Smart Bidding vs. Manual Bidding: Which One is Best for Your PPC Campaigns

So, you’ve set up your Google Ads campaign, and now Google is asking you to choose a bidding strategy. Smart Bidding? Manual Bidding? It’s like picking between automatic and stick shift—both have their perks, but which one’s right for you? Let’s break it down in a way that won’t make your brain hurt.

What is Google Ads Bidding Strategy?

Before we get into the big showdown, let’s talk about what a Google Ads bidding strategy even is. Simply put, it’s how you tell Google to spend your money when bidding on ad placements.

If you didn’t know yet, Google Ads integrates a bidding system for advertisers to compete on a given keyword for the highest position in the search results. This bidding process is one of the reasons some ads will be placed above or below others. For example with advertisers telling Google: “I will pay you $2 for each click on my ad” and some other advertisers saying “Well I will pay you $4 for each click” – this bid per click is called the maximum CPC (Cost Per Click) that advertisers are willing to pay to Google.

So to be able to maximize your chances of being above your competitors (and therefore getting more clicks) your need to be good at bidding with your ads and potentially bid higher than them, have a higher maximum Cost Per Click.

Now that being said the bid is not the only aspect of your process that is taken into account. In fact, Google values a lot the quality of your ads as well as the relevance of your landing page and your click through rate (the amount of people clicking on your ads compared to all the people seeing your ads). To simplify, look at the table below that demonstrates how Google decides for the positions of ads based on the factors we just mentioned: CTR – Landing Page – Bid (max CPC) – Ad Quality Score.

If you want to learn more about how Google Ads work and explore the auction system, please refer to this article. You can also learn more about CPC and how to lower your CPC here.

Back to our sheep, you basically want impressions, clicks, conversions, and results—without throwing cash into the void. There are two main types: Smart Bidding and Manual Bidding. Each has its quirks, so let’s see which one fits your style.

Smart Bidding: Letting Google Take the Wheel

Smart Bidding is Google’s fancy way of saying, “Trust us, we got this.” It uses machine learning to optimize your bids automatically, based on real-time data. Here’s what you get, Pros & Cons:

Pros of Smart Bidding

• Time-Saving – No need to tweak bids constantly. Google handles the heavy lifting.
• Real-Time Adjustments – Google analyzes user behavior and adjusts bids on the fly.
• Optimization for Goals – You can optimize for conversions, CPA (Cost Per Acquisition), ROAS (Return On Ad Spend), and more.
• Great for Beginners – If you’re new to PPC, this takes a lot of guesswork out.

Cons of Smart Bidding

• Less Control – If you love tweaking every little setting, this might feel limiting.
• Data-Dependent – It needs a decent amount of conversion data to work well.
• Can Overspend – Google might bid higher than you’d like in some cases.

Smart bidding is very helpful for people who don’t have a lot of experience with PPC & Google Ads, as it helps optimize your bid based on competition. One of the main issues of Smart Bidding is that Google needs (a lot of) data to feed its machine learning to optimize your ads and bids, therefore it might tend spend more money than you would manually, to collect that data. If you are new to Google Ads, this is your best bet but keep in mind you are still taking a risk. We would always recommend using a Google Ads Agency like ours to take care of your ads and maximize your results. Schedule a Free Call todayto talk about your project!

Manual Bidding: You’re in Control

If Smart Bidding is self-driving, Manual Bidding is for those who still love the feel of the wheel. Here’s what you get when you go manual, Pros & Cons:

Pros of Manual Bidding

• Full Control – You decide how much to bid on each keyword.

• Better for Tight Budgets – If every dollar counts, you can control spending more precisely. 💸

• Ideal for PPC Experts – If you’re a Google Ads agency or a pro marketer, you might prefer hands-on adjustments.

Cons of Manual Bidding

• Time-Consuming – You have to monitor and adjust constantly.

• No Real-Time Optimization – You don’t get Google’s AI-powered insights.

• Risk of Underbidding – If you set bids too low, you might miss out on clicks.

This is the opposite of Smart Bidding. It’s like driving stick, you are the one changing gears or bids in that case. Manual Bidding allows more control over how much you want to spend and every single keyword or your campaigns. This gives you the power to increase or lowe your bids on keywords of your choice, empowering those that bring good conversion data. The downside is that you need to be on top of things. Just like driving stick, you can’t drive in gear 1 the whole time, here it’s the same, you need to be able to change your bid based on the analysis of the data you collect. Therefore, you need to be able to interpet your data. 

We don’t recommend Manual Bidding for Google Ads for beginner as things can quickly get out of control and your ad spend can skyrocket without bringing any results. We can audit your Google Ads account for free and give you some insights, but please don’t be reckless with Manual Bidding.

Which One is Right for You?

So, should you let Google handle it, or should you take control? Here’s a simple breakdown:

Pro Tips

Fully Automated Bidding Process:

• Since Google Ads run on data, if your account is new and you are starting a new campaign, we recommend using “Maximize Clicks” as your bidding strategy. This will allow Google to collect data on what is generating clicks, what kind of people click on your ads, etc.
• Once you generate some conversions, around 10 to 20, you might want to switch to “Maximize Conversions“. This smart bidding strategy will tell Google “Ok look we have click, now make these clicks convert more”. Your CPC might increase, as Google will bid more aggressively to bring you conversion. That is fine.
• If you want to improve your cost per conversion (CPA) or your return on investment (ROAS) then you will need to switch to TCPA or ROAS. However, you need to have a decent amount of conversion data to do so. We recommend about 30 conversions over the last 30 days before you consider switching to one of these 2 smart biddings. Google will probably give you recommendation to switch earlier than that. DON’T DO IT! One you pick TCPA or ROAS, try to stick to it for about 30 days. if you keep changing your bidding strategy, your ads will constantly be in learning pahse and won’t be performing well.
• Finally, if you want to change your TCPA or ROAS target, make sure you do so incrementally, chaging your target by about 20% maximum at a time, every 30 days or so.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, choosing between Smart Bidding and Manual Bidding is like deciding between a Tesla and a classic stick shift. Both will get you where you want to go, but the experience is totally different. If you’re short on time and trust Google’s AI, Smart Bidding is the way to go. If you love hands-on control and want to fine-tune your campaigns, Manual Bidding is your best bet. Either way, the key is testing and optimizing over time!

Additionally, learn the best practices to create performing Google Ads campaigns.

FAQ – Smart Bidding vs. Manual Bidding