Most of us think of Google advertising as merely a cost per click (CPC) advertising platform. At least that is how it initially began. There are other options as it is also not only text based either. Below I will walk you through setting up the Enhanced CPC or the full blown Conversion Optimizer. You can either focus on clicks or on conversions. Therefore you can pay for clicks or pay on a cost per acquisition (CPA) basis. Here is how.
Bidding Options – Focus on Clicks
See the image below. You will see that you can set a traditional CPC budget that focuses on clicks. That is the very first option “Focus on clicks”, here is a screen shot of all the images:
Adwords Bidding Options
Here are the two major options:
- Focus on Clicks
- Focus on Conversions
Under the option to Focus on Clicks are two additional options:
- The traditional “I’ll manually set my bids for clicks“
- and allowing AdWords to set your bids within your budget
There is another option you can turn on or off. This is their Enhanced cost-per-click (ECPC). They will use your conversion data to optimize your bids. That assumes two things. First you have to be using the conversion code for conversion tracking. That is code that you obtain from google adwords and place on the page of your website after a conversion takes place, such as a thank you page after someone buys a product. The second assumption is that you have been using adwords for a while and the tracking code for a while so there is data for them to analyze in order to optimize your bids. Here is the definition of the ECPC.
Adwords Enhanced Cost per Click (ECPC).
Bidding Options – Focus on Conversions
If you choose the radio button to focus on conversions you will see these options in the image below.
Adwords Conversion Optimizer Options
The option to choose is the “Focus on conversions (Conversion Optimizer)“. There are then two options:
- Max CPA
- Target CPA
So you choose either the Max CPA or the Target CPA as the bid type. In the screen shot above it states a recommended bid and let’s you know about what that works out to on a CPC basis. However that is completely dependent on your adwords account, it depends on the words you are bidding on and your specific cost per conversion. Notice they recommend a bid or they let you customize a bid. There is no magic number to bid for a CPA. I would first use the conversion tracking for a while so Google has some data with which to recommend a bid for you.
Notice there are also advanced options, the blue text is a hyperlink to provide more options. I suggest you test it first by just setting your own custom bid.
Hopefully this is helpful to you, let me know if you have any questions.
Let us assume your Trademark is Kleenex. You may not want anyone to be using your trademark in their advertisements for a variety of reasons. This is a common issue with advertisers that have affiliates and they tell their affiliates they cannot bid on keywords or phrases that have their trademark such as Kleenex. Many people believe you can simply tell Google not to allow others to put your trademark in their advertisement or bid on your trademark as a keyword. Then Google will not allow it. If that is what you assumed, that is not entirely correct. 
There may be many reasons why they prefer you do not bid on their brand name and one is due to it being a Trademark. As an owner of a trademark you do not want others using that trademark. You need to control the usage of the mark and assure that no one is trying to profit from your good will and the value you have created around that mark. The owner of the mark prefers that they, and they alone, control the advertisements that appear when their mark is searched for. This allows them to control the advertisements and the pages that are shown after an advertisement is clicked. The owner of the mark does not want their mark to be diluted or seen in a negative light for any reason. Allowing many affiliates to bid on their name and present websites as if it is the owner of the marks site, takes away the control of the content from the mark owner.
Like many entrepreneurs I have a varied background, a Computer Science Degree as well as a Law Degree (programmed and practiced Intellectual Property law). I have well over 10 years of online business experience, have started companies, run companies, and raised venture capital on both coasts. Find me on 