Enhanced cost per click

What is Enhanced cost per click

Enhanced cost-per-click (ECPC) helps you get more conversions from manual bidding. ECPC works by automatically adjusting your manual bids for clicks that seem more or less likely to lead to a sale or conversion on your website. Unlike Target CPA and Target ROAS Smart Bidding, which automatically set bids based on your cost per conversion and return-on-ad-spend targets, ECPC will try to keep your average CPC below the max CPC you set (including bid adjustments) when optimizing for conversions

How Enhanced cost per click works

Available as an optional feature with Manual CPC bidding, ECPC is a form of Smart Bidding that uses a wide range of auction-time signals such as browser, location, and time of day to tailor bids to the unique context of each search, but not to the full extent of other Smart Bidding strategies, such as Target CPA and Target ROAS.

Optimizing for conversions

ECPC looks for ad auctions that are more likely to lead to conversions, and then raises your max CPC bid (after applying any bid adjustments you’ve set) to compete harder for those clicks. If a click seems less likely to convert, Google Ads will lower your bid. ECPC will try to keep your average CPC below the max CPC you set (including bid adjustments), but may exceed your max CPC for short periods of time.

Example

Suppose you sell shoes both on your site and at a physical location, you’ve set your max CPC to $1 USD, and you have ECPC bidding turned on. If you set the value of store visit conversions to be higher than visits to your website, and Google Ads finds an auction that looks likely to lead someone to a store visit, it might set your bid to $1.70 USD for that auction. If another auction looks likely to lead to a website visit instead of a store visit, ECPC might lower your bid to $0.30 USD for that auction.

Optimizing for conversion value

ECPC also looks for ad auctions that are more likely to lead to high-value conversions, and then raises your max CPC bid to compete harder for those clicks. If a click seems less likely to convert or if the value of the conversion is lower than other conversions, Google Ads will lower your bid. ECPC will try to keep your average CPC below the max CPC you set but may exceed your max CPC for short periods of time. Learn more About conversion values

Example

Suppose your ad features a specific designer shirt, and you’ve set your max CPC bid at $1 USD and you have ECPC bidding turned on. If you set total cart value as the conversion value, and Google Ads finds an auction likely to lead to a purchase of just that shirt, it might bid $0.40 USD for that auction. If another auction looks likely to lead to a purchase of several items of clothing and accessories at a much higher total price, ECPC might raise the bid to $1.10 USD for that auction.