Bidding on the right keywords, at the right time, with the right amount, is one of the biggest challenges in campaign management. It can either make your app more visible to the right audience, or you may end up wasting your budget on a non-returning strategy. This guide will walk you through the features and benefits of Smart Bidding and how to use them effectively to make your bidding strategy more effective and optimized.
Why use Smart Bidding?
As the name suggests, Smart Bidding is one of the smart tools under Co-pilot on SearchAds.com, which refines your bidding strategies while managing your Apple Search Ads campaigns. You can continuously optimize your bidding strategies based on performance metrics and competitive data. So that you can save time by bidding on the right keywords according to your goals.
You can maximize your ad spend and your ROI by automating bid adjustments because Smart Bidding uses advanced algorithms to adjust bids automatically based on performance goals, which are CPA, CPI, CPG, and ROAS, integrating seamlessly with your overall campaign management strategy to ensure that your ads are competitive and cost-effective.
How to set up
Starting to use Smart Bidding is easier than you think, and it just takes 3 simple steps. One important detail to keep in mind is that you can apply Smart Bidding on your campaign and your ad groups.
Accessing Smart Bidding
Log into your SearchAds.com account, and you can find Smart Bidding under “Co-pilot” in the sidebar on the left side of the dashboard. Once you navigate to the Smart Bidding section, you'll see all your Smart Bidding activities, categorized by the metric you choose to optimize. On that screen, you'll see all the details of your activities and their corresponding CPA, CPI, CPG and ROAS metrics. You can use Smart Bidding based on different goals. You can choose to set a CPA goal, a CPI/CPG (Cost per Goal) goal, or a ROAS goal. In the next section, we explain these in more detail.
To create a new Smart Bidding, you need to click “Create New” in the upper right corner and decide whether you want to apply Smart Bidding to your campaign or ad group and click “Continue.”
Select your campaign or ad group, keep in mind that you can’t choose the ones that you already applied Smart Bidding.
Defining your goals
As we mentioned before in the article, you can set specific performance targets for your campaigns, such as desired CPA, CPI, CPG or ROAS.
If you want to set a CPA goal:
From the Smart Bidding section, choose the CPA Optimization option.
After selecting your campaign or ad group, you’ll have 3 options to choose from for your optimization strategy:
CPA Optimization for reducing costs below the average.
Scale Up & CPA Optimization to maintain costs while scaling.
Scale Up to increase reach and visibility at up to 20% above average CPA.
Depending on the strategy you want to follow, set your target CPA. Note that targets must adhere to specified limits above or below your average CPA.
Note that the average CPA is calculated based on the data from the last 3 days (including today), and the minimum and maximum target CPA can be +/- 20% from the average.
If you set a CPI or CPG goal:
From the Smart Bidding section, choose the CPI Optimization or CPG Optimization option.
If you selected CPG Optimization, select a goal before proceeding. A list of available goals will appear in a drop-down menu, such as Subscription, Trial Start or Revenue. You can define additional goals from the Goals tab under the Mobile Measurement Partner section on the left-hand side menu.
After selecting your campaign or ad group, you can choose one of the 3 options as your optimization strategy:
CPI/CPG Optimization for reducing costs below the average.
Scale Up & CPI/CPG Optimization to maintain costs while scaling.
Scale Up to increase reach and visibility at up to 20% above average CPI/CPG.
Then, depending on the chosen strategy, set your target CPI or CPG. Note that targets must adhere to specified limits above or below your average CPI/CPG.
Note that the average CPI/CPG is calculated based on the data from the last 7 days (Monday to Sunday), and the minimum and maximum target CPI can be +/- 20% from the average.
If you set a ROAS goal:
From the Smart Bidding section, choose the ROAS Optimization option.
After selecting your campaign or ad group, decide whether to optimize for ROAS Day 1, ROAS Day 7, or ROAS Day 14.
After selecting your ROAS day, you should choose between three strategies:
ROAS 1 Optimization
ROAS 7 Optimization
ROAS 14 Optimization
Enter your target ROAS. The target ROAS should not exceed 5% above your current average ROAS. If the entered value is too high, you’ll see the following warning message: "For the best performance, when you hit your target ROAS, end your current smart bidding, set a new target ROAS, and restart Smart Bidding if you wish to continue optimization."
Note that the average ROAS is calculated based on the data from the last 7 days (Monday to Sunday).
Enabling Smart Bidding
Turn on Smart Bidding and allow the system to start optimizing your bids based on your predefined goals.
Smart Bidding will work to bring you the best results, however, here are some tips for you to make sure that you make the most out of the tool and the platform;
Monitor regularly: Check in on your campaigns periodically to see how the adjustments are performing.
Adjust goals as needed: As your campaign progresses, you may need to tweak your goals based on market conditions or campaign performance.
Use comprehensive metrics: Combine Smart Bidding with Mobile Action’s analytics to get a holistic view of your campaign’s effectiveness.
In a nutshell, Smart Bidding is one of the powerful tools on SearchAds.com that makes your campaign management easier and faster. Dive in and experience the benefits today!
If you have further questions or need assistance, don’t hesitate to contact your dedicated Customer Success Manager or get in touch with us via Intercom.