Which Type of Automated Bidding Strategy is Enhanced Cost-Per-Click?

You have probably heard of Google Ads’ Automated Bidding strategies. They are tools you can use to maximize specific key performance indicators by allowing Google Ads’ AI to set your bids for you.

Automation can be great as it gives you the freedom to focus on your budget and metric goals over performance data analytics. For people that enjoy having some control over their bids but want to benefit from Google Ads auction-time bidding machine learning, there is a bidding strategy called enhanced cost-per-click (ECPC).

You might be wondering which type of automated bidding strategy is enhanced cost-per-click. This strategy is a type of Smart Bidding. It uses context clues and historical data to adjust your cost-per-click (CPC) when it appears that a click would or would not result in a conversion.

You set your bids manually, and enhanced CPC kicks in when it needs to. If your current CPC is about to win an auction that Google Ads thinks will not convert, ECPC will adjust your bid to lose. Conversely, if your ad is about to lose a spot where Google Ads knows it should appear, ECPC will up your bid to win the placement.

For Which Type of Automated Bidding Strategy is Enhanced Cost-Per-Click Available?

ECPC is available for Search campaigns, Display campaigns, Shopping campaigns, and Hotel campaigns. For Search and Display campaigns, ECPC will optimize your conversions while keeping your cost-per-conversion (CPA) level with how your manual bids were already performing. For Hotel campaigns and Shopping campaigns, ECPC focuses on maintaining the same ad spend while maximizing conversions.

For Search and Shopping campaigns, you can also set ECPC to prioritize your higher-valued conversions. As with other conversion and conversion value-based automated bidding, to use ECPC, you need to set up conversion tracking and input conversion values.

Which Type of Automated Bidding Strategy is Enhanced Cost-Per-Click Most Like and Unlike?

ECPC is similar to other Smart and Automated Bidding strategies in that it uses time, browser type, location, and other context clues to tailor the bid at the time of auction. It does not do so to the same extent as other automated bidding strategies since it ultimately bases its bids on your manually set max CPC.

Target CPA is a form of Smart Bidding that picks bids at auction-time based on reaching a specific average CPA. That strategy is similar to how ECPC for Search and Display campaigns attempts to keep your CPA level with your manual settings. The big difference here is that Target CPA sets the bid automatically for every single auction, while ECPC only adjusts your already set bid.

Target ROAS is not too similar to ECPC. They both use historical data and context clues to inform their bidding. However, Target ROAS focuses on returning a number of conversions correlating to your budget. Conversely, ECPC focuses only on driving conversions or conversion values while maintaining your budget and CPA. Another difference is that Target ROAS also sets the bid for each auction, but ECPC adjusts your chosen CPC.

Using Enhanced Cost-Per-Click

Knowing which type of automated bidding strategy is Enhanced Cost-Per-Click is only helpful if you know how to turn it on.

If you  have conversion tracking on, follow these steps to enable ECPC for your campaign:

• For starters, sign in to your Google Ads account. If you do not have a Google Ads account, you will need to set one up and have active campaigns in order to use ECPC.
• Choose “Campaigns” from the pages menu and select the campaign with which you want to use ECPC.
• Click “Settings” > “Bidding” > “Change bid strategy.”
• Select “Manual CPC.” Remember that which type of automated bidding strategy is Enhanced Cost-Per-Click is technically Manual, though it has automated features.
• Check “Enable Enhanced CPC.” Now, click “Save” to save your campaign.

Fine-Tuning Your ECPC for Certain Conversions

Perhaps there are only some types of conversions you want to drive. All automated bidding strategies and which type of automated bidding strategy is Enhanced Cost-Per-Click rely on the Conversion reporting column to work their magic.

It is possible to pick which conversions end up appearing in this column, and thus which conversions your ECPC adjusts your bids to attain.

Conversions included in the Conversion reporting will also make sure you are not bogged down by irrelevant data when reviewing your performance and setting your manual CPC.

To include specific Conversion types in your Conversion reporting column, follow these steps:

• Sign in to your Google Ads account and click on the wrench icon in the upper-right corner.
• Click “Measurement,” and choose “Conversions” from the list.
• Pick the specific conversion action you want to include and click “Edit settings.”
• Check the “Include in Conversions” box. Voila! You can also uncheck the box to exclude it.
• Click “Save,” and do this for all of the conversions you want to include or exclude.

It’s up to you which bidding strategy you used for your campaigns. But in any case you need to monitor your campaign performance and should have good reports which can give you better insights about the success of campaigns.

Wrap Up

By using ECPC, you have the manual control that ensures you are not paying more than you would like for each click while letting you get a little performance boost from AI. Even the most knowledgeable digital advertiser can miss out on a few conversions or accidentally buy a few worthless clicks. So, why not let ECPC fill in the gaps in your budget plan.

If you are an amazing digital advertising strategist that does not want to give full control to Automated Bidding, your marketing goals and performance indicators will still thank you for swallowing your pride and making use of a little bit of machine learning. Remember, to err is human … so use robots to never err again.