Let’s imagine for a moment that you are shopping for a home. You find your dream home, it’s in your price range, and it’s going to auction. But not any ordinary auction. They’ve implemented a new bidding policy called ‘auto-bidding’, claiming it’s the latest and greatest bidding process in your best interests.
You can see where this is going, right? Your bid starts at $600,000, Sue’s auto-bidding kicks in and goes up to $610,000, which puts Barry’s up to $620,000 and Bruce and Lily’s bid to $630,000. Your bid then goes up to $640,000, and the auto-bidding goes on. Before you know it, a $600,000 house is going for $900,000 because of the manufactured demand. It’s going nowhere but upwards.
So, the critical question is, who’s interest is this in? It’s certainly not in your best interest as the bidder. It is, however, in the best interest of the seller and agent.
Auto-bidding is designed to drive up the price.
This is exactly what has happened with Google Ads over the past 3-5 years. Most Google Ads campaigns are now run on auto-bidding, and all it does is drive up costs and make Google a bucket load of money. It’s not helping businesses get a better return on their marketing dollar, though – and the trouble is most Google Ads experts have embraced it wholeheartedly!
They’ve fallen head over heels for it because it makes their life easy! They believe the marketing hype that this is the best way to manage campaigns – but it’s not. It is, however, the most expensive way to manage campaigns and the best way to maximise Google’s revenue!
Three reasons why it’s time to turn off auto-bidding!
It is not in your best interests to have auto-bidding set up. Here’s why:
- It drives up costs. The principle of auto-bidding is that it allows Google to make more money at your expense.
- It generates a lot of waste. Auto-bidding is designed to take as much money from you as possible, creating sub-standard returns that include a lot of wastage.
- It produces a higher cost per lead and returns on ad spend. Because you can’t control it, it results in sub-standard returns on costs.
If you’re committed to getting the best return from your Google Ads (and you should be!), it’s time to turn off the auto-bidding and go back to manually controlling bids and budgets. You will have much better control of your campaigns and, as a result, a greater opportunity to maximise your returns.
Not sure where to start? Find out how we help businesses get more qualified leads and lower lead costs through strategically managed Google Ad Campaigns.
