PPC advertising is moving towards machine learning and automated campaigns, since this is the direction that the general tech industry seems to be going. Machine learning can save time, both human and CPU, money and much much more, which is making it a very feasible option to invest in with platforms such as PPC and Google AdWords.

However, with automating anything, it is extremely important to understand what is being automated, how it is being automated and what this means for yourself. For this reason, here are a few pointers I feel are worth mentioning about automating the bidding process in PPC.

Out of Control Automated Bidding

The problem that occurs when advertisers automate the bidding process is that they feel they can set it up and let it go and do the work for them. However, doing this can be extremely risky, considering the fact that you are delegating your campaign’s control to a machine learning algorithm, which will try to do what it thinks is best for your campaign: not what you think is best for your campaign.

The problem with some machine learning is that they get stuck in feedback loops that cause them to get worst and worst. For example, if a glitch caused something to go wrong on your campaign, your automatic bidding would be reduced to counteract the reduced conversion rate. This causes the quality and quantity of traffic to decline, resulting in a lower conversion rate. This causes the CPC to decrease again, and the cycle continues under somebody realizes what happened. Therefore, always stay up to date with your campaign – even in the automated areas.

Manual Testing to Provide Data

All machine learning requires some sort of data as a basis to understand what works and what doesn’t. It then intelligently tests to improve results.

This means that you will have to provide the machine learning in PPC some data, in the form of running a manual bidding PPC campaign. Although you might not be happy doing this, it is a necessity before the bidding process goes automatic. On top of this, even once the machine learning for bidding has data, it will still take some for the tool to improve: it is a constant iterative and improvement process (machine learning that is) – just a food for thought.

Which Automation is the Best?

In PPC, there are many levels of automation you can have for keyword bidding. Some are very sly, such as notifications from monitoring the bidding process, all the way up to full automation. Whichever automation works best for you and your campaign is dependent on your unique situation and campaign. Do not feel that the more automated the better. Sometimes, you might find it more comfortable and better to start slow and increase the level of automation as you start to understand and have confidence in the machine learning.