What is manual bidding?

Manual bidding in Google Ads refers to the practice of manually setting bids for your ads rather than relying on automated bidding strategies. With manual bidding, you have full control over how much you're willing to pay for clicks or conversions in your advertising campaigns.

### Key Points About Manual Bidding:

1. **Full Control**: You determine the maximum amount you're willing to bid for each click (Cost-Per-Click or CPC) or conversion (Cost-Per-Acquisition or CPA) based on your budget and advertising goals.

2. **Bid Adjustments**: You can adjust bids at the keyword level, ad group level, or campaign level. This allows you to prioritize certain keywords or target audiences more aggressively.

3. **Budget Flexibility**: Manual bidding gives you flexibility to allocate your budget as you see fit. You can allocate more budget to high-performing campaigns or keywords and reduce spending on less effective ones.

4. **Strategic Decision-Making**: It requires ongoing monitoring and optimization to ensure bids are competitive enough to win ad auctions while maintaining profitability or achieving your desired return on investment (ROI).

5. **Suitability for Experienced Advertisers**: Manual bidding is often preferred by experienced advertisers who have a good understanding of their market, audience behavior, and specific campaign goals.

### How to Set Up Manual Bidding:

1. **Sign in to Google Ads**:
   - Go to [Google Ads](https://ads.google.com) and sign in to your Google Ads account.

2. **Navigate to Campaign Settings**:
   - Select the campaign for which you want to set up manual bidding from the left-hand menu.

3. **Access Bidding Settings**:
   - Click on the "Settings" tab for your selected campaign.

4. **Choose Manual CPC Bidding**:
   - In the "Bidding" section of the campaign settings, select "Manual CPC" as your bidding strategy.

5. **Set Maximum CPC Bids**:
   - Enter the maximum amount you are willing to pay for each click on your ads. You can set different bids for different keywords, ad groups, or campaigns.

6. **Save Your Settings**:
   - After setting your manual CPC bids, click on "Save" to apply the changes to your campaign.

### Best Practices for Manual Bidding:

- **Start with Keyword Research**: Conduct thorough keyword research to identify relevant keywords with varying levels of competition and search volume.

- **Monitor Performance**: Regularly monitor key performance metrics such as CPC, conversion rate, and CPA. Adjust bids based on performance data to optimize your ad spend.

- **Use Bid Adjustments**: Take advantage of bid adjustments (e.g., device, location, time of day) to tailor bids based on specific audience segments or performance trends.

- **Test and Iterate**: Test different bid strategies and adjust bids based on insights gained from testing. Continuously refine your bidding strategy to improve campaign performance.

- **Consider Automated Options**: For advertisers new to Google Ads or managing large campaigns, consider starting with automated bidding strategies and transitioning to manual bidding as you gain more experience and insights.

By implementing manual bidding effectively in Google Ads, advertisers can maintain control over their advertising costs, optimize campaign performance, and achieve their desired advertising objectives with precision and flexibility.