How can you adjust your bidding strategy to improve your small business's ROI?

1 Choose the right bidding model

Depending on your goals and budget, you can choose between different bidding models for your SEM campaigns. The most common ones are cost-per-click (CPC), cost-per-thousand impressions (CPM), and cost-per-acquisition (CPA). CPC means you pay only when someone clicks on your ad, CPM means you pay for every thousand times your ad is shown, and CPA means you pay for a specific action, such as a purchase or a sign-up. Each model has its pros and cons, so you need to consider your campaign objectives, target audience, and conversion rates before deciding which one to use.

2 Optimize your keywords and bids

Your keywords and bids are the main factors that determine how often and where your ads appear on the search results page. You want to choose keywords that are relevant, specific, and have high intent, meaning they indicate that the user is ready to buy or take action. You also want to avoid keywords that are too broad, generic, or competitive, as they can drive up your costs and lower your quality score. Your quality score is a measure of how relevant and useful your ads are to the user, and it affects your ad rank and cost-per-click. To optimize your keywords and bids, you need to do keyword research, use match types, create ad groups, and monitor your performance and competition.

3 Use smart bidding strategies

Smart bidding is a feature of Google Ads that uses machine learning to automatically adjust your bids based on various signals. This can help you save time and money, as well as improve your ROI by maximizing your conversions or revenue. Target CPA sets your bids to get as many conversions as possible at or below your target cost-per-acquisition. Target ROAS sets your bids to get as much revenue as possible at or above your target return on ad spend. Maximize conversions sets your bids to get as many conversions as possible within your budget, and maximize conversion value sets your bids to get as much conversion value as possible within your budget.

4 Test and experiment

One of the best ways to improve your bidding strategy and ROI is to test and experiment with different options and settings. You can use tools like Google Ads Experiments or Campaign Drafts to create and run experiments on your campaigns without affecting your original settings. You can test different variables, such as bidding models, keywords, bids, ad copy, landing pages, and audiences, and compare the results to see what works best for your business. You can also use tools like Google Analytics or Google Optimize to track and optimize your conversions and user experience on your website.

5 Review and adjust

Finally, you need to review and adjust your bidding strategy regularly to keep up with the changes in the market, your competitors, and your customers. You need to analyze your data and metrics, such as impressions, clicks, conversions, costs, and ROI, and identify what is working and what is not. You also need to look for new opportunities and challenges, such as seasonal trends, new products or services, or emerging competitors. You can use tools like Google Ads Recommendations or Performance Planner to get insights and suggestions on how to improve your campaigns and bidding strategy.

By following these tips, you can adjust your bidding strategy to improve your small business's ROI and grow your online presence and sales. Search engine marketing can be a powerful and profitable way to reach your target audience, but it requires constant monitoring and optimization to get the best results.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?