Manual Cost Per Click Controls Profit With Bidding Strategy

Manual cost per click is a Google Ads bidding strategy in which publishers set a limit on how much they pay for each click on an ad.

“Manual CPC bidding gives you control to set the maximum amount that you could pay for each click on your ads,” Google says.

Why Publishers Should Use Manual CPC

Manual CPC is especially useful for publishers because it controls the return on investment for the landing page of the ad.

For example, a website has a page that generates an average of 10 cents per visit over the course of a month. Some visits produce nothing while others produce more than 10 cents. But the average works out to 10.

The publisher wants to use advertising to increase the number of visits to the page, but of course do so profitably.

So he or she sets a limit of less than 10 cents on manual cost per clicks.

Obviously, the lower the cost per click, the higher the profit from the landing page. But cost per clicks go down only so far before competition or other factors start to limit the number of ads that appear. And of course, the cost per click must be higher than zero.

That means publishers must identify an acceptable profit margin based on the potential cost per click.

How to Set Up Manual CPC

The manual CPC bidding strategy is set at the campaign level. For an existing campaign, click on the Settings tab and then on Change Bid Strategy.

A drop down list provides a listing of bidding strategies including manual cost per click. Choose it and set the price limit.

It benefits the publisher to review the results periodically, such as once a week, to track the number of impressions.

Click on the Ad Group and look for the column with the title “Search Imp. Share” to see the percentage of actual impressions compared to the number of available impressions. Adjust accordingly.