wiki/knowledge/google-ads/bluepoint-bid-strategy-optimization.md Layer 2 article 576 words Updated: 2025-09-30
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google-ads bluepoint bid-strategy pmax campaign-optimization

Bluepoint Bid Strategy Adjustments

Overview

As of the September 30, 2025 ad review call, Bluepoint's campaigns were generating strong top-of-funnel traffic (high impressions, healthy CTRs, low CPCs on most campaigns) but with two significant problems: broken conversion tracking inflating reported conversions, and unsustainably high CPCs on the Reverse ATM campaign. Bid adjustments were prescribed alongside conversion tracking fixes to bring the account into a manageable state.

See also: [1] and [2].


Campaign Performance Snapshot (Sept 30, 2025)

Campaign Impressions Clicks CTR Avg CPC Notes
PMAX ~1,000,000 ~6,000 <1% $0.09 Likely display/discovery; conversions inflated by page views
Cashless ATM ~7,000 654 ~8% ~$1.00 Strong performance; no action needed on bids
Traditional ATMs 155 ~10% ~$4.00 CPC too high; target ~$2
Reverse ATM ~$13.00 Unsustainable; reduce bids 75% immediately

Prescribed Bid Adjustments

Reverse ATM — Reduce Bids 75%

The $13 CPC on the Reverse ATM campaign was flagged as immediately unsustainable. The directive was to reduce bids by 75% and work back up incrementally from there.

"Take the bids down 75% and let's work back up." — Mark Hope

Rationale: Reverse ATM is functionally another way of targeting cashless ATM intent (different search terms, same product). Paying $13/click for a campaign with unverified conversion tracking is indefensible until the tracking is fixed and a real CPA can be established.

Owner: Gilbert

Traditional ATMs — Target ~$2 CPC

Current CPC of ~$4 was deemed too high for a finance-adjacent campaign at this stage. Target CPC should be brought down to approximately $2.

Owner: Gilbert

Cashless ATM — No Bid Changes

At ~$1 CPC with an 8% CTR, the Cashless ATM campaign is performing well. No bid adjustments recommended.

PMAX — No Bid Changes (Monitor)

The PMAX campaign's $0.09 average cost and 1M impressions are impressive on the surface, but the value of those impressions is uncertain. No bid changes were made; the priority is fixing conversion tracking so PMAX performance can be evaluated meaningfully.

"Hard to complain about that right now, but I think they're probably largely worthless, right? But we'll see." — Mark Hope


Prerequisite: Fix Conversion Tracking First

Bid strategy decisions are unreliable until conversion tracking is corrected. The current setup counts page views as conversions, producing inflated conversion rates (e.g., 62% conversion rate, 3,000 "conversions" on the PMAX campaign). This makes it impossible to evaluate true campaign efficiency.

Required fixes before interpreting bid performance:
- Remove page views as a conversion action
- Set conversion value to 1 for all lead actions
- Resolve all "needs attention" conversion actions
- Ensure phone calls from landing pages are tracked (not just calls from ads)

See [1] for the full remediation plan.

Owner: Anup (ClickUp task, marked urgent)


Key Principle

"Before you do anything else, we need to get the conversions fixed... And there should be a conversion value. Since these are leads, the conversion value should be one." — Mark Hope

Bid strategy optimization is only meaningful when the signal Google is optimizing toward is accurate. Adjusting bids against corrupted conversion data risks training campaigns on the wrong behavior.