Mastering Marketing Bid Optimisation: Leverage Smart Bidding Techniques to Improve Digital Marketing Results

At Metrixa, we are very passionate about Marketing bid optimisation, and our team works on it daily to improve digital marketing results for our clients. Unfortunately, it needs to be a better-understood area of digital marketing and is often confused with other marketing techniques or technologies. Bid Optimisation is at the heart of any Digital Marketing Strategy.

If you need help with bid optimisation or want to understand how to differentiate it from other digital marketing optimisations such as programmatic buying, landing page optimisation or search engine optimisation, this post is for you!

First, let’s briefly cover some marketing buzzwords that are often misunderstood to see where bid optimisation fits in:

Programmatic buying

Programmatic buying is purchasing advertising based on rules and preferences familiar to people who run ads with Google or Bing. However, it is a hot topic because Ad Exchanges, like Xandr (previously known as AppNexus and now owned by Microsoft), and other display advertising networks, have successfully adopted this approach. 

Search engine optimisation

Most search engines provide free (also known as organic) and paid listings. Organic listings are ranked based on relevance to the words and phrases that the user entered when searching. Search engine optimisation aims to make your website more relevant for specific words and phrases.

Landing page optimisation

Your landing page is the web page your visitors arrive at after clicking on an ad from one of your campaigns. Landing page optimisation is the process of making changes to those pages to increase the chances that visitors will proceed to purchase or complete some other conversion on your website. 

Conversion rate optimisation

Improving your website to enhance the amount of leads/sales/goals you produce is known as conversion rate optimisation or CRO. Split testing, workflow advancements, and content improvements all contribute to CRO. Optimising conversion rates generates highly qualified prospects, boosts sales, and lowers acquisition expenses. 

So now you know what some of these terms, but what is bid optimisation

Most forms of paid digital marketing use an auction model where advertisers compete against each other to display their ads to the desired audience. Each advertiser nominates a bid representing the maximum amount of money they are willing to pay for the auction. The advertising platform uses the bid amount alone or a combination of factors to determine which ads are displayed and in what order. In the past, bid optimisation was done on a keyword level and mostly done manually or using optimisation platforms like DoubleClick or Metrixa Intelligence.

Most platforms, including Facebook, Google and Bing, now provide automatically generated bid strategies that maximise conversion rates or value. Smart bidding leverages machine learning to optimise your bids to maximise conversions and conversion value throughout your campaign or bidding portfolio. Smart bidding techniques include Target CPA, Target ROAS, Maximise Conversion and Maximise Conversion Value.

Just because Google, Facebook & Bing offers Smart Bidding doesn’t mean your work is over

Automated bidding is available on several platforms for digital marketing. For example, each search term, social media ad, or programmatic display/video bid is treated as a separate unit via better bidding.

The ideal bid price is constantly changing due to various factors, such as competition, audience engagement, and ad relevance. Bid optimisation allows you to adjust your bids in real-time to stay competitive and achieve better results.

A critical aspect of bid optimisation is understanding your target audience and their behaviour. Using data and analytics to understand your audience’s demographics, search patterns, and conversion rate can help you make informed decisions about your bid strategy.

Another critical aspect is understanding the various available bid strategies and how they apply to your goals. For example, a Target CPA bid strategy may be the best option if your primary goal is to drive conversions. On the other hand, if your goal is to maximise return on ad spend, a Target ROAS strategy may be more appropriate.

In conclusion, bid optimisation is a crucial aspect of any digital marketing strategy and can help you achieve better results and improve the efficiency of your ad spend. It’s essential to understand the different bid strategies available and how they align with your specific goals and utilise data and analytics to make informed decisions about your bids. While automated bidding tools can be helpful, keeping a close eye on your campaigns and making adjustments to stay competitive and achieve your desired results is essential.