Facebook ads bidding affects your ad results in a huge way. Therefore, understanding how it works will help you attain your campaign goals while using less money.

In this article you’ll learn how to use Facebook ad bidding with your Facebook ad campaigns.

Facebook ad Bidding: What is bidding?

A bid is the amount of money you’re willing to pay to get results from the specific audience that you’re targeting. These results could be anything from conversions, impressions or website clicks.  

Think of Facebook ad bidding like entering an auction. You’re competing with thousands of other advertisers for real estate on Facebook.

Your bid will be one of the main factors that earn you a placement for your Facebook ads.

Even though Facebook will try to cater to all advertisers, space is limited. And those with the highest bids (among other factors) will end up getting the placements.

Facebook ad bidding: How to bid

Here’s how to set up bidding for your ad campaign.

After choosing an objective for your campaign, scroll down to the budget and schedule section.

1. Optimization for ad delivery

This is where you choose how you want Facebook to deliver ads to people based on what you’re trying to achieve.

Depending on your objective, there are 5 options to choose from:

i. Conversions – Facebook shows your ads to people who are most likely to convert on your website.

ii. Landing page views – Facebook will show your ads to people who are most likely to click on your link to go to your landing page.

iii. Link clicks – Facebook will deliver your ad to people who are most likely to click on them.

iv. Impression – Facebook will deliver your ads to people as many times as possible.

v. Daily Unique Reach – Facebook will deliver your ads up to once a day.

2. Conversion window

This is where you set how long it typically takes for a person to convert after clicking your ad.

Conversion can happen immediately, after a few hours, after a day, or even after a week. And this depends on so many factors, some, outside your control.

That’s why it’s important to carefully consider your conversion window to ensure that you get maximum results. Typically, giving a few days for customers to convert or respond to your ad is a great idea.

3. Bid strategy

There are 3 bid strategies you need to know about:

a.   Lowest cost bid strategy

If you are new to bidding or aren’t sure how much to bid, this is the option for you. Facebook will take care of everything for you.

This strategy focuses on getting the maximum results for the lowest cost per event possible while spending the entirety of your budget.  

The biggest benefit you’ll get from this is efficiency. Facebook will try to get you the lowest cost per event in the short-term.

However, the biggest disadvantage is that achieving these low costs may be short lived. Also, results may become unstable as competition increases or as you spend more.

b. Lowest cost: Set bid cap

This strategy gives you the most control. It will help you keep your costs as low as possible.

When you set a bid cap, this is the maximum amount of money you’ll pay for a single result. So with you in control, you’re able to make sure that you’re not spending more than you can afford.

Facebook recommends setting the bid cap as the average cost per result from previous campaigns as a starting point.

c. Target Cost Bid Strategy

Formerly known as “manual bidding,” this strategy is only available for the following campaign objectives:

Use this option to achieve more stable results as your ad spend increases.

The biggest benefit you’ll get is that the cost per event is stable, and this is especially useful when scaling. But on the flip side, it’s more expensive than the other options because of higher cost fluctuations.

4. Delivery types

You get the option to choose between standard and accelerated delivery.

Standard delivery

This is the default option. When you choose it, Facebook will pace your ads evenly throughout your selected schedule.

Accelerated delivery

With this option, Facebook will focus on getting your ads out as quickly as possible.

Use this option when you have time-sensitive campaigns, for example an event or a promotion.

The disadvantage, however, is that you may end up spending more to get those competitive spots when you’re crunched for time. Luckily, Facebook prevents this from happening by offering this option only when you set a bid cap. This ensures that you never go over your budget.

Factors that contribute to your ad delivery

There are 3 factors that affect how your ad is delivered to your target audience:

1. The amount you bid.

The higher you bid, the higher your chances of getting more placements. That doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll end up spending more. You’ll only pay a penny higher than what your competitors bid.

So for example, if your bid was $1 and your competitor’s was $0.80, you’ll only pay $0.81.

2. Estimated action rates

This is the likelihood that showing your ad to a person will result in the specific result you’re looking for. Facebook will try to show your ad to people who are most likely to take the action you’re optimizing for based on people’s past online behavior.

3. User value

How valuable is your ad to the user? This is determined by your relevance. Things like the amount of engagement, the number of clicks, and likes and saves. All these are taken into account.

CONCLUSION

As always, keep testing to find what bidding strategy works for you.

If you’re just starting out, the lowest cost strategy is the best best for you. If you have a budget that you want to stick to, consider applying a bid cap to prevent Facebook from spending more than you can afford.

Use the target cost strategy when you’re looking to scale or raise your budget, or if you’re running a long-term campaign. This will ensure you get the most stability in the long run.

If you would like my help in implementing this and other strategies to sell your high ticket products and services, get in touch with me by clicking the button below to apply for a complimentary consultation.