Can’t decide on a bidding strategy? Hesitating between manual and automated? Not sure about using Smart Bidding because everyone seems to be saying different things about it?

Google has a bunch of bidding strategies, which is great. But with that much choice, it’s not always easy to know which one you should be using.

There’s plenty of advice out there on what works best for other people. At the end of the day, the key thing is to just keep testing and monitoring performance for yourself. This will help you make an informed decision (especially when you’re throwing Smart Bidding into the mix).

If you do need a little shortcut though… this script has got you covered!

What the script does

The script lets you monitor the performance of an array of bidding strategies in your campaigns based on predefined metrics.

It can analyze a number of automated and manual bidding strategies, including Manual CPC, Manual CPV, Manual CPM, Target search page location, Maximize clicks, Maximize Conversion Value and Target Outranking Share.

And if you’re still unsure about using Smart Bidding, the script can also look at Target CPA, Target ROAS and Maximize Conversions.

Since their launch, Smart Bidding strategies have had mixed results and an even more mixed reception. No one can deny that they’ve kept improving, but they’re no one-size-fits-all solution either. That’s where this script comes in.

Once you’ve outlined which campaigns and bid strategies to look at, it outputs a report on the following metrics: CPC, Clicks, Conversions, Cost, CTR, Impressions and Top Impression rate. And before you ask: yes, you can tweak these metrics. If you’d like to add any, have a look here.

How to use the script

First, make a copy of this spreadsheet.

Then, you need to input the account ID and the campaigns you want to monitor (based on name filters), the bidding strategy to analyse (pro tip: leave the cell blank to include all of them), and the metrics you would like to report on.

Once you’ve done that, copy and paste the script below into a new script in Google Ads (Tools > Bulk Actions > Scripts). Before you run it, edit the SPREADSHEET_URL variable with the URL of your spreadsheet.

If you want, you can also choose to make the script ignore or include paused campaigns by changing the ignorePausedCampaigns variable to true or false, respectively.

Once that’s set up, you’re ready to run the script and see the magic happen!

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