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Case Study Against Using Automated Bidding
Hey PPC pros! I’ve recently written a [case study about the usage of automated bidding](https://husaria-marketing.com/the-case-against-google-ads-automation/) (in particular maximize conversions), and how poorly it has performed.
The client is a large commercial real-estate agency, and the test campaigns are for their London operations. I have used a modified SKAG build (using negative match types to get around the match type dilution when targeting). The test campaign is desktop/exact whereas the control campaigns are desktop/phrase and desktop/bmm. Otherwise the keyword list is the same, and has a focus on longer-tail keywords with specific locations.
The result of this test is pretty frightening. Despite having enough data per Google, switching over to automated bidding has been a failure. This follows similar tests that i run every few months, but this time i thought i’d do a write-up. Let me know what you think, or if you spot something i missed!
Tl;dr: automated bidding strategies don’t appear to work well on high-CPC campaigns, and likely need a ton of data to start outperforming human vigilance and attention to detail. Also that long-tail keywords perform better than shorter, broad ones (obvious)
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2 Replies
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Have you tried adding conversion values? I’m currently running a automated bidding test and added conversion value for phone calls and submissions. I’m currently placing a higher value on phone calls and it seems the automated algorithm works with that. I’m still a month in but I’m on the fence.
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Smart bidding doesn’t work for my London estate agencies either. It’s a high CPC / low CVR niche. That’s cool though. Nice to know the machines don’t always win!
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