A new feature was quietly added to AdWords recently, the ability to choose to optimize for many per click conversions when using CPA bidding. Previously you only had the option to use 1-per click conversion bidding for CPA campaigns. This is a fantastic improvement for conversion enhanced bidding campaigns. Unfortunately Google has been pretty quiet about it. I on the other hand, am ecstatic to shout the praises of optimize for many per click conversions at the top of my lungs, from the highest mountain top. 🙂
Previously, if you had multiple conversion events you had to try and compare the 1-per conversion CPA’s and max/target 1-per conversion bids to your many per conversion cost and value per conversion metrics. In cases where each conversion event has a different value, this posed a big problem. Now you have the choice as to which conversion bid metric to optimize for, depending on your specific needs and approach.
It’s a fairly straight forward process to change your conversion bid metric from 1-per to many per conversions – Here’s How:
1. Open the Tools and Analysis tab, and click on conversions.
2. Once you are on the conversions page, click the settings tab, then select Edit Settings.
3. Now simply select which type of conversion you want the conversion optimization tools to use for CPA or Enhanced CPC bidding.
That’s the easy part. Now you have some work to do, and a few things to keep in mind now that you have changed to optimize for many per click conversions.
First of all, you have to enable your many per click columns – Cost per conversion especially (and value per conversion if you have values assigned to your goals, or ecommerce). When making the transition, it’s a good idea to take a look at both your 1-per click and many per click historical CPA data. You may find that the costs, and necessary bids are quite different. As you can see below, if you were using 1-per click conversions, your CPA may be twice as high as it is for many per conversion CPA’s. Have you been bidding twice as much as you should have if you were using optimize for many per click conversions?
Now, being that this is a brand new tool, there are some quirks, as you are sure to discover as soon as you try to edit, or mass edit any of your bids. If you try to edit the bid of a single adgroup, once you click save, the bid will disappear (It’s magic!) until you refresh the page. Don’t fret too much though, once the page is refreshed, your edited bid will (magically!) re-appear.
Unfortunately, if you try to mass edit any optimize for many per click conversions CPA bids within the UI, it won’t work at all. Since Google changed the mass edit bids function to be more “user friendly” (i.e. far more complicated) you have to first select what type of bid you are using to change multiple adgroup bids. Since no many per click conversion CPA bids are available, if you select 1-per conversion CPA bids, those are the only bid types it will change, Since you have none of those bid types any more, nothing happens – Even if you refresh the page. However, the adwords editor can be used for mass many per click CPA bid edits. Apparently the editor is not as “user friendly”, which of course in Google speak (nowadays) means it actually works. 🙂
If you have multiple conversion events, optimize for many per click conversions is a tool which you should definitely experiment with. When using any form of conversion optimized bidding, the more accurate information you can provide the Google machine, and the more historical data you have, the better conversion optimization tools work. Be sure to give yourself time to experiment, test, analyze, and optimize before you give up on optimize for many per click conversions – If your initial results don’t turn out the way you want them to. As always, what’s best is what works best for you. Give optimize for many per click conversions a shot, and see if this is a tool which works for you!
You can find the original notification in the Inside AdWords post here. It’s buried at the bottom of the page, and quite frankly I didn’t find the help article the post links to very helpful. Perhaps you will find some greater value in the official documentation than I have?
Thanks for reading, and if you have any questions, or further observations about optimize for many per click conversions please feel free to post in the comments section below! 🙂
