Google AdWords has introduced a new way to manage your accounts if you’re using Conversion Optimizer (if you’re not using CO already, you should at least test it on one campaign).
You can now choose a Target CPA instead of a Max CPA. So what does this mean and, more importantly, how does this affect you?
Max CPA
Is how Conversion Optimizer has traditionally worked. You set an amount that you’d like Google to not exceed for each conversion, for example you’d set a max CPA of $10 to get a new subscriber on your list.
In the past the result of this has been that your average CPA has generally been less than this Maximum (much like a Max CPC bid of $1 generally means you’ll pay an average of say 50-80c per click).
Your new option is Target CPA Bidding
Now you set a ‘target’ rather than a ‘maximum’ which means your average CPA should be a lot closer to the CPA bid that you choose ($10 in our example). The cynics will say this is another money grab by Google, but this should give more control to advertisers & help achieve CPA targets more accurately.
As with all bidding options, go to the Settings tab under the Campaigns tab & scroll down to the ‘bidding & budget’ section.
