Manual CPC bidding, what?

[KalaBaZey]

Optimization score is not a real metric and manual CPC loses to automated every single time. No competent agency uses manual CPC on Google in 2025. I see lots of people saying they use it on small accounts but even that doesn’t work now. You can use max clicks for that.

[Single-Sea-7804]

Manual CPC works well if you know what you’re doing but most of the time it’s a shit show and max clicks can work better to drive conversions in the beginning. As for this account, it just seems it didn’t get well managed at all.

[Few_Presentation_820]

I bet that’s not the reason for having horrible results. Manual CPC is still the go to strategy for lead gen. It’s super effective in collecting the initial conversion data while being able to control the bids.

An automated bidding strategy can burn a ton of money without any historical data on conversions. If Google has no idea what type of people convert & the patterns, it can’t optimize the bids & get results at it’s full potential

Also, pay zero attention to the optimization score. It’s just a made up number by Google to trick businesses into listening to the reps & gain control over the campaign.

What you should closely check is the stuff like what searches are triggering the ads. Are they super relevant to the keywords & ads? If not, that’s where negative keywords come in.

[DazPPC]

You said there’s one conversion and you think automated bidding will solve this? Work out how to get more conversions, then switch to automated bidding.

[loriscb]

Manual CPC with high clicks, 1 conversion, thousands spent = the agency is incompetent or malicious.

Manual CPC means they’re bidding blind:
– No conversion data guiding bids
– No quality score optimization
– Probably bidding on broad match garbage keywords

**Why this is catastrophic for service business:**
– Service = high-intent keywords only (“hire lawyer”, “buy service”)
– Manual CPC bids same for high-intent + low-intent
– Result: Wasting budget on “free legal advice” searchers who never buy

**What competent agency would do:**
1. Max Conversions or tCPA (let algorithm optimize toward ACTUAL sales)
2. Negative keyword list (block low-intent searches)
3. Search term report analysis (kill keywords that don’t convert)

**Red flags in their setup (I’d bet money on these):**
– Broad match keywords without smart bidding
– No negative keyword list
– No conversion tracking setup properly
– Or worse: optimizing for clicks, not conversions

Manual CPC has ONE use case: brand protection campaigns (bidding on your own brand name). For lead gen service business? It’s either incompetence or they’re maximizing their % fee by maximizing spend.

Fire them. Any decent PPC pro would’ve switched to automated bidding after 20 conversions or 2 weeks, whichever came first.