The Conversion Optimizer introduced by Google AdWords in September is now out of beta. Along with this development are some improvements that would benefit AdWords advertisers in increasing profits and saving time. Conversion Optimizer is a free AdWords tool for managing CPA (cost-per-acquisition) bids.
Now that the Conversion Optimizer is out of beta, AdWords is making it available to any campaign with AdWords Conversion Tracking enabled. Ad campaigns which have received 200 conversions can now also use the Conversion Optimizer compared to before when 300 conversions were required.
So when the Conversion Optimizer is used by, an advertiser just need to specify a maximum CPA bid which is the highest bid that advertiser is willing to pay per ad conversion. The Campaign Optimizer would then use historical information about the advertiser’s campaign, searching for optimal CPC bids per auction. The Conversion Optimizer uses algorithms then predicts which clicks yields higher conversion and automatically bids on these clicks. The algorithm based its bids on the advertiser’s conversion history as well as considers the website in the Google network where the advertiser’s ad appeared.
The Inside AdWords blog gave a good example of how Conversion Optimizer works:
For example, let’s say an advertiser with a custom shirt website gets a higher conversion rate from the search query custom shirts than from just shirts. The Conversion Optimizer learns this difference and bids higher for clicks on custom shirts. By reducing the risk of over-bidding for non-converting search queries and under-bidding for potentially valuable search queries, the Conversion Optimizer can help improve performance substantially. Based on our analysis of the Conversion Optimizer beta, advertisers using this feature have seen more conversions at a lower CPA.
Comments
8 responses so far ↓
Janusz on Jan 11, 2008 at 4:50 am
Is it just me but I would never release conversion data to Adwords? I use Analytics and Gmail but releasing the exact value of your sale is just asking Google to raise the minimum CPC for that campaign :)
Optimizare Seo on Jan 11, 2008 at 5:00 am
I am not sure if Janusz’s is the main issue here but I don’t trust their algorithm to tell me that I need increase the budget with 200% and raise CPC to 4$ to be first. Not sure if this will help anyone, but I am sure I won’t use it and trust it.
Ese Torim on Jan 11, 2008 at 10:51 am
http://www.ny-times.tk/comments.php?id=195 :)
Bert Balliss on Jan 11, 2008 at 12:02 pm
I think the whole Cost Per Action idea is flawed, and so have no intention of using the Conversion Optimiser. Nice idea, but as Janusz said, that’s a chunk of information too far.
Houston SEO on Jan 12, 2008 at 1:12 pm
This sounds like a great tool, but I agree with the consensus thus far. How much info you want to give Google? They are in the business to get the most clicks possible. They must keep them share holders happy.
SEO Videos on Jan 12, 2008 at 2:28 pm
This is a nice tool, will surely use this to test one of the campaigns & as Houston SEO pointed out there is a high risk of sharing all the info with Google.
Goran Giertz - Website Marketing on Feb 2, 2008 at 10:54 am
I run Google desktop search enabled, I let them track my search history, I have lots of different services including Calendar, Gmail, Analytic, Adwords etc.
Google already knows so much about me, I say let them know this information. If they are going to deliver me better return on investment then well…
I am going to try it out.
Wishing everyone an exSEOllent 2008
Sahaj on Nov 24, 2008 at 6:15 pm
Adword’s conversion optimizer may be a nice and useful tool but it may not be for everybody. I wrote about the pros and cons sometimes back, Is Adwords Conversion Optimizer good for you?
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