In the ever-dynamic world of digital advertising, transformations and evolutions are commonplace. Once again, the advertising landscape is being shaken up by significant changes that promise to redefine the way marketers approach their online strategies. One of the latest announcements that has left the community on edge is. the disappearance of the eCPC in Google Shopping campaigns, scheduled for October 2023..
eCPC, or Enhanced Cost Per Click, has long been a key ally in optimizing Google Shopping ad campaigns. Its ability to automatically adjust bids based on the likelihood of conversion has allowed advertisers to achieve their performance goals more effectively.
However, as part of a strategic shift, Google has announced its withdrawal in favor of other tactics, marking a possible path towards the adoption of the popular Performance Max. In this article we will explain exactly what eCPC is.When it is used in a Google Ads strategy and what are the consequences of this paradigm shift.
What is eCPC in Google Ads?
Also known as Enhanced CPC (CPCm), this is a bidding strategy available in Google Ads that aims to complement the manual bidding strategy to try to obtain an increase in conversions based on the likelihood of clicks to generate a sale or other type of conversion.
The eCPC differs from other Smart Bidding strategies mainly in that it involves partial automationIt is based on the maximum CPC established manually by the advertiser, seeking to optimize results without exceeding it.
However, it is not uncommon to see that when analyzing the data, the maximum CPC has been exceeded due to the conversion probability interpreted by the system (besides, years ago the initial restriction of not being able to exceed the 30% of the maximum bid was eliminated). Other automatic bidding strategies are focused on the optimization based on a target CPA or target ROAS and not on a starting CPC.
When do we use the eCPC bidding strategy?
It is a bidding strategy that in Geotelecom We use it on a frequent basis, as it serves as a intermediate step towards a full account migration to Smart Bidding and, above all, it provides a fundamental support in hybrid strategies: we seek to give the system a certain margin to interpret signals, but controlling the average CPC more.
It is common to see the use of enhanced CPC on Branding Search Network campaigns, DSA or generic or residual Shopping campaigns. However, these are only basic examples, the structure of an account, as well as the bidding strategies used for your campaigns, will depend on the type of business and the short, medium and long term objectives.
Consequences of the disappearance of eCPC as a bidding strategy.
After this initial introduction about the improved CPC, which never hurts, we bring you the news that we already told you a few days ago in our RRSS: eCPC will be phased out in October 2023.
It is important to note that initially will only happen in Google Shopping campaignspossibly as a further step to force the adoption of the already known Performance Max.
All Google Shopping campaigns with an eCPC strategy will automatically switch in October to a manual CPC strategy, although from our side we recommend that you keep a close eye on it in case of a shift to another Smart Bidding strategy.
From our point of view, we continue to have the ability to to raise these hybrid structures in which we seek a more exhaustive control of the maximum bid and the average bid, but we lose the bonus that the improved CPC offered us when it came to being more aggressive at certain times.
Finally, it is important to keep in mind that it would not be surprising that in the short to medium term this bidding strategy will not only disappear in Google Shoppingbut also in the rest of the networks.
Have you been affected by this change and want a long-term strategic solution? At Geotelecom we have a complete service of SEM campaigns where we can not only analyze your performance, but also apply the best strategies to boost your profits.
