Which Bid Strategy Should You Use for B2C Brand Campaigns? 🤔

When you are running a brand campaign for a B2C company, choosing the right bid strategy is crucial. A well-optimized bid strategy ensures you’re not just spending efficiently but also reaching the right audience at the right time. Let’s dive into different bid strategies and why certain ones might (or might not) be the best fit for your brand campaigns.

1. Manual CPC: Control or Constraint?

Manual CPC allows you to control the cost per click (CPC) for your brand campaign, but is it really the most effective strategy?

I don’t think so. While Manual CPC’s main purpose is to give you control over how much you’re spending on each click, brand campaigns typically require more flexibility. The challenge here is that brand campaigns are often at the bottom of the funnel (BOF), where customers are close to making a decision. If your bid is too low, you may lose out on valuable customers. If it’s too high, you might overspend unnecessarily. And because customer value can vary greatly depending on their intent, manual CPC doesn’t offer the adaptability you need. You could lose a customer at the final moment simply because your set bid is off by a fraction.

2. Target ROAS: Focused but Narrow

Target Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) aims to get you a fixed ROAS for every dollar you invest. Sounds promising, right? Not quite.

Here’s the issue: while Target ROAS helps you achieve your desired profitability, it can narrow your focus too much. If you’re solely focused on maintaining a specific ROAS, you might miss out on potential customers still deciding whether to engage with your brand. Remember, brand campaigns aim to capture and convert those who are already interested. A narrow focus on ROAS might prevent you from expanding your reach. Moreover, because this strategy is primarily conversion-focused, it might limit the number of impressions, especially if it chooses not to show your ad to certain prospects just because they might not convert immediately.

This works well when you’re more concerned about profitability, but for brand awareness and capturing BOF audiences, it could hold you back.

3. Search Impression Share: Visibility, but at What Cost?

Search Impression Share ensures your brand shows up when people search for it. Sounds ideal, but there’s a catch.

Google may sometimes show your brand for a high CPC just to ensure your ad meets the required impression share. This could lead to overspending on irrelevant clicks or audiences, which isn’t efficient for BOF campaigns. While it’s important to be visible, you don’t want to do it at the cost of draining your budget on clicks that won’t convert. Yes, you’ll be present when people search for your brand, but make sure you’re not paying a premium for that visibility when cheaper, more targeted options are available.

4. Maximum Clicks: The Winning Strategy?

In my opinion, Maximize Clicks is the best strategy for B2C brand campaigns. Why? Because it focuses on volume. Your audience is likely searching for your brand with intent, especially if they’re familiar with it. With this strategy, you’re not limited by specific CPCs or ROAS. Instead, Google optimizes to get the most clicks at the best price.

Here’s why it works well:

• Audience Quality: Since these are branded campaigns, the audience searching for your brand is more likely at the BOF and ready to convert.
• Cost Efficiency: You’re less likely to overpay for irrelevant clicks since Google will optimize for the most cost-effective placements.
• Improved Visibility: With higher clicks, you also get better impression share without worrying about hitting overly high CPC or restrictive ROAS targets.

With a well-targeted branded campaign, maximizing clicks can lead to higher conversions simply because your audience is already interested and ready to buy.

Conclusion

Maximize Clicks emerges as the most suitable bid strategy for B2C brand campaigns. It balances cost efficiency with volume, ensuring that your brand reaches the most relevant audience without overspending. This strategy should work well if your primary goal is to boost visibility and conversion for bottom-of-the-funnel customers.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments below