Inside Google Ads podcast: Episode 86 - Target vs. Maximize vs. Manual bidding

There are a lot of different bid strategies to choose from in Google Ads, and they can be categorized in three ways: Target, Maximize, and Manual.

When should you use a Target-based bid strategy versus a Maximize bid strategy versus a Manual one?

How do these different bid strategies compare to each other? And are there scenarios where Manual CPC still makes sense?

I'm your host, Jyll Saskin Gales. I spent six years working for big brands at Google, and now I work for you.

This is Inside Google Ads: Episode 86, Target vs. Maximize vs. Manual Bidding.

Our first question comes from Carsten Streich on LinkedIn. And in response to a post where I shared the new Target CPC bid strategy that's come to Demand Gen, he said, why not call this Maximize Clicks? It's not quite the same since defining a Max CPC as a restraint is optional, but I guess this new click-based strategy could be a replacement for Manual CPC and enhanced CPC?

What I replied to Carsten is that target bid strategies work fundamentally differently than Maximize strategies. Let's unpack that a little further. 

By the way, in Episode 77 of this podcast, I did a deep dive on every single bid strategy explained. And I'm actually currently writing my second book, Inside Google Ads, Everything You Need to Know About Bidding.

Let's start with our click-based bid strategy choices in Demand Gen. You have Maximize Clicks or Target CPC. With Maximize Clicks, the objective is to spend the budget and then get clicks. Whereas with Target CPC, the objective is to hit your target cost per click, and then if it can do so consistently, spend your budget.

Notice the difference there. Maximize aims to spend the budget first and achieve the thing. Whereas with a target strategy, the objective is to hit that thing, hit that target. And if it can do so, spend the budget. But importantly, if it can't consistently do so, it won't spend your budget.

Now like Carsten, I also think that Target CPC could be a great eventual replacement for Manual CPC bidding because it allows for bidding flexibility and can consider some auction time contextual signals. Put another way, rather than using Manual CPC, which sets a Maximum CPC bid, so you have to stay below that in each and every auction, it sets a CPC target, giving the algorithm flexibility to go above that target or below that target so that it can average out the amount you're looking to pay. A maximum cost per click versus an average cost per click.

Let's say, and this is purely hypothetical and purely speculation on my part, but let's say that Target CPC does eventually expand beyond Demand Gen and replace Manual bidding. Here is what I think the most rational and logical bid strategy layout would be:

• Maximize clicks with optional Target CPC

• Maximize Conversions with optional Target CPA, and 

• Maximize Conversion Value with optional Target ROAS.

If we extend that to our view- and impression-based strategies, you can see how it makes even more sense. We could have:

• Maximize Views with optional Target cost per view

Rather than what we have right now, which is Maximum CPV (which is like a Manual CPV) or Target CPV (which is like a Target CPA or Target CPC). There's no option to just maximize views. Why not?

And then:

• Maximize Impressions with an optional Target Impression Share or an optional Target CPM

Rather than what we have currently, which is Viewable CPM (That's like Manual CPC, you set a Max CPM bid) or Target CPM (which is like Target CPA or Target CPC). If I just want to Maximize Impressions, let me Maximize Impressions!

Google Ads product team, I know you sometimes make this stuff way more complicated than it needs to be, so call me up if you want to work on this bid strategy upgrade together.

If you've been following this podcast for a while, you know that Inside Google Ads offers more than 100 in-platform tutorials with me, plus exclusive access to a one-hour call every month with me and guest experts. But one of the other benefits of Inside Google Ads, the course, that I don't often talk about is you can ask me questions in the course anytime, and I will get back to you within a few days. I answer dozens of my members' questions this way every single month. And one of the most common things we're talking about now is how to choose the right bid strategy in different scenarios and when it might be time to change. 

So if you've got a burning question, you don't want to just drop a comment and wait for me to maybe answer it in an upcoming episode, join Inside Google Ads today at learn.jyll.ca. That's J-Y-L-L dot C-A. I can't wait to get your burning questions answered.

Our second question today comes from KingYC4ZD on YouTube, and they say, do you suggest not using Manual bidding at all? 

That is correct. I see hundreds of Google Ads accounts a year, so trust me when I say there are very, very few use cases for Manual bidding in 2025.

Does that mean that you can't get good results with Manual CPC? No, but it means you will usually find better, more consistent results with much less effort on your part with Smart Bidding.

Because although Manual CPC may keep your CPCs low, remember, high CPCs aren't the enemy, low quality traffic is. When you use Manual CPC, even with Exact Match, expect your hidden search terms to skyrocket. Even when your search terms are visible, expect the quality of that intent to be lower because Google Ads is an auction - whether it's the Search auction or the YouTube auction or the Gmail auction or the Display auction, whatever placement you're bidding on - and as with any other auction, the more desirable stuff is more expensive. The “most desirable,” “more likely to convert,” “more likely to spend money” users are more desirable, and your competitor's Smart bidding strategies will be bidding higher on them than you. And they'll be bidding down on the lower intent users that you're going to be left with. 

There is literally one time in all of my 500 plus Google Ads coaching calls that I have recommended sticking with Manual bidding. And even there, it's a very esoteric industry that is extremely difficult to manage. Manual bidding is just the least bad of bad options. So do yourself a favor, do your clients a favor, use Smart bidding.

Now, what if it's a prospecting campaign that's not Search? For example, say I'm running a Demand Gen campaign to an in-market audience or a Video campaign with specific content placements. That's a little different. With Video, Smart Bidding isn't even an option. And with Demand Gen, I wouldn't try to judge the performance of the prospecting campaign on whether or not it converts. That's not the right metric for a cold audience. We're not capturing existing intent like in Search, we're trying to create it.

So with Demand Gen, that's when I will use a click-based bid strategy because I'm trying to get people over to my website for the very first time to learn more about us. And with Video campaigns, you have view-based and reach-based strategies. I will generally opt for the Video Views campaign because at least a view is some kind of engagement signaling interest. 

With both, though, the same principles apply. Start with Maximize, move to Target. For Demand Gen, that can mean starting with Maximize Clicks with the goal to get to Target CPC. For video, as we said, there is no Maximize Views, which feels silly to me. So I recommend just starting with a bit of a higher Target CPV, maybe like $0.10 to $0.15, just to really make sure you're giving it a lot of opportunity and breathing room, and then potentially bringing that down later if you need to.

However, if you choose to do a YouTube promotion rather than a Google Ads Video campaign, then you can just tell it to get you as many views as possible.

To learn more about that, check out Episode 78 of this podcast. It's all about YouTube promotion. I also just released a free online course all about Gmail Ads. So if you want to go really deep on Gmail, which is part of Demand Gen, I'll include a link to that free one hour Gmail Ads course in the episode description. Because if you're enjoying this podcast, you will definitely enjoy and learn a lot of new tricks with my Ultimate Guide to Gmail Ads course.

Our final question today comes from my friend Harrison Jack Hepp on LinkedIn. And he says, I have one client with $50 CPCs and we don't have enough conversion volume to make target CPA effective. However, Maximize Clicks with $50 CPCs just seems to inflate CPCs even more. So I'm running on Manual bidding now, but I feel like I'm at a major disadvantage versus other bidding strategies. A middle ground like Target CPC would be great, but it's not available for Search. 

I'm sure that if you've been working with Google Ads for some time, you have faced a very similar dilemma to what Jack is facing. What do you do when you have low Search volume and high CPCs? What bid strategy should you choose? 

Let's review the options first. For Search campaigns, we have Manual CPC, Maximize Clicks, Maximize Conversions, Target CPA, or Target Impression Share. I'm not going to include Max Conversion Value or Target ROAS as viable options here because you need even more conversion volume for those to work, so let's review the pros and cons of these other five options.

Manual CPC with a maximum CPC of $50 is what Jack has chosen. And to be very clear, I am not saying he's right or wrong. I haven't seen his account. He says there's not enough conversion volume yet and CPCs inflate when he does Max Clicks. I know Jack, he's actually been a guest on this podcast twice, so I will take him at his word. 

The pros are, of course, keeping costs down, but the cons are that he may actually be missing opportunity because the costs are so low. Like, Manual bidding could be the cause of low conversion volume, rather than low conversion volume being the cause of why we need to stick to Manual.

What about Maximize clicks? Jack says that that drove costs up, and I could see that. The only benefit to Maximize clicks over Manual CPC is if your budget isn't spending in full and you want to spend it in full, because remember, Maximize bid strategies? The first objective is to spend the budget. The second is to do the thing you want it to do.

Another option is maybe if your Manual CPC campaign is limited by budget, switching to Max Clicks could squeeze more clicks out of your budget.

But neither Manual CPC nor Max Clicks will work towards achieving your goal of more conversions. And that's also why I would not choose Target Impression Share here. It's actually a bid strategy I never use because, let's be honest, when is our goal ever impressions? That's not even getting people to visit our website. That's just showing up. I do not want to spend my money on that.

In fact, if you're using an impression-based or click-based bid strategy, then conversions are an accident. Think about that. You're telling Google Ads, via your bid strategy, to ignore your conversion data and only focus on clicks or impressions. So it's only focusing on clicks or impressions. Your bidding algorithm isn't even checking to see if you got conversions or not. Conversions are an accident. I hate that for us!

So let's talk about our Smart Bidding options when you have low search volume and high CPCs, Max Conversions or Target CPA.

For more on driving big results with a small budget, by the way, Episode 75 of this podcast is a special presentation I did about that. So here, to ensure I give different information, I will summarize how to find the root cause of your problem and fix it with your bid strategy. 

Let's say this is lead gen, since that makes it even trickier. So a conversion is filling out a form and you're only getting one to two form fills a week. What that actually tells me is either your budget is too low, search demand is too low, or conversion rate is too low. Your Impression Share is how we're going to figure out which one it is.

Here are the three options:

1. If your impression share is high, like 40% plus, and conversion rate is high, like 10% plus for form fills, then you've just got low demand. You're catching the available opportunity, and if you want to grow, you need to move beyond your existing keyword set, beyond your existing geographic targeting, and/or beyond Search.

From a bid strategy perspective, I would want to Maximize Conversions with a goal of getting to tCPA after a few months. And then because we are now optimizing for conversions and not just clicks, we could go much broader with our keywords, our audiences, our match types, and truly maximize the search opportunity.

2. If Impression Share is high, like 40% plus, but conversion rate is low, like 6% or lower on a form fill, then you have a conversion rate issue. And that could be because you're bringing unqualified traffic to the landing page or you're bringing the right traffic, but your landing page isn't converting them.

So the first thing to do is check your Search Terms Report to verify that you're bringing the right kind of people. And if you are, then the issue is your website.

Whereas if your search terms are irrelevant, then you have to fix that first. And the reason they're irrelevant may actually be because your bid strategy is focused on clicks and not conversions. Of course, review your keywords themselves and your match types, but also switch to Max Conversions with the goal of getting to tCPA so that now we're focused on traffic likely to convert, and not just the cheapest traffic, which may be unqualified and therefore won't convert.

If you now have more qualified traffic and your conversion rate is still low, revisit your website. You've got a website optimization issue. Or maybe your offer itself just isn't appealing, but it's no longer a Google Ads issue.

3. If Impression Share is low, like 15% or lower, then ensure you're not losing Impression Share due to budget. Increase your budget if you need to. Remember, if you're on a Maximize bid strategy, then the difference between Search Impression Share lost due to budget and Search Impression Share lost due to rank is not meaningful. So on a Maximize strategy, try increasing your budget and see what happens. If you're on a Target strategy or a Manual strategy, check these columns. And if you're losing Impression Share due to budget, increase your budget.

If you're losing impressions due to rank, that means it's either due to quality score or bids. I like to check quality score first and I'm looking for quality scores that are generally 6 or more. So if you're below that, go fix your quality score.

If your quality score is generally good, then you're losing out due to bids. Manual CPC, again, can definitely be the culprit. Can you guess what I recommend? Switching to Maximize Conversions. Your CPCs will go up, but that may be just what you needed to actually start winning some of those auctions and getting the right kind of users for your website who are going to convert.

In conclusion, there are two things I want you to remember when choosing your bid strategy or switching bid strategies. 

First, stick to conversion-based Smart Bidding for Search, Performance Max, App, and any remarketing based campaigns.

When you first start a Shopping campaign, you only have Max Clicks or Manual CPC to choose from, so your goal should be to get to Target ROAS as quickly as you can.

Leverage click- or view-based bidding only for prospecting image and video ads. 

My second tip is to start with Maximize strategies with the goal to get to a Target. Targets are how you stabilize performance and how you scale. So I like to start new Search campaigns on Maximize Conversions with the goal to get to Target CPA or Target ROAS. Similarly, I will generally start a Performance Max campaign on Maximize Conversions or Maximize Conversion Value with the goal to add a CPA or add a ROAS when we have enough conversion volume to do so. Start with Maximize to see what your actual CPA or ROAS is and then use that to transition to a target-based strategy.

I feel like we already had an Insider challenge with Jack's questions, so I will keep Today's Insider Challenge a little simpler. Do you suggest not using Manual bidding at all? Do you have a use case for Manual bidding that I haven't discussed here? 

The beauty of the Insider Challenge is there's no right or wrong answer, just an opportunity to stretch your brain on real life Google Ads problem solving. 

Though if you do have a good use case, please shoot me a note to let me know. I would love the opportunity to either convince you that Manual is maybe not the right choice or to add it to my list of when Manual might still be a good idea. As we saw, that is a very, very, very short list.

Last episode was a special episode, so be sure to check out Episode 85 if you haven't already. The Episode 84 Insider Challenge was this. Let's say you have a Search campaign on Maximize Conversions and you want to optimize your headlines and descriptions. How would you go about doing that? How would you know if the algorithm has had sufficient time and data to learn?

My rule of thumb is that an individual asset needs at least 100 clicks before I can judge its performance. Why?

Let's say that in your RSA you have a dozen different headlines and you've been running it for a month and each headline has a couple hundred impressions and between, I don't know, 20 to 40 clicks. In my experience, that's just not enough data to know yet if the ones with the higher click-through rate actually have a higher click-through rate, or they just had a bit more chance to show. Or for the ones with the higher conversion rate, if there's actually a causation there or if it's just coincidental.

When there's fewer than a hundred clicks per asset, we just don't know.

Thankfully we no longer just have those performance ratings of best, good, whatever - we have actual data to work with. So when I'm evaluating my RSA assets, I first like to judge them on CTR because, of course, if you don't click, you can't convert. And if I see at least 100 clicks per headline or per description, then I'll compare my headlines, compare my descriptions, and pick out the one or two that have a much lower CTR (if there are ones that have a much lower CTR) and I’ll pause them. And then I'll look at the one or two with the highest CTR (if there are ones that stand out as being significantly higher) and I’ll try to create variations on them that are similar, but slightly different, to see if I can get that CTR even higher. 

Now, let's say you've been running your campaign for a long time or you just have a larger budget. If an individual asset has at least 50 conversions, then I will start to judge conversion rate, CPA, things like that. Because again, any less than that, and I just don't think it's enough to truly know if there's potentially causation here or if it's just the algorithm still learning.

So 100 clicks per asset before you judge CTR.

In my opinion, CPC is not the metric we should be using to judge, well, anything, but especially not RSA performance.

And then at least 50 conversions per asset before we judge our conversion rate. I’m okay with you looking at CPA here, but again, I think conversion rate is the better metric.

What about you? Do you have your own rule of thumb or, be honest, had you never really thought about it before? 

That's what I'm here for :)

I'm Jyll Saskin Gales and I'll see you next time Inside Google Ads.