6 Bidding Strategy in Google Ads

You might have the right keywords, good ad copy, and a solid landing page, but if you choose the wrong bidding strategy, your entire budget will go off track. In reality, many small and medium-sized businesses share the same pain point: should you choose manual or automated bidding, and should you optimize for clicks, conversions, or value?

In this article, we will analyze the 6 most popular bidding strategies, explain the difference between Standard Bidding and Portfolio Bidding, and how GTG CRM helps turn lead data into budget optimization 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, a Display Ads campaign running Maximize Clicks. This is the traditional approach, suitable if each campaign has different goals and you want separate control.
• Portfolio Bidding: You create a "strategy portfolio" that applies to multiple campaigns, ad groups, or keywords simultaneously. The advantage is that Google has aggregated data from the entire portfolio for smarter optimization. Portfolios also save management time if you have many campaigns with similar goals (e.g., all lead generation campaigns run Target CPA = 200,000 VNĐ).

Small businesses often let each campaign choose a different bidding strategy, resulting in fragmented data. Portfolios allow data aggregation and centralized optimization, but can be difficult to manage without a system for tracking lead quality from multiple sources. This is where GTG CRM comes into play – aggregating all lead data from multiple campaigns for actual performance analysis, helping you decide whether to choose Standard or Portfolio.

Target CPA – Focus Budget on Each Conversion

Many marketers are obsessed with the question: "What is a potential customer truly worth?" Target CPA allows you to set this value and let Google automatically optimize bids in each auction.

Advantages:

• Directly focuses on cost per lead, making budget forecasting and scaling easy. This is a lifesaver for those who don't want to "chase clicks."
• Bids at auction-time: leverages signals like device, location, history, etc., to lower CPA.

Disadvantages:

• Requires sufficiently large & clean conversion data
• Setting CPA too low means ads won't show; setting it too high increases the budget without necessarily guaranteeing lead quality.
• Optimizes for "easy" but low-quality conversions if goals are configured incorrectly (micro-conversions, duplicates, spam).

To effectively run Target CPA, accounts should ideally have at least 30-50 conversions in the last 30 days, a short funnel, and a stable landing page for Google to have enough data to optimize. Conversely, it's not recommended when tracking is inaccurate, the funnel is too long (like multi-step B2B processes), or the budget is too small and volatile, as this will make it difficult for the AI to learn and result in unstable outcomes.

GTG CRM solves this by providing the actual CPA based on real lead and customer data. For example, if the system shows the average CPA for a paying customer is 200,000 VNĐ, you input this number, turning Target CPA from a gamble into a precise tool.

Maximize Clicks – When Traffic is the Top Priority

This is the strategy where Google maximizes clicks within the given budget. Many newly launched businesses opt for this method to drive as much traffic as possible to their website, generating foundational data.

Advantages

• Drives traffic quickly, suitable for data generation phases, testing keywords/ads.
• Simple to set up, doesn't require much initial conversion data.

Disadvantages

• Doesn't guarantee quality: CTR might be high, but leads are few/poorly qualified.
• Easy to burn money on broad queries if not combined with negatives, CPC limits, audience filtering.

GTG CRM will clearly analyze how many out of 1,000 clicks turn into leads and how many go further to the sales stage. This way, you'll know if the Maximize Clicks campaign is truly worthwhile or just a "beautiful but useless" report.

Maximize Clicks should be used when you're in the TOFU (Top of Funnel) stage, need to quickly build a remarketing list, or explore new keywords and customer behavior insights. Conversely, it's not recommended if the budget is limited, the business requires high-quality leads immediately, or the industry CPC is too high, as it can easily inflate costs without guaranteeing conversion effectiveness.

Maximize Conversions – Maximize the Number of Conversions

Unlike Maximize Clicks, this strategy allows Google to automatically find auction opportunities that are most likely to result in a conversion. The issue is that if conversion tracking is inaccurate, you're optimizing for... actions that have no value (e.g., clicking a button but not filling out a form). Many businesses fall into this trap, thinking conversions are skyrocketing when revenue isn't improving.

Advantages when used

• Google automatically hunts for auction opportunities with high conversion probability, rapidly increasing conversion volume.
• Suitable for lead-gen/form fills, shortens learning time compared to Target CPA when data is still limited.

Disadvantages when used

• Optimizes for the wrong goal if tracking is inaccurate (partial registrations, button clicks, pageviews...).
• CPA can fluctuate: if micro-conversions are set as "primary" → quality drops.

Maximize Conversions should be used when you want to quickly increase registration or form fill volume, especially when conversion data is available but not yet "perfect" enough for Target CPA. However, this strategy is not suitable if the sales cycle is too long or the lead value varies significantly, as you'll then need value-based bidding to optimize more precisely.

Maximize Conversion Value – Maximize Conversion Value

This is a step up from Maximize Conversions. Google not only seeks more conversions but also prioritizes those with higher value (e.g., an order of 5 million instead of 500k). However, many businesses don't assign values to conversions, only counting the quantity. In such cases, Maximize Conversion Value is no different from Maximize Conversions.

Advantages when used

• Optimizes for value (revenue/AOV/LTV), not just quantity. Especially suitable for e-commerce, SaaS with assigned conversion value.
• Automatically prioritizes high-value customers → increases revenue per advertising dollar.

Disadvantages when used

• Requires accurate value tracking (GA4/CRM). Without values, the algorithm is "blind," and effectiveness is ≈ Max Conversions.
• Can reduce volume when prioritizing high-value transactions.

Maximize Conversion Value should be used when businesses have a clear difference in AOV or LTV, each transaction has a specific value assigned, and the primary goal is revenue optimization rather than just focusing on conversion quantity. Conversely, it's not recommended if you don't have reliable value data or operate in service/lead-gen industries where conversion value cannot be accurately priced.

Viewable CPM – Optimize for Viewable Impressions

This strategy is mainly 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 choice for businesses wanting brand reach, but the pain point is that it's very difficult to measure the actual impact on revenue.

Advantages when used

• Optimizes for viewable impressions → good for brand lift on Display/YouTube.
• Cost per 1,000 impressions is usually low, enabling rapid reach and remarketing list seeding.

Disadvantages when used

• Doesn't optimize for conversions, making it difficult to directly link to revenue (easily seen as a "visual cost").
• Requires management of frequency, brand safety, and placement to avoid waste/annoying users.

Viewable CPM should be used when you want to launch a new brand or product, run seasonal awareness campaigns, and have a plan to follow up with remarketing to leverage the audience who has seen the ads. Conversely, it's not recommended if the goal is short-term performance, the budget is limited, or if you 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 Laborious

Manual CPC allows you to set bids for each keyword and ad group. This is the choice for marketers who want complete control. But the problem is the management fatigue. With hundreds of keywords, continuously adjusting CPC manually becomes a nightmare. Furthermore, without clear data, you'll end up "bidding blindly," paying a lot for keywords that don't bring customers. GTG CRM helps reduce this burden by showing which keywords bring quality leads and which ones only generate junk clicks. Thanks to CRM data, you can focus your manual budget on profitable keywords instead of "splashing money" based on intuition.

Advantages when used

• Absolute control by keyword/ad group; suitable for prioritizing "key" keywords, brands, competitors.
• Easy to perform intentional testing (position, device, time).

Disadvantages when used

• Time-consuming: difficult to maintain with large/dynamic keyword lists.
• Easy to miss opportunities in auction-time if slow to react; dependent on the operator's skill.

Manual CPC should be used when you have a limited budget and need to target specific "sweet spots," especially in niche markets with a small but high-quality keyword set. However, this strategy is not suitable for large accounts with many fluctuations or when you don't have enough time or staff to monitor and optimize continuously, as its effectiveness will likely fall behind Google's automated strategies.

Conclusion

Each bidding strategy has its purpose: Maximize Clicks for traffic, Target CPA for controlling lead costs, Target ROAS and Maximize Conversion Value for optimizing profit, Manual CPC for control, and Viewable CPM for brand awareness. But the common point is that no strategy is effective if you lack accurate customer data.

Google only knows about clicks and conversions. But you need more: Do those conversions turn into actual customers? What is the order value? What is the true CPA? Is ROAS being met? And this is precisely the role of GTG CRM: providing end-to-end data, helping you choose bidding strategies not based on intuition, but on real data linked to revenue.

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