In what scenarios might manual bidding be more beneficial than automated bidding?

Manual bidding can be more beneficial than automated bidding in certain scenarios where precise control, customization, and strategic oversight are essential. While automated bidding is efficient for large-scale campaigns, manual bidding offers advantages in situations requiring a hands-on approach, real-time adjustments, and deeper insights. Here are some scenarios where manual bidding may be more beneficial:

1. Highly Specific, Niche Campaigns
Scenario: If you're running a highly specialized campaign with very specific target audiences, keywords, or ad groups that require individualized attention, manual bidding allows you to adjust bids with a level of granularity that automated bidding may not provide.

Why Manual Bidding is Beneficial: Manual bidding gives you the flexibility to fine-tune bids for unique keywords or highly targeted segments, optimizing your campaign based on niche factors that automated systems may overlook.

Example: A boutique store targeting a specific geographic area with unique products may require highly tailored bids for different regions, times of day, or very specific keywords that automated bidding systems might treat too broadly.

2. Campaigns with Low Traffic or Small Budgets
Scenario: For campaigns with limited traffic or small budgets, automated bidding may not be effective because it relies on machine learning and volume to make decisions. In these cases, the lack of sufficient data can lead to less accurate or inefficient bid adjustments.

Why Manual Bidding is Beneficial: Manual bidding allows you to make careful, data-driven adjustments based on the limited traffic and budget available. You can target your spend more effectively by focusing on high-value keywords and adjusting bids according to the specific performance of each element of the campaign.

Example: If you're running a local campaign for a new service with a small budget, you can manually optimize bids to ensure that every click counts and that you're not wasting your limited budget.

3. Campaigns with Complex or Changing Goals
Scenario: If your campaign goals change frequently—such as switching between lead generation, brand awareness, and direct sales objectives—manual bidding offers greater flexibility to adjust bids quickly based on evolving goals.

Why Manual Bidding is Beneficial: Automated bidding strategies, especially those that rely on machine learning, may take time to adapt to new goals or may not have the flexibility to adjust as quickly as manual bidding. With manual bidding, you can immediately modify bids to align with new objectives.

Example: If you're running a campaign that moves from a brand-awareness phase to a promotional sales push, manual bidding lets you raise or lower bids for specific keywords depending on the current stage of your campaign.

4. Testing and Experimentation
Scenario: When testing new keywords, ad copy, landing pages, or targeting strategies, you need to be able to make immediate adjustments based on performance insights.

Why Manual Bidding is Beneficial: Manual bidding allows you to quickly adjust bids after seeing the results of tests, while automated systems may take longer to recognize patterns and optimize accordingly.

Example: If you introduce a new keyword into a campaign, manual bidding allows you to adjust its bid based on immediate feedback (such as CTR and conversion rates), while automated bidding might take several days or weeks to adjust its algorithm.

5. High-Volume Campaigns with Multiple Ad Groups or Keywords
Scenario: For complex campaigns with numerous ad groups or keywords, manual bidding can be beneficial when you need to prioritize specific ad groups or adjust bids based on very specific performance data.

Why Manual Bidding is Beneficial: While automated bidding can handle large campaigns, it might not provide the level of control required when dealing with multiple ad groups or keywords that perform very differently. Manual bidding allows for customized bid management across many granular elements of the campaign.

Example: In a large e-commerce campaign with hundreds of products, manual bidding allows you to adjust bids for the most profitable products or brands, while reducing or pausing bids for those that don't perform well.

6. Market Conditions and Competitor Activity
Scenario: In industries with intense competition or rapidly shifting market conditions, manual bidding allows you to react quickly to competitor activity or market changes.

Why Manual Bidding is Beneficial: While automated bidding systems work off historical data and trends, manual bidding enables you to make quick, on-the-spot bid adjustments based on real-time events or shifts in the competitive landscape.

Example: If a competitor suddenly increases their bid on a high-traffic keyword, manual bidding allows you to adjust your bid immediately to stay competitive, whereas automated bidding systems may take time to recognize and respond to the change.

7. Need for Control Over Specific Bid Adjustments
Scenario: If you require tight control over bids for specific devices, locations, demographics, or times of day, manual bidding gives you the flexibility to make those adjustments precisely.

Why Manual Bidding is Beneficial: Automated systems typically rely on broad rules and data aggregation, which may not allow for granular control over all aspects of your campaign. Manual bidding lets you modify bids at a more detailed level, optimizing for the factors that matter most.

Example: If you know that a specific device (e.g., mobile) or a particular location (e.g., a high-performing city) converts better, you can manually increase bids for those segments, rather than relying on the system's automatic adjustments.

8. Limited Trust in Algorithmic Decisions
Scenario: If you're in an industry or niche where you have extensive knowledge about consumer behavior, market trends, or the competitive landscape, you may prefer manual bidding because you feel more confident in making strategic decisions than relying on an automated system.

Why Manual Bidding is Beneficial: Automated systems make decisions based on algorithms that rely on data and patterns, but they might miss nuances that you understand better. Manual bidding provides you with the ability to use your own expertise to drive bid adjustments.

Example: If you have extensive knowledge of a particular customer segment and understand that they tend to convert at certain times, you may prefer manually adjusting bids to target that segment during peak times, instead of relying on an automated system to make that decision.

9. Greater Control Over Bid Adjustments During Seasonal Campaigns
Scenario: During peak seasons (e.g., holidays, product launches, or promotions), manual bidding provides better control over short-term bid adjustments that need to be tailored to specific events.

Why Manual Bidding is Beneficial: Automated bidding systems may not react quickly enough to the short-term fluctuations in demand associated with seasonal events. Manual bidding allows you to make timely adjustments for higher traffic and sales potential.

Example: During Black Friday, you can manually increase bids on high-performing keywords to capture the spike in search traffic, while reducing bids for keywords that aren't performing as well during this busy period.

10. Small or Personal Businesses with a Small Budget
Scenario: Small businesses with limited ad budgets might find manual bidding more beneficial, as it allows for precise budget allocation and avoids overspending on underperforming keywords.

Why Manual Bidding is Beneficial: With manual bidding, small businesses can control every aspect of their campaigns and adjust bids based on immediate performance data, ensuring that their limited budget is spent wisely.

Example: A local restaurant with a small budget can manually adjust bids to focus on geographic areas where they see the most foot traffic, ensuring that the ad spend is targeted to the highest-converting regions.

Conclusion
Manual bidding is especially beneficial when advertisers need precise control over their bids, require quick adjustments in response to competitive activity or market changes, or are managing highly specialized or niche campaigns. It is also more effective for businesses with smaller budgets, campaigns with changing goals, or situations that require immediate responses to performance data or market conditions. While automated bidding offers efficiency, manual bidding allows for greater flexibility and strategic decision-making, especially in scenarios where careful oversight and quick reaction times are critical to campaign success.