Setting your keyword bids may be the most intimidating part of building a new Google AdWords search campaign. Google provides more options than most networks and how you bid makes a real impact on how much volume (and profit) you’ll see from your campaign. But it doesn’t need to be difficult. In this post we’ll walk through the simplest way to set up first-time keyword bids.

With auto-bidding, AdWords will manage your bids to earn you the most clicks possible within your budget.

The easiest way to get started is to set up automatic CPC bidding . According to Google, it’s also the most commonly used bidding option. You simply set a daily budget you’re comfortable spending and AdWords will manage your bids to earn you the most clicks possible within your budget. This is also a great option if you don't want to manage your bids manually or are having trouble spending your full budget.

Setting Up Auto-Bidding

Setting up automatic bidding is very easy– especially when compared to manual bidding!

1. Within your campaign, go to the settings tab.
2. Scroll to the Bidding and budget section.
3. Set your bid strategy to Focus on clicks .
4. Select " AdWords will set my bids to help maximize clicks within my target budget ."
5. Click Save .

Setting CPC Bid Limits

If you would like to set a cap on the price you're willing to click, check the CPC bid limit box and add the bid limit there. Try to be a bit generous with your bid limit so you don't severely limit your bids.

Setting Enhanced CPC

If you have conversion tracking data in AdWords, you may be able to enable Enhanced CPC . This  option further optimizes your bids to optimize for conversions.

That's it! Your campaign's now ready to run. Once your keywords have run for a few weeks, you'll be armed with performance data to guide manual CPC bids, if you want greater control.