Many people wonder if they should use Target or Maximum CPA bidding for AdWords Conversion Optimizer, and that’s a question I’ve asked myself. So now I’m comparing both to see how they work.
A bit of background first: Per my post “Can You Reset Conversion Optimizer,” I had my AdWords traffic come to a screeching halt after I’d inadvertently removed the conversion code from my site for about 36 hours. On top of that, it happened in December, when my Never Cold Call Again business tends to really slow down to begin with.
As a result, I began looking for ways to jumpstart traffic, and decided to switch my Target CPA bid to a slightly higher Max CPA bid.
Nothing happened for a little while (though traffic quickly recovered from the tracking code incident)…
Until the first working day of the New Year, that is. Around January 3rd, traffic came flooding in. And it was converting well! In fact, even though my daily spend began to approach uncomfortable levels, I left it alone for the remainder of the month since it was converting. In addition, the amount of newsletter signups was pretty massive, which means ongoing revenue for the months to come – I routinely see sales conversions from people who have been on my list anywhere from several weeks to over a year.
Going into February, I decided to reign in my spend a bit; although the additional traffic is converting well, I do sell most of my products on a 30-day trial basis, which means I don’t get paid until a month after the conversion take place, and I don’t want to become one of those businesses that falls victim to excessively rapid growth. Increasing my AdWords spend is something I want to do gradually, not suddenly.
As a result, I moved my largest campaign back to Target CPA rather than Max CPA, although I left the bid on the high side – I set it to the same bid I had it at in July and August of 2011, the two best months ever for that site.
It’s been a few days since making the changes, and two things have happened so far:
1. Traffic has dropped by about 10%
2. The average cost-per-conversion is up slightly
I’m going to let this ride for another week or so before jumping to any conclusions. However, if the current trend continues, I will do the following:
1. Move back to Max CPA bidding
2. Set the bid slightly lower than it was in January
3. Control spend via the daily budget
The reason for this is that even though I spent more than I was comfortable with in January, my average CPA was very nice – lower than my longtime average, and traffic converted very well. My ongoing goal is to stay at that CPA and conversion rate while controlling daily spend a bit better than before, and slowly ramp it up at a more comfortable pace.
I’ll keep you posted on the results!
