How to troubleshoot automated bidding in Google Ads

Automated bidding has been a game-changer for PPC accounts. Gone are the days of manually reviewing keyword bids every morning or implementing bid modifiers based on formulas for audiences and demographics.

But sometimes things go wrong, and your automated bidding strategy stops performing the way you need it to. That’s when it may be time for manual bidding to make a comeback.

Let’s look at the signs that automated bidding is underperforming in your account and what you can do to get things back on track.

Signs that automated bidding is underperforming in your account

When reviewing your account performance, you may notice signs that your automated bidding strategy is holding your campaigns back.

Some accounts may see no performance at all when using an automated bidding strategy, especially when the account is new, or you’re launching a new product or service in an existing account.

For example, you’ve launched a new Google Ads account for a client with a Search campaign using Maximize Conversions, built with a healthy budget and carefully chosen keywords and ad copy. But after 10 days, the campaign still hasn’t received a single impression, never mind a conversion.

You may also see a sudden increase in CPC or CPA that doesn’t align with seasonality or any changes you’ve made to the account.

If you’re concerned about an increase in CPC, don’t look at CPC alone when analyzing campaign performance. Consider metrics such as conversion rate and conversion value, as a higher CPC can be justified if it’s led to an improvement in the quality or quantity of conversions.

Another sign is an abrupt drop in ad engagement that can’t be explained by a review of recent change history. For example, you’ve gone from receiving 125 clicks per day to five. You may also notice an increase in irrelevant traffic that can’t be explained by recent changes to your keywords or targeting.

If you’ve noticed any of these in your account, don’t panic. Review other potential causes, such as keywords, policy or eligibility issues, billing methods, and your Auction Insights report.

If you’re still at a loss as to what’s going wrong, it may be time to consider switching back to manual bidding.

Before we look at how to do that, it’s important to understand why these issues occur with automated bidding strategies so you can avoid them in the future.

Understanding why problems occur with automated bidding 

Automated bidding strategies are only as effective as the quality of the data they rely on. Inaccurate data or breaks in the data stream are the leading causes of issues with automated bidding strategies.

For example:

• Unexpected downtime, such as a hosting issue causing your website to be unavailable for a few hours or a billing issue in your PPC account that stops your ads from running for a day.
• A problem with your conversion tracking, such as a tag being removed from your landing page or your CRM becoming disconnected from the ad platform.
• Inaccurate conversion data, such as accidentally setting a page view as a primary conversion or deleting a valuable conversion action.

However, issues with automated bidding strategies often stem from a misunderstanding of how they work.

Although many advertising platforms claim automated bidding can work without historical conversion data, many PPC specialists have found it performs best once it has enough data to learn from.

A commonly cited benchmark is at least 30 conversions over a 30-day period, providing the bidding strategy with sufficient data to optimize the account effectively.

For accounts with a low monthly conversion volume, even when the data is accurate and reliable, the data may not provide the algorithms with enough to learn effectively. In these instances, carefully implementing a micro-conversion strategy may be in order.

Another cause of automated bidding strategies underperforming is choosing the wrong bid strategy for the campaign objective and business goals.

For example, a Google Ads Search campaign uses a Max Clicks bid strategy, has a ‘Sales’ campaign objective, and tracks form submissions as its primary conversion action.

In this example, the campaign is telling the algorithm three different things:

• It wants as many clicks as possible within its allocated budget.
• The objective of the campaign is to drive sales on the website.
• The desired conversion action is a form submission.

As a result, it wouldn’t be surprising if the account ends the month with a low CPC and a high volume of clicks, but few or no conversions to show for it.

Remember, the algorithm will try its best to do what you’re telling it to do. Ensure your objectives are clear by using the right bid strategy, campaign objective, and conversion tracking for your desired outcome.

How to rebalance your bidding

Switching back to manual bidding shouldn’t be a long-term strategy, and it shouldn’t be the only action you take to resolve your performance problems.

Once you’ve changed the campaign’s bid strategy to manual, complete the following.

Make a note of the change in your campaign notes or a Word document

While we think our memory will always serve us well, you might not remember what happened 18 months later.

Review your conversion tracking and data source connections

Double-check that your conversion tracking is set up correctly and that any data source connections are still live. Also, ensure the right website actions are set up as conversion actions and that you’re using primary and secondary conversions correctly.

Check your campaign objective

We don’t always pay attention to this when setting up campaigns, but review it to ensure it aligns with your goals and the bid strategy you plan to use.

Exclude abnormal date ranges

If you know exactly what went wrong and it was a one-time anomaly, such as accidentally adding an extra zero to the daily budget or your site being down for maintenance, create a date exclusion so the bid strategy doesn’t take that period into account when making its decisions.

Don’t set and forget your manual bids

Remember, when reverting to manual bidding, you need to manually adjust your keyword bids, which can fluctuate daily. Keep a close eye on your bids to ensure they remain as competitive as your budget allows.

Remember, as with any major bid strategy change, moving back to manual bidding comes with risks. Monitor your performance closely and look for signs that it’s returning to normal.

In most instances, you’ll want to switch back to an automated bid strategy. Before doing so, ensure you’re happy with performance and that you’re seeing a steady flow of conversions in the account again, so it’s ready for an automated bidding strategy to learn from.

Depending on the size of your account, this may take a few days or a few weeks for others. In the meantime, be patient and keep on top of your bid adjustments.

Build the right foundation before returning to automated bidding

Remember, a steady stream of accurate and reliable data is essential for a bid strategy to succeed. Interrupted data, conversion tracking issues, and poorly configured bid strategies or settings can all hurt performance.

While manual bidding can be a useful way to get things back on track and retain control of your performance, make sure you’re building the right foundation and setting the bid strategy up for success.