wiki/knowledge/google-ads/bluepoint-bid-strategy-optimization.md · 576 words · 2025-09-30

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.


Sources

  1. Conversion Tracking Page Views As Conversions
  2. Index
  3. Landing Page Cta Best Practices
  4. 2025 09 30 Ad Review Call American Extractions Bluepoint