NatWest Accelerator Events Free one-day marketing seminar at the NatWest Accelerator, Milton Keynes · 10-11-2026 Free marketing seminar · NatWest Accelerator, Milton Keynes · 10-11-2026 Free seminar · 10-11-2026
NatWest Accelerator, MK
Get your free invite →Invite →

Home › Blog › Google Ads

Google Ads

Best Google Ads Bidding Strategies?

Best Google Ads Bidding Strategies?
Read the video transcript

Which one strategy will be best for services? tROAS. tCPA or Manual CPC? We have 4 prices of $5. $19, $44 and $79. Okay, now I'm a little bit confused that you have got a full pricing structure. And I believe it is for a product and not a service. So, this bit about services. It may be for products and that's what you meant.

If that is so and if you are selling a product or let me go back one step. So, this is where the confusion happens. tROAS or tCPA, what are these? tROAS is the target return on ad spend. And this one is for target cost per acquisition. If you are in the eCommerce business and you are selling products online then you need to go on the target ROAS bidding strategy if you are generating leads for your business then you need to go on the target CPA.

The reason why the target CPA does not work on eCommerce. Because let's say you have got a product for $79. One person comes to your site, they will buy $79. Another one will come in. He or she may buy $79 or $19 or $5 and you will get different products being purchased by different people and the cart value will be different.

So, you can't have a target cost per acquisition because if you are targeting to acquire a customer for $50. And you are selling a $19 product. Then at the front end, you are making a loss. I'm not talking about the customer lifetime value but just at the front end. So that's why you can't do that. But if you are selling a product and you have got the target return on ad spend bidding applied that means Google is going to try and maximize your return on ad spend.

And it is usually calculated in percentage. So every $1 you spend you want four or five back or more depending on your profitability. So for eCommerce websites, you need to target ROAS. For service-based or lead generation campaigns you need target CPA because a lead is a lead. You know that you need to generate a lead for $10, $50 or $100.

With regards to the manual CPC yes you can start with manual CPC get the data into the account so that the account knows and Google knows what you are looking for and then switch it over to your tROAS ads or tCPA campaigns Google is going to tell you can start right off the bat with tCPA or tROAS ads but in my experience and my humble opinion the way I would do this is set up your campaigns start with manual CPC get the data in and when you've got 30 or 50 conversions depending on how much the data is in the last how much the budget is you are spending daily.

You will then switch over to tROAS or tCPA. Ideally, you want to do at least 30 conversions in the last 30 days.

Listen to this episode on Spotify

Do you want to know which is the best bidding strategy for your service-based Google Ads campaign? In this video, I’ll describe how to use your advertising goals to choose your bid strategy.

Free NatWest Accelerator event

Get Found, Get Chosen, Get Your Time Back

A free one-day marketing seminar in Milton Keynes · 10-11-2026

Get your free invite →

Target ROAS Bidding Strategy

If you are in the eCommerce business and you are selling products online then you need to go on the target ROAS bidding strategy. If you are generating leads for your business then you need to go on the target CPA bidding strategy. The reason why the target CPA bidding strategy does not work for eCommerce business.

Get your free Marketing Action PlanNot sure where to start? Answer a few questions and get your plan in about a minute. No email needed.

Get my plan →

Because let’s say you have got a product for $79. One person comes to your website, they buy goods worth $79. Another one will come in, he or she may buy $79 or $19 or $5 and you will get different products being purchased by different people and the cart value will be different.

So, you can’t have a target cost per acquisition because if you are targeting to acquire a customer for $50. And you are selling a $19 product. Then at the front end, you are making a loss. I’m not talking about the customer lifetime value but just at the front end. So that’s why you can’t do that. But if you are selling a product and you have got the target return on ad spend (tROAS) bidding applied that means Google is going to try and maximize your return on ad spend.

And it is usually calculated in percentage. So every $1 you spend you want $4 or $5 back or more depending on your profitability. So for an eCommerce business, you need to use a target ROAS bidding strategy.

Target CPA Bidding Strategy

For service-based or lead generation campaigns you need to use the target CPA bidding strategy because a lead is a lead. You know that you need to generate a lead for $10, $50 or $100.

Manual CPC Bidding Strategy

With regards to the manual CPC yes you can start with manual CPC get the data into the account so that the account knows and Google knows what you are looking for and then switch it over to your tROAS ads or tCPA campaigns. 

Google reps are going to tell you that you can start with tCPA or tROAS straight off the bat but in my experience and my humble opinion, the way I would do this is to set up your Google Ads campaigns start with manual CPC get the data in and when you’ve got 30 or 50 conversions depending on how much the data is in the last how much the budget is you are spending daily. You will then switch over to tROAS or tCPA. Ideally, you want to do at least 30 conversions in the last 30 days.

Uzair Kharawala

Written by Uzair Kharawala

Partner at SF Digital Studios, a Google Premier Partner agency. Uzair has been helping businesses grow with Google Ads since 2002 and teaches it every week on YouTube.

Book A Call →Subscribe on YouTube for new videos every weekday →
Free every week

Get our best Google Ads tips by email

New articles and videos, straight to your inbox. Unsubscribe any time.

We respect your privacy at all times. Privacy Policy

You may also like

Read the blog →

Your next customers are out there. Let's go and get them.

Tell us where you want your business to be, and we'll show you how to get there.

Book A Call →or get your free Google Health Check →
Happy clients

Don't take our word for it

4.9 from 157 Google reviews, plus case studies and client videos.

See our happy clients →
"It has now been 3 months since we started and our sales have increased 300%."
Ruhi Latif Rafplay, Dubai
"Uzair and Farzana are two of the most honest, sincere and trustworthy people you will ever meet."
Gavin Morgan GDM Jewellery · Google review
"If I needed a campaign built, this is one of the rare few people IN THE WORLD I would trust to do it properly."
Hemmel Amrania Google Ads professional · Google review
Book A Call →
Chat with us on WhatsApp