Smart Bidding: “Impression rates” versus “Maximizing clicks”: everything you need to know

On this page


It’s not always easy to make the right choice when it comes to bidding strategies on Google Ads. While Smart Bidding allows you to take advantage of the power of Google’s machine learning, there’s a first time for everything: without campaign history, machine learning can do almost nothing for you. And in order to launch an effective campaign for your business, some bidding strategies make more sense than others. And often, it’s the “Target Impression Rate” and “Maximize Clicks” strategies that advertisers are most interested in. Should you start with the former or the latter? Which strategy might work best for you?

What about bidding strategies based on impressions and clicks?

Google Ads offers many different bidding strategies. These include impression-based bidding and click-maximizing bidding.

The “Target Impression Rate” bidding strategy offered by Google Ads allows you to automatically set bids in order to show your ad in absolute first position. This can be at the top of the page or anywhere on the Google search results page.

– The “Maximize Clicks” strategy is designed to deliver as many clicks as possible within a given budget. This strategy is available in standard form, in a single campaign, or as a bid portfolio strategy for multiple campaigns.

Smart Bidding: How Google Ads automatic bidding strategies work

What are your goals? What exactly are you looking for?

If you’re looking to make a name for yourself, the “Target Impression Rate” bidding strategy will enable you to benefit from Google’s virtually infinite pool of qualified potential customers ready to take action.

However, if you’re primarily looking to convert, wouldn’t the real issue be the quality of the traffic? What’s more, it’s important to bear in mind that Google also wants to make as much money as possible. The consequence? First and foremost, it wants to get as many clicks as possible. So the better your ads perform, the more clicks you’ll get, and the better Google will tend to rank you.

Photo by Scott Graham / Unsplash

The best strategy: the right audience

In short, it’s all a question of organization: first and foremost, finding the right ads for the right people to get the best possible click-through rate. If you haven’t yet determined your personas, now’s a good time to do so. Only then will Google position those same ads strategically, which will only increase the impression rate.

As is often the case, the prerequisite for a good bidding campaign is sufficient preparation, thanks to accurate demographic data, but also a good knowledge of Google’s affinity audiences, your market’s audiences, and so on.

On this page

We develop your acquisition and loyalty strategy using our digital campaigns and Data Driven automation tools.

Join our Newsletter

Receive Ecommerce news, tips and case studies every month, like 1300 other experts like you!

Direct access to our content
Explore Topics
Analytics
Recommandations

Nos clients en parlent mieux que nous

Newscontact us

What are your plans for the future?

Make an appointment now to talk to our experts.

We’ll review your issues and needs with you. Following this initial call and meeting, we’ll prepare an initial audit and diagnosis, and present you with your action plan.

Would you like a coffee? Come and meet us in our offices

Adenlab 8 rue Choiseul
75002 Paris

Tel: 01 81 83 90 60

Itinerary

News1

Keep up to date with the latest news

It’s time to get ready for Christmas! Did you know that 8 out of 10 consumers worldwide use Google to

Building an effective conversion funnel for your website means optimizing it in a number of ways to improve your conversions

To guarantee the success of an e-commerce business, the first idea you have is to communicate with as many people