Smart Bidding is central to the future of Google Ads. Over the next few months and years, Google will move away from manual inputs provided by paid specialists and towards the use of Artificial Intelligence.

As we are one of the top 50 Paid Advertising agencies in the UK, we were invited to attend an exclusive Google Partners Digital Champions training event about Smart Bidding in November 2019 (with the graduation taking place in March this year). At the event, we received direct training from Google Experts on what we believe to be a game-changer for our clients.

Our Role in the World of AI

I have to admit that, before attending the event, there was a question in my mind about how Smart Bidding will affect the role of a paid media specialist.

There is a worry across the industry that, as Google strives for ultimate automation, an agency's role could be reduced as business owners could simply create a Google Ads account, utilise Google's Smart Bidding strategies and get fantastic results.

However, during the training, it was made abundantly clear that in order for businesses to implement and also take advantage of the opportunities presented by the new AI Google Ads technology, they'll need trained specialists at the helm. That's where we come in.

First of all, there is a huge amount of set-up for Smart Bidding that needs to be done to ensure it is in line with best practices - something that an individual without specialist know-how would struggle to achieve correctly.

Secondly, the AI behind the ads will free up time usually spent on the day-to-day management of campaigns. This means we will be able to spend even more time researching, creating, testing and delivering serious account optimisations that will have a huge impact on the performance for our clients.

These optimisations include:

• Landing page experiments and tests
• Feed optimisations for our e-commerce clients
• Competitor analysis
• Website development
• Advanced analytics

Simply put, companies that don’t have a PPC team behind them will be unable to take advantage of this time afforded by Google’s AI. And, without this, they will be at risk of falling behind their competitors who are working with paid advertising specialists.

Client Results

Our key takeaway from the training session in November was the enhanced know-how and confidence in delivering smart bidding strategies for our clients. Since then, our implementation of Google's latest machine learning has led to some fantastic results:

Evaris

Since implementing smart bidding for IT solutions specialist Evaris, we have seen:

• 6% increase in clicks and a 223.21% increase in revenue

When you combine this with the fact we reduced cost by 54%, you can see the power that smart bidding can have within an account when implemented in line with Google's best practices.

Lanes for Drains

In late 2019 we also began smart bidding for Lanes for Drains to help them grow the number of new leads they received each month.

So far we have generated a 74% increase in leads while keeping the budget flat.

Taking Advantage

Aside from giving our clients the trust that we know what we are doing when it comes to Smart Bidding, passing the course means that we now have numerous advantages over other agencies: 

• Early access to private betas, ensuring our clients will only have the latest features within their accounts
• Insights into the future of Google Ads, to ensure our clients are ready prepared for the changes that lie ahead
• Additional support from smart bidding experts at Google