Advertising
What is a bid adjustment? Smarter bidding per situation
Copy for AI
A bid adjustment is a percentage increase or decrease of your bid for a specific situation. You bid more on mobile, for example, less in a certain region, or extra during office hours. That way you pay more where the chance of a qualified lead is high and less where it is not. In this article you will read what a bid adjustment is, which ranges apply and how to use Google Ads bid adjustments for B2B.
What exactly is a bid adjustment?
A bid adjustment does not change your base bid, it adapts it by a percentage for a given context. According to Google, you can bid based on device, location, ad schedule and audience, among others.
An example makes it concrete. Say your base bid is 2 euros and you set a bid adjustment of +50% for desktop, then your bid on desktop becomes 3 euros. Set -50% on mobile and your bid there drops to 1 euro. That way you steer your money towards the context that delivers most.
Bid adjustments are a fine-tuning step within a broader Google Ads strategy, on top of your keywords, bidding strategy and placements.
Which dimensions can you steer?
Most bid adjustments run from -90% to +900%. For devices you can even set -100% to opt out of that device entirely. You always steer on a specific dimension: device, location, time or audience. This table puts them side by side.
| Dimension | What you steer on | Typical range | B2B example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Device | Desktop, mobile, tablet | -100% to +900% | Bid more on desktop, where quote requests come in |
| Location | Country, region, radius | -90% to +900% | Raise the bid in provinces with your best customers |
| Ad schedule | Day and hour | -90% to +900% | Bid extra during office hours |
| Audience | Remarketing, in-market, customer lists | -90% to +900% | Bid higher on website visitors who have not requested anything yet |
Device
With a device adjustment you bid more or less on desktop, mobile or tablet. In B2B we often see that the serious request work happens on desktop, during the working day, while mobile is more about orientation. A positive adjustment on desktop and a cautious decrease on mobile then pays off. The mistake we often come across: writing mobile off entirely at -100% because the conversion rate looks lower, while mobile does provide the first touch that later leads to a lead on desktop.
Location
A location adjustment raises your bid in regions that convert well and lowers it where they do not. In practice you pull budget towards the provinces or cities where your best customers are. Look at conversions per location for this, not at clicks. The classic miss is adjusting on a handful of data points: a region with three clicks and zero conversions says nothing yet, so wait until a pattern means something statistically.
Ad schedule
With a schedule adjustment (dayparting) you bid more on the days and hours that perform. For B2B that often means an emphasis on office hours from Monday to Friday, when decision makers are actively searching. See also what an ad schedule is for the setup. A common mistake is switching hours off entirely based on a short period, which makes you miss the occasional buying moments in the weekend.
Audience
An audience adjustment lets you bid higher on valuable segments, such as remarketing lists, in-market audiences or uploaded customer lists. Someone who already visited your site but has not requested anything yet is often worth more than a cold click. The mistake here: setting a too aggressive plus on a small list, so you bid up quickly without the volume being there to earn that extra cost back.
Watch out when combining: adjustments can stack. Set +20% on mobile and +20% on an audience and those act on each other. The combined increase cannot go above +900%, however, and the lowest combined adjustment is -90%.
Bid adjustments and Smart Bidding
Here comes an important nuance. If you work with an automated bidding strategy such as Target CPA or Target ROAS, Google makes many of these decisions itself. The system adjusts bids in real time per device, location and context, so many manual bid adjustments are then ignored or redundant.
Manual bid adjustments are therefore mainly relevant with manual or semi-automated bidding. If you are considering automation, first read Smart Bidding explained and our guide on the right Google Ads bidding strategy, so you do not steer twice or against the system.
When it pays off for B2B
For B2B the golden rule is simple: steer bid adjustments on conversions and revenue, not on clicks. A cheap click in a region that never produces a qualified request is not a saving but wasted money.
Bid adjustments mainly pay off when you see clear patterns, for example that a certain region or audience systematically converts better. Exactly that kind of refinement was behind the 25% media saving at Facilicom: shifting budget towards what works.
We stay honest here too: if you have too little conversion data, you are optimising on coincidence. In that case you are better off starting broad and only adjusting once the numbers mean something.
Common mistakes
Besides the pitfalls per dimension, in practice we see three mistakes that keep coming back.
- Steering on clicks instead of conversions. A cheap click feels like a win, but without a qualified request it is pure cost. Base every adjustment on leads and revenue.
- Stacking manual adjustments on Smart Bidding. If you put bid adjustments on top of an automated bidding strategy, you often steer against the system or they are simply ignored. Choose one approach per campaign.
- Adjusting on too little data. An adjustment based on a handful of clicks optimises on noise. Wait until a pattern repeats itself before you set big pluses or minuses.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a bid and a bid adjustment? Your bid is the base amount you are willing to pay. A bid adjustment raises or lowers that bid by a percentage for a specific situation, such as a device, location or time of day.
Can I combine bid adjustments? Yes. Adjustments for device, location, time and audience can act on each other and stack. The combined increase cannot go above +900% and cannot go lower than -90%.
Do bid adjustments work with Smart Bidding? Largely not. Automated bidding strategies steer bids themselves based on many signals, which means manual bid adjustments are often ignored. They are mainly useful with manual bidding.
What should I base bid adjustments on? On conversions and revenue, not on clicks or impressions. Raise where qualified leads come in and lower where budget drains away without results.
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