Google adds Smart Bidding for search partners

Google announced Tuesday that auctions on search partner sites may use Smart Bidding instead of smart pricing when an advertiser has conversion tracking set up.

Why you should care

Google says Smart Bidding can offer better performance because it takes into account more contextual signals “to optimize bids for each and every auction.”

Smart pricing, which has been used to power manual bids for search partners, looks at signals such as the keyword lists or concepts that triggered the ad and the type of page on which the ad was served.

With Smart Bidding, Google says, the bids are automatically optimized on search partner sites, using the same signals as smart pricing plus attributes about potential customers. “For example, bids may be reduced if the potential customer is on an audience list that historically had a lower conversion rate.”

More on this change

• The aim is to maximize conversions on search partners at a similar cost per conversion as Google Search. Smart bidding may set lower bids on a search partner site if you have a lower conversion rate on that site, for example.
• Conversely, Google says, “Smart Bidding may raise your bid to help you get more traffic and conversions from that site at the $50 cost per conversion you receive on Google Search.”
• Advertisers can segment data by network to see search partners’ performance but are not able to see their granular performance at the site level.
• The change is effective starting in October.

Correction: This article originally stated the change was effective immediately. It takes effect in October.