Pros and Cons of Different Google Ads Bidding Strategies

Pros of Manual Bidding

• Complete Control: You can choose the bidding amount specifically for every keyword and control everything in the campaign on your own. 

• Avoid delay in changes: When you apply changes to the campaign, they will get implemented in no time. Automated bidding takes time to apply the changes. 

• Respond quickly: If you find that your campaign performance has impacted, you can check the Auctions Insights report and check whether your competitors have changed their bidding on those keywords. 

Cons of Manual Bidding

• Difficult to manage: The management becomes a bit difficult when multiple ads are handled manually. 

• Human errors can occur: Humans can make mistakes, and the same goes with manual bidding. The errors might not happen when there are only a few ads to be managed, but for large accounts with multiple ads, the campaigns become prone to human error.

• Requires more time: Since everything is done manually, this bidding takes more time, not only for keyword bidding but also for management. 

• Less flexible: Compared to automated bidding, the manual bidding strategy comes with limited flexibility to structure the account. 

Pros of Automated Bidding

• Efficiency: Automated bidding saves time and resources for the advertiser and makes the work processes efficient. 

• Better prediction: Not every advertiser or marketer can predict the results of a campaign. Smart systems powered by artificial technology analyze things automatically and enable accurate predictions. 

• Easier to manage: Since most of the things are automated, the management of these ads becomes easier. When there are hundreds of keywords to manage in numerous ad groups, automated bidding comes to the rescue. 

• Algorithmic attributes: Smart systems know about the algorithm of Google Ads and optimize the campaigns on the basis of those algorithms.

Cons of Automated Bidding

• Delays in making changes: When you change or edit something in the automated bidding strategy, Google Ads don’t sync them immediately. There might be some delays in making the changes.

• Some manual efforts: While most of the things are automated, the marketing mind is somehow still required for the right strategy. Some tasks are to be handled manually. 

Less control over budget: In automated bidding, you don’t have complete control over your total budget.