Google Ads Smart Bidding: Every Strategy to Know

Are you finding it challenging to manage every detail of your Google Ads campaigns manually? Bidding on individual keywords and constantly adjusting them based on performance used to be the norm in digital advertising. But in today’s fast-paced landscape, this manual approach has become outdated. With so many variables—such as competition fluctuations and user behavior shifts—staying on top of everything can feel overwhelming.

That’s where Google’s Smart Bidding comes in. By leveraging machine learning, Smart Bidding optimizes bids in real time, and this data-driven approach helps you achieve your goals without the hassle of manual bid adjustments, ensuring you get the best possible results for your budget.

In this article, we’ll explore different Google Ads Smart Bidding strategies, provide examples, and explain when to use and avoid each based on your campaign goals.

Contents

• What is Smart Bidding?
• What is Smart Bidding Exploration?
• Why use Smart Bidding?
• 4 Smart Bidding strategies to know
  • Target ROAS
  • Target CPA
  • Maximize Conversions
  • Maximize Conversion Value
• How to get started

What is Smart Bidding?

Smart bidding is a form of automated bidding. It leverages machine learning to automatically select bids on keywords or placements for you in the Google Ads or Microsoft Ads auctions based on a specific conversion goal. Smart Bidding is constantly optimizing your bids, automatically adjusting them based on factors like competition, device, time of day, and user intent.

How is Smart Bidding different from regular automated bidding?

There are other automated bidding strategies outside of the four Smart Bidding strategies we’ll cover, like Maximize Clicks or Viewable CPM. These aren’t considered Smart Bidding because they’re focused on campaign metrics rather than campaign outcomes.

The reason why Smart Bidding strategies are “special” is that they focus on your conversion events or conversion value tracking.

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How is Smart Bidding different from manual bidding?

With manual bidding, you have to individually select a max CPC bid for each keyword or placement you’re bidding on. With automated bid strategies, including Smart Bidding, this work is done for you automatically.

What is Smart Bidding Exploration?

At Google Marketing Live 2025, Google announced the rollout of an extension of Smart Bidding called Smart Bidding Exploration. You can apply Smart Bidding Exploration to any of the strategies we covered above. If you have a Smart Bidding strategy selected, you can toggle Smart Bidding Exploration on or off in its designated dropdown. This allows Smart Bidding to predict how likely you are to convert in each ad auction, even if you haven’t entered these auctions previously, and it may automatically lower or exceed your ROAS targets accordingly.

Why use Smart Bidding?

Regardless of your account structure or business size, you’re eligible to use Smart Bidding. Let’s look at some of the benefits:

Smart Bidding…

• Helps you save time. As your account scales and evolves, manually managing your bidding can take up a ton of time.
• Can save you money. Smart Bidding takes the guesswork out of assigning your max CPC bids, so you know you’re getting the most optimized cost per click or conversion possible every time.
• Is likely used by your competitors. Smart Bidding has grown in popularity over the last few years, and now more than 80% of Google Ads accounts have some form of Smart Bidding activated.
• Might be the only bid option you have. Some campaign types, like Performance Max campaigns, are only compatible with Smart Bidding.
• Helps you reach your goals. Smart Bidding strategies are focused on your business’s bottom line by aligning with your conversion event and conversion value tracking.

4 Google Ads Smart Bidding strategies (+when and how to use them)

Here are the four Smart Bidding strategies to help you get more out of your budget and what you need to know about each. Let’s dive in!

1. Target ROAS (return on ad spend)

Target ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) aims to generate the highest possible return on your ad spend by automatically adjusting bids based on the predicted value of each conversion.

This strategy optimizes bids to focus on conversions that drive the most revenue rather than just increasing the number of conversions. It’s ideal for businesses looking to prioritize revenue generation over conversion volume.

Important note: You can’t simply set a high ROAS target and expect to hit it if you haven’t achieved similar performance in the past. Google Ads will suggest a ROAS target based on your historical data. When setting your target ROAS, it’s crucial to choose a realistic goal that aligns with your past performance.

For example, if Google suggests a ROAS target of 300% based on your past results, this means for every $1 you spend, the goal is to generate $3 in revenue. By setting this realistic target, Google Ads will adjust bids to maximize the likelihood of hitting or exceeding that target consistently.

When to use it:

• Ecommerce Sales: If your goal is to maximize sales value while maintaining a profitable return on investment.
• Profit-driven campaigns: When your primary goal is revenue generation and you can attribute a value to each conversion.

When to avoid it: If you’re unsure about the value of each conversion or have a low volume of conversions, it may not perform as expected.

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2. Target CPA

Target CPA (Cost Per Acquisition) sets bids to help get as many conversions as possible at or below your specified target cost per acquisition.

Important note: Similar to ROAS, you can’t simply set an arbitrary CPA target if you haven’t achieved that cost before. Google Ads uses your historical performance to suggest a realistic CPA.

When to use it:

• Lead generation: If your goal is to acquire new leads at a specific cost.
• Tight budget control: When you have a clear understanding of how much a lead is worth to your business and need consistent costs.

When to avoid it: If your conversion volume is too low, target CPA might struggle to find enough data to optimize effectively.

3. Maximize conversions

Maximize conversions is an automated strategy that sets bids to get the most conversions possible within your daily budget.

When to use it:

• Limited budget: When you want to spend your entire budget to get as many conversions as possible.
• High-volume goals: When the goal is to increase the volume of leads, sales, or sign-ups.

When to avoid it: If your goal is profitability or you have strict CPA or ROAS targets.

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4. Maximize conversion value

This strategy sets bids to maximize the total value of conversions (e.g., sales revenue).

When to use it:

• Sales value focused: If you’re running ecommerce campaigns and want to prioritize high-value conversions.
• Dynamic products/services: When conversion values vary significantly between products or services.

When to avoid it: If you do not track or assign values to your conversions.

How to get started with Smart Bidding

You can start using Smart Bidding by navigating to your campaign settings and selecting one of the Smart Bidding options under the bidding section.

Note that depending on your campaign type, you may or may not see all four Smart Bidding options here.

1. Solidify your conversion and value tracking

Your conversion tracking, as well as your conversion value tracking, can be critical to your Smart Bidding success.

2. Consider all your Smart Bidding strategy options

Choosing the right Smart Bidding strategy is crucial for achieving your goals. You may need to test a few strategies across campaigns.

• Use target CPA when you want to control your cost per acquisition.
• Choose target ROAS to maximize the value of each conversion.
• Implement maximize conversions if volume is your top priority.
• Opt for maximize conversion value if revenue is more important than the number of conversions.

3. Track and measure success

Although Smart Bidding is automated, don’t just set it and forget it. Use Google Ads and Microsoft Ads reporting tools to track performance.

You can use Google Ads bid strategy reports to measure your Smart Bidding success.

Be smart about your Smart Bidding strategy

Choosing the right Smart Bidding strategy in Google Ads is crucial for achieving your campaign goals. Whether you’re focused on controlling costs, maximizing revenue, or driving traffic, Google Ads’ Smart Bidding options provide a range of automated solutions to fit your needs.

By understanding these strategies and when to apply them, you can leverage Google’s automation to improve performance and achieve specific business objectives.

Now, use these Google Ads trends and these manual bidding tips to help you succeed. Also, be sure to check out how our solutions can help you transform your Smart Bidding strategies into high-powered goal crushers for your business.