Using flexible bid strategies

• Flexible bid strategies automatically set bids to optimize for your performance goals across specific campaigns, ad groups, and keywords.
• Once you create a strategy, it will be stored in your Shared library for centralized management and performance tracking. You can apply your strategy from the Campaigns, Ad groups, or Keywords tabs.

Benefits of flexible bid strategies

Flexible bid strategies give you automated bidding exactly when, where, and how you want it -- across multiple campaigns, or within a single part of a campaign.
For example, by applying the "Maximize clicks within target spend" strategy to your lower priority keywords, AdWords automatically optimizes their bidding, while you retain manual bidding control over your most important keywords. Or you can apply the "Target search page location" strategy to important keywords across your campaigns to increase the likelihood that your ads show as much as possible on the first page of Google Search.
To help improve your performance in ad auctions, some strategies adjust bids using real-time details like device, browser, location, and time of day. Some strategies also will automatically adjust bids based on whether or not someone is on one of your remarketing lists.

Types of flexible bid strategies

	Flexible bid strategy	When to use it	Where to apply it
1	Maximize clicks automatically sets bids to help you get the most clicks within a target spend amount that you choose. Flexible version of automatic bidding	When site visits are your primary goal When you want to maximize traffic on long tail terms while keeping within a certain spend	Campaigns, ad groups, keywords
2	Target search page location automatically adjusts bids to help you get your ads to the top of the page or the first page of search results. New bid strategy	When you want more visibility on the first page of Google search results or in the top positions	Campaigns, ad groups, keywords
3	Target cost-per-acquisition (CPA) automatically sets bids to help you get as many conversions as possible while reaching your average cost-per-acquisition goal. Flexible version of Conversion Optimizer	When you want to get the most conversions with your target CPA	Campaigns, ad groups
4	Enhanced cost-per-click (ECPC) automatically adjusts your manual bid up or down based on each click’s likelihood to result in a conversion. Flexible version of Enhanced CPC	When conversions are the main objective, but you also want control over your keyword bids	Campaigns, ad groups
5	Target return on ad spend (ROAS) automatically sets your bids to maximize your conversion value, while trying to reach an average return on ad spend. New bid strategy	When you value conversions differently, and want to meet a target ROAS	Campaigns, ad groups, keywords

Tip

You may see different options in your campaigns' Settings tab. This is because different campaign types support different features. To see which features are available by campaign type, read Choose the campaign type that's right for you

Creating and managing flexible bid strategies

Tip

You may need to add the "Bid strategy" and "Bid strategy type" columns in order to view bid strategy details in your statistics tables. Learn how to add columns.

Next steps

• Determine a bid strategy based on your goals
• Choose a bid amount that works for you