per
1:46conversion. And if it went up to $40
1:48cost per conversion, the client was
1:49about ready to fire you about to say,
1:51"Okay, you're just not managing my
1:52account because I know I can get $30
1:54cost per conversion." Now, it's kind of
1:56like, you know, there's probably clients
1:57that still do that, but you're just
1:58going to keep firing all of your
1:59agencies because the next month might be
2:02$25 cost per conversion. So, a few
2:03different things about cost per
2:05conversion numbers. I really like to
2:07look at different trends. I like to look
2:09at my 30-day trends, my 14-day trends,
2:12my 60-day trends, last month, the
2:14previous month, different time periods,
2:16and kind of get an idea of what does my
2:19cost per conversion generally look like.
2:21You also need to have an understanding
2:23like I have clients that tell me, hey, I
2:25want my cost per conversion to stay
2:27under $150. You know, enter any number
2:30there. And when I have a number like
2:31that, it gives me a little bit more
2:32leeway as an advertiser to be able to
2:35bid a little bit more aggressively or
2:37vice versa, bid in a way that's not so
2:39aggressive and and trying to hit that
2:41target. So to answer the question, if
2:44you are at a $50 CPA target and your
2:47current cost per conversion is $75, if
2:50you're getting plenty of volume there
2:51and you're, you know, you're seeing good
2:53results, then basically what I would say
2:54is if your goal is to really lower your
2:57cost per conversion, if you're like
2:58number one priority, get cost per
3:00conversion down, even if it comes at the
3:02expense of conversion volume. So let's
3:04just say that's number one priority,
3:06then I'm looking within the actual
3:07campaign itself. I'll leave my CPA
3:09target right where it is. Sometimes what
3:10I'll do is I'll actually increase my
3:12budgets because I want to give Google
3:14more budget to work with. That depends
3:16on where your budgets are at and whether
3:17or not you are limited by budget. But
3:20ultimately what I want to do is I want
3:21to go in the campaign and I'm trying to
3:23find anything that is kind of dragging
3:25down my campaign. So, for example, that
3:27could be something like a couple of
3:29keywords in the account that are getting
3:31clicks, are getting activity, that
3:33aren't driving conversions, that are
3:35actively bringing up your cost per
3:37conversion or, you know, making your
3:39conversion rate slightly worse. So, I'm
3:41looking for things like that in the
3:42account of areas of improvement. You
3:44know, if you're running three responsive
3:46searches search ads per ad group, then
3:49look at your responsive search ads, see
3:51if anything is converting a little bit
3:53better. If you're doing a landing page
3:55test, see if one of the landing pages is
3:56performing better. If you're not, maybe
3:58implement a landing page test. So, in
4:00the case of I really want to get my cost
4:02per conversion down to $50. I'm
4:05generally looking for things within the
4:06actual campaign itself. So, that's going
4:07to be keywords, ads, assets. You could
4:10look at your devices. You could look at
4:12locations where your ads are showing.
4:13Ultimately, it really depends on how
4:16much you're spending, how much volume
4:17you're getting, and what your ultimate
4:19goals are. So like if you're getting
4:22plenty of leads then yeah you can keep
4:24your target pretty low and you know if
4:27it's not a case where it's like we need
4:28more leads to survive as a business then
4:30yeah I think you would keep your targets
4:32pretty low and you're looking for those
4:33small opportunities within the actual
4:35account itself to lower your cost per
4:38click and improve your convert. So your
4:40bidding improving your actual targeting
4:43itself. This is sometimes where I would
4:45go in and set up a portfolio bidding
4:47strategy and I would say let's set our
4:49target C TPA to, you know, $50 and maybe
4:51we want to set a maximum bid limit. Go
4:53through your search terms for the
4:54previous 30, 60 days. Look at some of
4:56your really expensive clicks and just,
4:58you know, can we cut out a few really
5:00expensive clicks? If your keywords are
5:02generally $15 to $20 that convert, I
5:05still would set my max cost per click
5:06pretty high. I wouldn't set it at $20.
5:08So, as you set more of these, you know,
5:11$50 target CPA, max cost per click bid
5:14limit of $30, for example, in a
5:15portfolio bidding strategy, what's going
5:17to end up happening is you're setting
5:19constraints on your Google Ads campaign.
5:21I think constraints are a good thing
5:22because ultimately, if you don't set
5:24constraints, Google's happy to just
5:25spend your budget wildly. So, these
5:27constraints that you set basically then
5:29you are able to have more predictable
5:32performance, but it comes at the expense
5:34of volume. So over time, what could
5:36potentially happen is if costs continue
5:38to rise and you're not actively managing
5:41your account and you know maybe you have
5:43a down month or two where conversion
5:45volume starts to drop then you can see
5:47at times where okay cost per conversion
5:49has now doubled because we're just not
5:51getting enough conversion data into the
5:52account. So very first thing is I am all
5:55for being more efficient and keeping
5:57your CPA target set lower than what your
6:00actual cost per conversion is trending
6:02at for the last 30 days. The main thing
6:04is keep in mind if if you're getting
6:06consistent volume, when I say volume,
6:08generally that means multiple
6:09conversions per day over the course of a
6:11month. If you're limited volume, that
6:13means one or less conversion per day, 30
6:15or less conversions over the course of a
6:17month. Generally, when you're at that
6:18number, you're you're somewhat limited
6:20in what you're actually getting. You
6:22know, one conversion per day is not
6:24volume, but two to three to four leads
6:26per day is volume that is more
6:29predictable. you know, on a Monday,
6:30Tuesday, Wednesday, I can say, "Okay, we
6:32drove eight leads. We we spent, you
6:35know, $500 and it cost x amount per lead
6:38for those leads that came in that." So,
6:40it's more predictable when you have that
6:42level of of numbers coming in. It's why
6:44the challenge of when you say, "Okay,
6:46over the last 5 days, we've spent $225
6:49and we've driven two conversions and
6:52we're just not quite getting enough
6:53data. You know, we're not getting enough
6:55volume to actually optimize." So
6:56basically long way of saying I if you're
6:59interested in more volume I would
7:02increase my CPA target. If you're like
7:04I'm comfortable spending a cost per
7:05conversion up to $125. That is usually
7:08when I would say I'm going to set my CPA
7:10target up to you know basically 125.
7:13Maybe I'd go up to even 150 to kind of
7:15open up you know my campaign a little
7:17bit. As you increase that CPA target
7:19basically you're giving Google more
7:21ability to actually spend your budget
7:23bid more aggressively. you're going to
7:25enter more auctions. So, finding out
7:27what the right CPA target is is really a
7:29balancing act. It's a balancing act of
7:31determining how many leads do we really
7:33want every month. So, I have a few
7:36clients that are like, "We want volume."
7:37Those clients, I set their target CPA
7:40higher than what the actual cost per
7:42conversion ends up being. So, cost per
7:44conversion might be $60 at the end of
7:45the month. Our target CPAs are set to
7:47like 125. Why? Basically, I don't want
7:50Google to stop spending because they are
7:52not confident that they can drive me an
7:54additional conversion or two in a single
7:55bit. So, I want to leave those
7:57floodgates kind of open where my budgets
7:59are set very high, my bids are set very
8:01high, and basically I'm just looking
8:03within the actual campaign itself to
8:05make sure my targeting looks good, make
8:06sure my landing pages are converting.
8:08So, that's kind of the way that I like
8:09to handle that situation. for a client
8:11who's very, you know, convert cost per
8:14conversion focused, like it needs to be
8:16under $50, for example, to use our same
8:18example. Basically, I'm setting my CPA
8:20targets lower and I'm more comfortable
8:22with understanding that, hey, we may
8:25only get 50 leads at the end of the
8:26month. we may only spend, you know,
8:28$3,000 or whatever it might be over the
8:30course of a month, but we're going to
8:32have more consistence more consistency
8:35in terms of we're getting two leads per
8:38day are coming in and we're paying X
8:39amount per two leads. So, those are kind
8:41of the two scenarios. The scenario where
8:43this doesn't work is when budget is too
8:46low, target CPAs are set like way too
8:50low, and cost per click is way too high,
8:52and you're just not really giving
8:54yourself enough data to actually
8:56optimize. So, if you're not getting
8:58really, I mean, Google Ads, the
9:00guideline is 15 conversions in a 30-day
9:02period. To me, 30 conversions in a
9:0430-day period is truly what you want.
9:06More conversion data, especially if it's
9:08good qualified lead conversion data, the
9:11better. So, if you don't if you're
9:13getting leads from your ads and let's
9:15just say you get like seven or eight
9:17leads a month and seven or eight
9:18conversions a month, you're really going
9:20to struggle to use smart bidding
9:21strategies effectively because they're
9:23really based on data. So, that's kind of
9:25why I talk about volume and data a lot
9:27is you need to feed the Google Ads beast
9:30with data and if you don't have enough,
9:32you're kind of treading water at times.
9:34So, that is going to answer that
9:35question. If you have a $50 CPA target,
9:37$75 cost per conversion, what's the best
9:39way to handle it? basically increase
9:42your CPA target if you're looking for
9:43more volume. If you're comfortable
9:44spending more per conversion, if you're
9:46looking to spend more of your
9:47advertising dollars, obviously nobody
9:49wants to spend more advertising dollars,
9:51but that leads to sales, it leads to
9:54revenue, it leads to clients, it leads
9:55to customers. So, if you're a little bit
9:57more cost focused, keep that CPA target
9:59low. Consider set using a port CPC
10:01bidding target. if you're consistently
10:04spending, you know, and doing pretty
10:06well over the course of a month where
10:07for the most part you're hitting that
10:08$50 cost per conversion. Sometimes a
10:1030-day, you know, you might have a a a
10:13stretch that's a little bit slower than
10:15another stretch. You know, one month
10:16it's $50 cost per conversion, one month
10:18it's 75, one month it's 45, one month
10:20it's 62. You know, it's kind of going to
10:22bounce around like that. You want to
10:23keep it lower. You got to keep bringing
10:25down your CPA target. But if your cost
10:27per click is like 20, $30, $40, you're
10:30not going to be able to drive leads for
10:31really cheap costs. Like if you know,
10:33for roofers, I'm spending $30, $40 a
10:35click. If a roofer comes to me and says,
10:36"I need $40 or $50 leads," I'm going to
10:38say it's impossible. Like there's just
10:40no way to do it using Google ads under
10:42the current, you know, the way it's
10:43currently set up. So that is how I would
10:46handle CPA targets. So next up, we are
10:49going to answer a question. A pretty
10:51common one that I get is,
10:52>> "How do I know when I have enough
10:54conversion data to switch to maximize
10:56conversions or target CPA? What is the
10:58minimum number of conversions I need to
11:00switch effectively?
11:02>> When how do I know when to switch? I'm
11:04currently using maximize clicks bidding.
11:06We have conversion data coming into the
11:08account. At what point do I know that I
11:10can switch to maximize conversions
11:12bidding?" And this is a really great
11:13question. For me, my answer is generally
11:16switch as quickly as possible. I think
11:18the ultimate goal is to get to using
11:20smart bidding strategies because they're
11:22taking into account so many different
11:24data points that maximize clicks is not
11:26taking into account that manual CPC will
11:28not take into account. So to me as
11:30quickly as possible get to maximize
11:32conversions. What is that threshold? If
11:34I have let's just say I'm running my ads
11:36and over the a fiveday stretch I'm able
11:38to drive five conversions. Let's just
11:40say though that exact number, 5day
11:42stretch, five conversions. I am
11:43literally switching to maximize
11:45conversions and seeing if my campaign
11:46continues to spend. So my general
11:49process with this is when you first get
11:51started with a brand new account, a lot
11:53of times maximize conversions is just
11:55not going to run. There's no conversion
11:57data in the account for Google to
11:58maximize your conversions. So what I
12:00usually do is set up my conversion
12:01tracking and then I'm either using
12:03maximize clicks with exact match
12:05keywords or I'm using manual CPC with
12:08phrase match keywords. I don't know that
12:09there is a singular right answer for
12:11this and I think it varies based on what
12:13you're actually targeting. But for me, I
12:15would say if I had to pick one, I'd
12:17probably go maximize clicks exact match,
12:19but I I kind of go all over the place
12:20with this. Like I've tested broad match
12:22at times to start just to get search
12:24term data in for a client that wanted to
12:26spend more and spend quickly. So if
12:28you're willing to spend more, willing to
12:30spend a little bit quicker and open to,
12:32hey, there's going to be a little bit of
12:34an investment and a little bit of waste
12:35as we launch. So broad match keywords
12:38with with manual CPC is not the end of
12:40the world either using that. It's just
12:42one of those things like you really have
12:43to watch it and if you're using broad
12:45match keywords you really want to use a
12:46limited set of keywords. So basically
12:49for me the way that I determine when it
12:51is time to switch is usually like seven
12:53conversions in a you know generally in
12:56that box. So when I first launch and it
12:59it depends on the client. Sometimes this
13:01data comes in very quickly if they're
13:02spending a lot. I did this recently and
13:05for a small spending client, which is
13:07when this is a really a challenge, they
13:08have a $2,000 monthly budget. It is a a
13:11family friend who wants to run ads.
13:13$2,000 monthly budget and which isn't a
13:16bad budget, honestly. It's just for
13:17their industry, the average budget is
13:20probably, you know, 10 to 50,000. So,
13:23they are a national company. They
13:25provide a a national service. I don't
13:27want to get too deep into the details,
13:29but average cost per click for this
13:31service is around I would say $20. I had
13:34ran their ads several years ago and it
13:35was around 11 to $15 at the time. I
13:38remember our cost per click a lot of
13:39times was $11. Now it is probably around
13:42$18 to 22. So our costs have increased.
13:45You know, costs have doubled per click
13:47in this industry really without me doing
13:50anything. No matter what I do, that's
13:51what the cost is. So for this client, I
13:54ended up getting I think we ended up
13:55having about five conversions come in.
13:57Lead forms come in. Not overly ideal in
14:00terms of cost. I mean our cost per lead
14:02probably spend about a,000 to get five
14:04lead forms in. Now people are going to
14:05be like, "Well, that's terrible." But
14:06it's $20 a click. So you're really only
14:09getting a limited chances of clicks and
14:11it's not like they are a national
14:13leader. This is manual bidding with no
14:15conversion data. So explaining to the
14:18client, hey, it's going to take a little
14:19bit while to get this going, but once we
14:21do, we should be able to kind of get
14:22more consistent results. Basically, once
14:25I had those initial conversions come in,
14:27for me, the number is generally in that
14:29five, six, seven, eight. You know, if
14:31I'm getting more in a shorter time
14:32period, then I'm definitely more open to
14:34switching to maximize conversions
14:35quicker. If you run ads for a 30-day
14:37period, you get like five conversions,
14:39you're kind of in that in between point.
14:41Like really, just consider that 15
14:43conversions in 30-day threshold. But if
14:45you have a 10day period where you've
14:47driven 10 leads and you know your lead
14:50quality is looking good, you know that's
14:51coming in, then you're in really good
14:52shape, just switch to maximize
14:54conversions. And then from there, I'll
14:56usually run maximize conversions for
14:58let's say a month, you know, a couple
15:00weeks to a month. It just depends on how
15:02those results look. And then from there,
15:04that's when I usually start to set a
15:05target CPA or a target return on ad
15:08spend depending on what, you know, the
15:10actual costs are looking like and the
15:11return is looking like. So that's kind
15:13of my overall process with everything. I
15:15would say the threshold you're looking
15:16for is can you get seven conversions in
15:20one week? Can you get let's just say
15:21seven conversions in two weeks? Like if
15:23you can hit kind of those around those
15:25numbers, it's a lot easier to kind of
15:27make that switch to maximize
15:28conversions. If you get your first two,
15:30three, four conversions, I'm still like,
15:32let's use manual bidding for a little
15:34bit longer. Really pay close attention
15:36to your search terms, you know, your
15:37landing page traffic that's coming in.
15:39Like really pay close attention to all
15:41of those things as much as you can. And
15:43from there, you're that's usually I'm
15:44making the switch to maximize
15:45conversions. Once I kind of reach that,
15:47let's say seven conversions in 10 days,
15:49seven conversions in 15 days is kind is
15:51kind of the numbers I'm looking for. If
15:53you run for a full month, you know,
15:54really hitting that conversion
15:56threshold, probably having at least 10
15:58helps. So, answering our two questions
16:00today about bidding, basically, when do
16:02we switch to maximize conversions and
16:05how do we know what the right CPA target
16:07is to use? A lot of it is testing CPA
16:10targets. Set them higher to bid more
16:11aggressively. to set them lower to be
16:13more efficient. And always focus on
16:15what's actually happening within your
16:16campaign and have an understanding of if
16:19you start trying to become a little bit
16:21more efficient, it could come at the
16:23cost of your competitors getting leads
16:26that potentially you would have gotten
16:27if you were bidding a little bit more
16:29aggressive. So that will wrap up episode
16:31three of the Surfside PPC podcast.
16:33Again, go to surfsideepc.com
16:35to ask your questions, to join my
16:37Patreon, to join my Surfside PPC
16:40premium, and uh get all the information
16:42you need to get about Google ads. It'll
16:44be a lot of uh good content coming out
16:45this year, a lot of premium content, and
16:48obviously you can ask your questions if
16:49you join there. So, thanks for listening
16:51and I'll see you on the next

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