What is manual CPC?

Manual CPC is a bid strategy in Google Ads where you set the maximum price per click yourself, for example per keyword or ad group. Google does not adjust your bid automatically. Enhanced CPC (ECPC) used to be a variant, but it has no longer existed for Search and Display since late March 2025.

Why is manual CPC important?

Full control: you decide per keyword what a click may cost at most.
Useful with little data: without conversion history, automated bidding has little to learn from.
Bid adjustments work: you can bid more or less for device, location and time of day.

Examples of manual CPC

A local installer bids at most €2 on “replace central heating boiler” and €1 on broader keywords.
A new account without conversion history starts manually to collect data first.
Campaigns that used enhanced CPC have run on manual CPC since late March 2025.

How do you use manual CPC?

Set a maximum CPC for each keyword or ad group and follow the average CPC and impression share. If you lose a lot of impression share to rank, you can raise the bid; if clicks are too expensive, lower it. You keep control, but it takes hands-on work. See also our approach to Google Ads campaigns.

Manual CPC