Google recently announced its biggest update to Ads bidding in over a decade with Smart Bidding Exploration. This includes a significant new function – flexible ROAS targets – because when marketers react to past performance and short-term goals, they can miss opportunities.
For example, a mortgage lender likely already bids successfully on high-performing, reliable queries like “mortgage” or “home loan” when advertising on Search. Google’s systems know these queries will generally help them achieve their ROAS targets. But the lender could be missing even more leads.
With flexible ROAS targets, the same lender can now open up to bid on less obvious but potentially highly valuable queries more often, like “how to buy a home”. This allows Google AI to find new, qualified leads that the lender wouldn’t have captured otherwise.
This new tool builds on existing features like AI Max for Search campaigns, which ensures advertisers are eligible for relevant, intent-driven searches. Smart Bidding Exploration complements it by actively pursuing high-performing searches from a wider range of unique categories within your campaign.
Google claims that campaigns using Smart Bidding Exploration see, on average, an 18% increase in unique search query categories with conversions and a 19% increase in conversions.
If you want to know more about how using Smart Bidding Exploration could enhance your business’s Ads campaigns, please get in touch.