Google suggests ways to make CPA work well
Google has ideas for advertisers who want to capitalize on cost-per-acquisition (CPA) through the AdWords bidding process.
Google's playing with words again. Most people think of CPA as cost-per-action, but Google did a Microsoft on that and tacked a couple more syllables onto it. Google also calls tags 'labels', while 99.9999 percent of the Internet (figure provided by Aether Statistical Service) calls them tags.
Let's talk about money. Google wants AdWords clients to make more of it. Doing so means taking greater advantage of conversion opportunities, advice for which appears on the Inside AdWords blog.
The tips published here cover a lot of the more frequent questions hitting Google about using Conversion Optimizer with their campaigns. Google needs to see 200 or more conversions track through the campaign on a monthly basis to be eligible, for starters, so it isn't available for new campaigns.
Some suggestions were about what Conversion Optimizer can't do. Campaigns using it can't be modified from the AdWords editor, and it won't use conversion data from Google Analytics.
The AdWords editor probably has Conversion Optimizer functionality in its future, as Google noted it's a commonly requested feature.
Google's biggest tips concern bids when using Conversion Optimizer, something advertisers need to keep squarely in mind:
The Conversion Optimizer works on a maximum CPA, not an average CPA. While we aim to avoid any conversion that costs more than your maximum CPA bid, changes in your conversion rate may cause your average CPA to exceed your maximum CPA.
Keep in mind that if you choose a CPA lower than the recommended maximum CPA bid, you are likely to get less traffic than you did with your old CPC bids. It's a good idea to start with this recommendation and adjust based on the results you observe.
More tips may be found from the webinars Google conducts on the Conversion Optimizer feature.
