You might have the right keywords, a great ad copy, and a perfect landing page, but if you choose the wrong bidding strategy, your entire budget will go astray. In fact, many small and medium-sized businesses face the same pain point: unsure whether to choose manual or automated strategies, and whether to optimize for clicks, conversions, or value.

Bidding Strategy in Google Ads

In this article, we will analyze the six most common bidding strategies, explain the differences between Standard Bidding and Portfolio Bidding, and how GTG CRM helps transform lead data into optimal budget decisions.

Standard Bidding vs Portfolio Bidding

• Standard Bidding: You choose a separate bidding strategy for each campaign. For example, a Search Ads campaign running Target CPA, and a Display Ads campaign running Maximize Clicks. This is a traditional approach, suitable if each campaign has different goals and you want to control them independently.
• Portfolio Bidding: You create a “strategic portfolio” that applies to multiple campaigns, ad groups, or keywords simultaneously. The advantage is that Google gains aggregated data from the entire portfolio for smarter optimization. Portfolios also save management time if you have multiple campaigns with a common goal (for example, all lead generation campaigns running with a Target CPA of 200,000 VND).

Small businesses often let each campaign choose a different bidding process, leading to fragmented data. Portfolios allow for centralized data consolidation and optimization, but they are difficult to manage without a system to track lead quality from multiple sources. This is where GTG CRM comes in handy – it consolidates all lead data from multiple campaigns for real-world analysis, helping you decide whether to choose Standard or Portfolio.

Target CPA – Focus on cost per conversion

Many marketers are obsessed with the question: "How much is a potential customer really worth?". Target CPA allows you to set this number and let Google automatically optimize the bid in each auction.

Advantage:

• Focusing directly on cost/lead, with easy budgeting and scalability, this is a lifesaver for those who don't want to "chase after clicks".
• Auction-time bidding : leverage device signals, location, history, etc., to lower CPA.

Disadvantages:

• We need sufficiently large and clean conversion data.
• Setting the CPA too low will result in no ad delivery, while setting it too high will drive up the budget and lead generation that may not necessarily be of high quality.
• Optimizing for conversions is "easy" but results in poor quality if the target is configured incorrectly (micro-conversions, duplicates, spam).

To run effective Target CPA campaigns , the account should have at least 30–50 conversions in 30 days, a concise funnel, and a stable landing page so Google has enough data for optimal results. Conversely, it should not be applied when tracking is not properly optimized, the funnel is too long (like multi-step B2B campaigns), or the budget is too small and volatile, as this will make it difficult for the AI to learn and the results will be inconsistent.

GTG CRM solves this by providing a realistic CPA figure from real lead and customer data. For example, the system shows that the average CPA to acquire a real customer is 200,000 VND → you enter this number, turning Target CPA from a random guess into an accurate tool.

Maximize Clicks – When traffic is the number one priority

This is Google's strategy to maximize clicks within a budget. Many startups often choose this method to drive as much traffic as possible to their website and build a database.

Advantage

• This method generates traffic quickly and is suitable for data generation and keyword/ad testing phases.
• Simple to set up, requiring minimal initial conversion data.

Disadvantages

• Quality is not guaranteed: CTR may be high, but leads are few/relevance is poor.
• It's easy to waste money on broad queries if you don't include negatives, limit CPC, and filter audiences.

GTG CRM will clearly analyze how many out of 1,000 clicks become leads and how many progress further to the sales stage. This allows you to determine if your Maximize Clicks campaign is truly worthwhile or just a "visually appealing but useless" report.

Maximize Clicks should be used when you're running a TOFU (Total Focus on Futures) campaign and need to quickly build a remarketing list or explore additional keywords and customer behavior insights. Conversely, it shouldn't be applied if you have a limited budget, require high-quality leads immediately, or have a very high industry CPC, as it can easily drive up costs without guaranteeing conversion effectiveness.

Maximize Conversions

Unlike Maximize Clicks, this strategy lets Google automatically find auctions with the highest conversion potential. The problem is that if conversion tracking isn't accurate, you're optimizing for… worthless actions (e.g., clicking a button but not filling out a form). Many businesses fall into this trap, thinking conversions are skyrocketing but revenue isn't improving.

Advantages of using

• Google actively hunts for auctions with a high conversion probability, rapidly increasing the number of conversions.
• Combining lead generation/form submission shortens the learning time compared to Target CPA when data is limited.

Disadvantages of using

• Optimization may be mistargeted if tracking is inaccurate (mid-entry registrations, button clicks, pageviews, etc.).
• CPA can fluctuate: if micro-conversions are considered the "primary" factor, quality can drop.

Maximize Conversions should be used when you want to quickly increase registration or form submission volume, especially if you already have conversion data but it's not "good" enough to run Target CPA. However, this strategy is not suitable if the sales cycle is too long or the lead value varies greatly, as you will need value-based bidding to optimize more accurately.

Maximize Conversion Value

This is a more advanced version of Maximize Conversions. Google not only looks for more conversions but also prioritizes those with higher value (e.g., orders worth 5 million VND instead of 500,000 VND). However, many businesses don't associate value with conversions, only counting the number. In that case, Maximize Conversion Value is essentially the same as Maximize Conversions.

Advantages of using

• Optimize based on value (revenue/AOV/LTV), not just quantity. This is especially suitable for e-commerce and SaaS with assigned conversion values.
• Prioritizing high-value customers → increased revenue/advertising cost.

Disadvantages of using

• Standard value tracking (GA4/CRM) is mandatory . Missing values will render the algorithm "blind," resulting in a conversion rate of approximately maxed-out conversions.
• Volume can be reduced when prioritizing high-value trades.

Maximize Conversion Value should be used when a business has a clear differentiation in AOV or LTV, where each transaction is associated with a specific value, and the primary goal is to optimize revenue rather than focusing solely on the number of conversions. Conversely, it should not be applied if you lack reliable value data or operate in service/lead-gen industries where conversion value cannot be accurately quantified.

Viewable CPM – Optimized for visible display

This strategy is primarily for Display or YouTube, where the goal is to increase brand awareness rather than direct conversions. You pay based on 1,000 “viewable” impressions. This is a reasonable option for businesses looking for brand exposure, but the pain point is: it’s very difficult to measure the actual impact on revenue.

Advantages of using

• Optimizing viewable impressions → good for brand lift on Display/YouTube.
• Cost per,000 impressions is typically low, coverage is fast, and remarketing seeding is effective.

Disadvantages of using

• Poor conversion optimization, difficulty linking directly to revenue (easily perceived as "image costs").
• Frequency management , brand safety, and display placement are necessary to avoid wasting resources or overwhelming users.

Viewable CPM is recommended when launching a new brand or product, implementing seasonal awareness campaigns, and planning for remarketing later to leverage those who have already seen the ad. Conversely, it should be avoided if the goal is short-term performance, a limited budget, or the need to ensure clear CAC/ROAS from the outset, as this strategy focuses on impressions rather than direct conversion optimization.

Manual CPC – Absolute control, but labor-intensive.

Manual CPC allows you to set bids for each keyword and ad group. This is the option for marketers who want complete control. However, the problem is the tediousness of management. With hundreds of keywords, constantly adjusting CPC manually becomes a nightmare. Furthermore, without clear data, you'll fall into a "blind bidding" situation, paying a lot of money for keywords that don't bring in customers. GTG CRM helps reduce this burden by showing which keywords bring in quality leads and which keywords only generate spam clicks. Thanks to CRM data, you can focus your manual budget on the right profitable keywords, instead of "throwing money around" impulsively.

Advantages of using

• Maintain strict control over keywords/ad groups; prioritize key keywords, brand, and competitors.
• It is easy to conduct targeted testing (location, equipment, time).

Disadvantages of using

• Time-consuming: difficult to maintain when the keyword list is large/dynamic.
• It's easy to miss opportunities during auction time if you react slowly; it depends on the operator's skill.

Manual CPC is recommended when you have a limited budget and need to focus on targeting the right audience, especially in niche markets with a small but high-quality set of keywords. However, this strategy is not suitable for large accounts with high volatility or when you don't have enough time or a team to continuously monitor and optimize, as its effectiveness can easily drop compared to Google's automated strategies.

Conclude

Each bidding strategy has its purpose: Maximize Clicks for traffic, Target CPA for lead cost control, Target ROAS and Maximize Conversion Value for profit optimization, Manual CPC for control, and Viewable CPM for brand awareness. However, the common thread is that no strategy is effective without accurate customer data.

Google only knows about clicks and conversions. But you need more than that: whether those conversions turn into real customers, what the order value is, what the actual CPA is, and whether the ROAS is being met. And this is where GTG CRM comes in: providing end-to-end data, helping you choose bidding strategies based on real data directly related to revenue, rather than intuition.

If you want every dollar spent on Google Ads to not only bring in clicks but also convert them into customers, integrate Google Ads with GTG CRM today.