Google Ads Enhanced CPC Bid Strategy to End in October

Beginning in October 2024, the Enhanced CPC (ECPC) bidding strategy will no longer be available for new Google Ads search and display campaigns.

Existing campaigns already using ECPC can continue to use ECPC until 15 March 2025. After that, these campaigns will be automatically migrated to Manual CPC bidding.

How ECPC works:

• Manual bids are automatically adjusted for clicks that seem to be more or less likely to covert.
• ECPC tries to keep your average CPC below the max CPC you set.
• ECPC helps increase conversions while keeping CPC the same as it would be with manual bidding.
• ECPC enables you to prioritize high-value conversions.
• Conversion tracking is required to use ECPC with Search and Hotel campaigns.

Google makes these recommendations for survival in an ECPC-less world:

• If your goal is to get as many conversions as possible with your budget, use Maximize Conversions or Target CPA bidding strategy.
• If your goal is to maximize return on your ad spend, consider using Maximize Conversions or Target ROAS - but make sure you have enough conversions with 2 or more differentiated values enabled. To use Target ROAS, most campaigns need at least 15 conversions in the past 30 days.
• If your goal is to increase ad impressions or site visits, consider Maximize Clicks or Target Impressions/Cost-per-thousand impressions (CPM).
• For qualifying Display campaigns only, you can use Pay for Conversions to get more conversions and pay only for those conversions. More information is here.

Why is Google doing this?

Since introducing ECPC 10+ years ago, Google has developed more sophisticated machine-learning-driven bidding models like Max Conversions with optional target CPA or target ROAS.