Choose a bid for your Display Network campaign

Google Ads offers several bid strategies tailored to different campaign types. Depending on your target networks and whether you want clicks, impressions, or conversions, you can find the best strategy for your needs.

This article explains how to use your advertising goals to choose the right bid strategy for your Display Network campaigns.

On this page

• Bid strategies
• Keep in mind

Bid types on the Google Display Network help you get the most value from your campaigns by setting just the right price for your ads. Here are the types of bids you can use for the Display Network:

Bid strategies

• Target cost per action (CPA) aims to increase conversions while targeting a specific cost per action.
• Maximize conversions (CPA) automatically sets bids for each auction to help get the most conversions for your campaign while spending your daily budget.
• Target return on ad spend (ROAS) aims to increase conversion value while targeting a specific return on ad spend.
• Enhanced cost-per-click (CPC) bidding, which is an option with manual CPC, automatically adjusts your bids to maximize conversions.
• Maximize clicks sets your bids to help get as many clicks as possible within your budget.
• Manual CPC bidding allows you to set your own maximum CPC for your ads.
• Viewable cost per thousand impressions (CPM) focuses on impressions.

Note: Target CPA, Maximize Conversions, Target ROAS, and Enhanced CPC are all Smart Bidding strategies that focus on conversions.

For in-depth guidance on Smart Bidding strategies, download the Display Smart Bidding Guide.

Keep in mind

• Depending on your campaign type or ad group, not all bid strategies may be available.
• For Display Network campaigns, you can set ad group default bids, custom bids, or bid adjustments.

Bidding on Display Network campaigns

Search ads and Display ads reach people at different moments. When people are actively looking for something, your Search ad may be the answer they need. However, people who view your ad on the Display Network may be browsing a favorite blog or watching videos — not actively searching for what you offer. Bidding on the Display Network helps you show ads to potential customers in the right place and at the right time.

Clickthrough rates (CTRs) are often lower on the Display Network, because it can be harder to get a reader's attention. That's why Display Network bidding exists: to let you set bids for clicks, conversions, or impressions that happen just on the Display Network. You get more control over your costs and you can make sure your bids fit the value you get from your ads.

Choosing your first bid

To find the right bid on the Display Network, you can make a starting bid, view how your ads perform, and then edit it. If you don't set specific bids for your targeting, Google Ads will use your ad group's default bid.

After you make your first bid, wait a few days, then go to your account. To evaluate your bid:

1. Go to Overviewwithin the Campaigns menu .
2. Click on the "Views" tab and select Display campaigns.

You’ll view the number of clicks and impressions for each Display campaign.

You might start by asking yourself, "Is my ad getting clicks?" and then, "Do those clicks lead to the results I want?" We recommend you continue to monitor impressions and clicks, but it’s most helpful to wait a couple weeks before making too many changes. If you edit your bids too frequently, you might not be able to assess your performance accurately.

Keep in mind, your ad performance on the Display Network doesn’t affect your rank for Search ads, and lower CTR on the Display Network doesn't affect the Quality Score of your ads for search.

If you’d like to view if those clicks on your ads turn into action on your website or calls to your business, you can use conversion tracking for better insight.

Bid adjustments

If you’re using Enhanced CPC, Manual CPC, or Viewable CPM bidding strategies then you can also set bid adjustments for better control over when and where your ad appears. Bid adjustments can be set at the campaign level (for mobile devices, times, days, and locations) and can also be used to bid more competitively for specific targeting methods, like keywords, audiences, demographics, topics, or placements in your ad groups.

When you go to the ad groups page, you can find the bidding status. Learn more about adding or removing bid adjustments

1. Go to Ad groups within the Campaigns menu .
2. If you don’t have the column, select the columns icon , select Attributes, then select Active bid adj.