Chapter 5: Budgeting and Bid Strategies

Automated vs. Manual Bidding: What I've Learned

One of the most important decisions when managing your Google Ads campaigns is choosing between automated and manual bidding strategies. Both have their advantages, and the right choice will depend on your practice's goals, available time for management, and level of experience with Google Ads.

Automated Bidding

Automated bidding allows Google to adjust your bids in real-time, using machine learning to optimize your campaigns based on performance. Google’s algorithms analyze your keywords, audience, and other factors to adjust bids in the most cost-effective way possible.

Types of Automated Bidding Strategies for Orthodontists

• Maximize Conversions: This strategy automatically adjusts your bids to get the most conversions within your set budget. It’s a good option if your main goal is to drive appointments or consultations and you have a clear conversion tracking setup in place. Maximize Conversions is particularly useful when you want to take advantage of Google’s machine learning capabilities without spending too much time on manual adjustments.
• Target CPA (Cost Per Acquisition): If you have a target cost per patient acquisition (e.g., $100 per consultation), you can set this as your goal, and Google will automatically optimize bids to help you achieve this target. It’s an excellent choice if you have a clear idea of what your patient acquisition cost should be and are confident in your conversion rates.
• Target ROAS (Return on Ad Spend): If you’re focused on maximizing revenue, Google’s Target ROAS bidding strategy optimizes bids to achieve the highest return on ad spend. For orthodontic practices, this could mean optimizing bids for users more likely to book expensive treatments like Invisalign or adult braces.

Pros of Automated Bidding

• Less Time-Consuming: Automated bidding takes the guesswork and manual adjustments out of the process. Once set up, Google Ads will handle bid adjustments for you.
• Optimized for Conversions: Google’s algorithms are built to optimize bids in real time based on a wealth of data, meaning you can potentially achieve better results at a lower cost.

Cons of Automated Bidding

• Requires Accurate Conversion Tracking: Automated bidding relies on good conversion data, so it’s crucial to set up proper tracking for your consultations, phone calls, or form submissions. Without accurate tracking, automated bidding may not optimize as effectively.
• Less Control: While automated bidding can be highly effective, it gives you less granular control over your individual bids, which can be limiting if you want to target specific keywords or times more aggressively.

Manual Bidding

Manual bidding gives you full control over how much you’re willing to pay for each click on your ads. You set individual bids for each keyword or placement, and you can make adjustments based on what’s working.

Pros of Manual Bidding

• Full Control: With manual bidding, you can fine-tune your bids based on the performance of specific keywords or campaigns. This is ideal if you want to bid higher for highly targeted, high-performing keywords.
• Strategic Adjustments: If you know that certain times of day or geographic areas are more likely to convert, you can adjust your bids to focus on those.

Cons of Manual Bidding

• Time-Intensive: Manual bidding requires more ongoing monitoring and adjustments. If you don’t have the time to regularly optimize your campaigns, this may not be the best option.
• Less Efficiency: Manual bidding doesn’t leverage Google’s algorithms to the same extent as automated bidding, which means you might miss out on some of the performance improvements that Google’s machine learning can provide.

What I’ve Learned

For orthodontists, the choice between automated and manual bidding often comes down to the level of control you want and the time you have to manage your campaigns.

• If you’re new to Google Ads or don’t have the time to make frequent adjustments, automated bidding is a good option. It’s especially useful for driving conversions with less manual effort, and if you set up conversion tracking correctly, it can yield excellent results over time.
• If you have the time to dedicate to optimization and want to fine-tune bids for specific keywords, locations, or times, manual bidding offers greater control and flexibility.

Hybrid Approach: Combining Both

Some orthodontists find success with a hybrid approach: using automated bidding for broader campaigns or less competitive keywords while manually managing high-priority keywords that are crucial to their practice. For example, if you know that the keyword “Invisalign consultation in [city]” is essential to your practice, you might set a higher manual bid for that term while allowing Google’s automated bidding to manage more general keywords like “orthodontist near me.”