YOUR GUI D E TO

Facebook
Bid Strategy
SEP T EM BER 2017
Contents
03   Introduction

04  Facebook Ad Delivery

08   Bid Strategy Overview

12  How to Set a Bid Strategy Amount

16   Bidding Best Practices

17  Things to Remember

02
The Facebook family
of apps and services
is an effective way to
reach valuable customers
with ads that help grow
your business.
There are currently more than 2 billion people who use Facebook every
month. Combined with the popularity of our other platforms and the preva-
lence of the Audience Network publisher base, this gives you the opportunity
to connect your ads with exactly the right audience. Our ad delivery system
uses advanced machine learning to serve ads across our platforms, evaluat-
ing billions of ad-user pairings every day in order to show the right ad to the
right person, at exactly the right time.

R E AD AHE AD
This guide gives you a helpful TO LE AR N HOW:

overview of how ads get shown • Facebook finds the most

relevant ad to serve a
across the Facebook family, as given person (“auction”)
and spends your budget

well as how your bid strategy over time (“pacing”)

affects delivery and cost.

• Your bid strategy affects
the delivery of your ads

While this guide is tailored toward Direct Response objectives, these • You can improve perfor-
principles can also apply to Brand marketing objectives. Though Reach mance by implementing
and Frequency buying is not addressed in this guide, you may find more bidding best practices
information about it by visiting the Facebook Business help center.1

1  https://www.facebook.com/business/help/1168829329822087

Your Guide to Facebook Bid Strategy 03

Facebook
Ad Delivery
Our system delivers your ads with two
goals in mind: showing people ads they’ll
find relevant and maximizing value to
drive your business objectives.
The Facebook ad delivery system is comprised of three main components
that work together to deliver optimal results for your business:

Facebook Pacing Advertiser

Auction System Controls

Your Guide to Facebook Bid Strategy 04

Facebook Auction
The Facebook ad auction is a system that determines
which ads to show a person in order to maximize value
for both audience and the advertiser.
When you create an ad, you indicate the results you care about with your
selection of an optimization for ad delivery (e.g., website conversions or app
installs.) When your ad enters the Facebook auction, it competes with ads
from advertisers who target the same person who is eligible to see an ad. As
with all content on our platforms, we try to make sure we’re showing the right
content to the right person at the right time. We also optimize user experience
by limiting the number of ads people see in their News Feed, which means
advertisers compete for a limited number of slots.

So how does the auction system determine who

wins each slot?
We rank ads in the auction using a total value formula, where the ad with
the highest total value is shown to the person in consideration. Total value is
calculated based on three factors:

1 Advertiser’s Bid: The advertiser’s bid value for their desired result
A bid represents what
you’re willing to pay to
2 Estimated Action Rate: The probability that showing an ad to the
person will lead to the desired result
achieve your desired result
from someone in your target
audience. For detailed

3 User Value: Determined by several components, including Ad Quality

Panel, post-click experience, predicted and actual positive / negative ad
information about bidding,
please visit the Facebook
engagement, and repetition of the ad Business help center.2

ADVERTISER VALUE CONSUMER EXPERIENCE

TOTAL
X + =
VALUE

Advertiser’s Bid Estimated Action Rates User Value

2  https://www.facebook.com/business/help/1619591734742116

Your Guide to Facebook Bid Strategy 05

Pacing System
While the auction decides which ad opportunity to
show a given person, pacing determines how to spend
an advertiser’s budget across many ad opportunities.
We currently offer two options to control how pacing changes your budget
over time: standard and accelerated delivery.

STA N DA R D D E LIV E RY

Standard delivery is designed to spend your budget evenly over the duration
of the campaign using a method called “pacing”. The pacing method in which
your budget is spent depends on the bid strategy you choose:

Lowest cost bid strategy with standard delivery enabled

This uses “discount” pacing to spend budget on results with the lowest costs
Chosen outcomes
and aims to spend budget evenly over the course of your campaign. This
option maximizes advertiser value by minimizing your cost per result. Available outcomes

Price per outcome

Example: Assume you set a bid cap of $10. As your ad enters each auction,
Bid Cap of $10
we may “discount” your bid to ensure we can spend your full budget over
the duration of the ad set. The mechanism of lowering or “discounting”
your bid means that you might not win every auction you could have, but
Discounted Bid
you’ll have a chance to capture more outcomes at more efficient costs
over the course of your campaign, instead of using up your budget too
quickly on more expensive results. Note that the discounted bid for a par-
ticular auction might be higher or lower based on how much budget has Time

been spent and the time elapsed in the campaign.

Target cost bid strategy with standard delivery enabled

This uses “probabilistic” pacing to spend budget on stable cost-per-result
Chosen outcomes
opportunities and aims to maintain consistent cost per result over time, at the
target cost you set. This option delivers opportunities at the target cost that Available outcomes

you define and keeps your cost per result stable as you increase your budget.
Price per outcome

Bid of $10

Example: Assume an advertiser communicates that they want to achieve a

target cost of $10 for a purchase. Once they start their campaign, Face-
book will bid to hit this $10 target cost in a subset of auctions. While
discount bidding adjusts your bid, probabilistic pacing adjusts the prob-
ability that the ad enters the auction. This helps you achieve even pacing
throughout the course of your campaign.
Time

Your Guide to Facebook Bid Strategy 06

ACCEL ERAT E D D E LIV E RY

Accelerated delivery spends budget as quickly as possible by entering every

Chosen outcomes
opportunity under your bid cap into the auction. This favors quick spend
over maintaining your cost per result. With accelerated delivery, it is possible Available outcomes
to exhaust your budget before your scheduled campaign ends. Advertisers

Price per outcome

with bigger budgets who want to reach people quickly or with time-sensitive Bid of $10
campaigns should consider using accelerated delivery. Accelerated delivery
is only available for lower cost per result with a bid cap.

Example: Assume you set a $10 bid cap. Once you start your campaign,
you will enter every eligible auction under this $10 bid to ensure you
spend your budget as quickly as possible.
Time
For more details on how our pacing system works, please visit the
Facebook Business help center.3

Advertiser Controls
The final components of Facebook ad delivery are the advertiser-set con-
trols that guide our auction and pacing systems. These controls include
options for Targeting, Budget, Bid, Placement, Schedule and Optimization
for Delivery. For example, your bid is a factor in calculating the total value of
an ad, as well as influencing how the Facebook auction ranks and delivers
the ad. You should be thoughtful when selecting these controls. While nar-
rowing targeting or setting lower bid caps can limit the options the delivery
system has to explore, these controls can also get you the most value for
your objectives.
This guide is focused on
the importance of bidding in
the delivery system. For more
information on other advertiser
controls, visit the Facebook
Business help center.4

3  https://www.facebook.com/business/help/1754368491258883?helpref=faq_content
4  https://www.facebook.com/business/help/527780867299597

Your Guide to Facebook Bid Strategy 07

Bid Strategy
Overview
Your bid represents what you are
willing to pay for a desired result.
Since Facebook optimizes its auction for total value (for both advertiser
and people), the winner of the auction isn’t necessarily the ad with the
highest advertiser bid, but the one with the highest total value.

Bids are also a cost-control tool.

They help control your desired cost per result in the same way that
budgets help control your overall spend on a given ad set. If you set a
bid cap, your bid helps our machine learning systems understand what
you’re willing to pay and how you want to achieve your optimization goal.

Your Guide to Facebook Bid Strategy 08

 Choose the right bid strategy for you
When you bid, you choose one of two bid strategies:
Lowest cost or Target cost.

SCALE CONTROL

LOWEST COST
LOWEST COST TARGET COST WITH BID CAP

LOWEST COST
You have the option to set a bid cap, which is like a manual maximum bid.
This tells the delivery system not to bid more than that maximum amount for
any individual result. Choosing “Lowest cost” without a bid cap is like using
automatic bidding.

TARGET COST
The delivery system will try to maintain a stable average cost near your target
as your spend increases. This strategy also predicts mid-campaign how much
you might be able to spend near the target cost you set. Target cost per result
is an enhancement to our former average cost bidding option.

Your Guide to Facebook Bid Strategy 09

Facebook offers several different bid
strategies to suit your campaign strategy.
Determine which strategy is best for you by considering the use cases
and considerations on the following table:

WHO SETS
BID STRATEGY WHEN TO USE BENEFITS CONSIDERATIONS
THE BID?

Lowest cost Facebook When you’re unsure – Spend less time – Less control over your
(formerly automatic of how much to bid, maintaining cost cost per result
bidding)
want to spend your – Minimize cost per – Costs rise as you run out
full budget, and/or result while spending of the most cost-effective
get the most results your budget results or increase your
from your budget budget

Target cost Advertiser When you want to – Maintain stable cost – May not spend your entire
(replaces average maintain a stable cost at the target bid that budget
cost) at your target cost as you set as you scale – Will not minimize your
your spend increases – Project your spend cost per result
or when you want after an initial
to learn how much learning phase
you can spend while
getting a CPA near
your target cost

Lowest cost Advertiser When you want to – Achieve the most – Costs rise as you run out
with a bid cap set a maximum bid results generally of the most cost effective
(formerly maximum to control your cost under your specified results or increase your
bidding)
per result and want bid cap budget
to get the lowest
– Minimize cost – May not spend your entire
cost possible
per result budget
– May spend more time
maintaining bid
– Spend more time
maintaining budget as you
try to scale or keep cost
within target cost range

Your Guide to Facebook Bid Strategy 10

 How Facebook
determines your cost
The total value formula determines who wins an auction,
but not when or how much the winner is charged.
You get charged based on the option you selected during ad set creation under
“When you get charged”. No matter what result you’ve chosen, we’ll only
charge you as much as the value you displaced from other advertisers who lost
to you in the auction. So even if you set a bid cap of $1, you may pay signifi-
cantly less if the other advertisers ranked below you in the auction bid less.

This means:

• You’ll frequently be charged less than your bid.

• There’s no advantage to underbidding in our system. In fact, doing

so may lead to losing auctions you would’ve otherwise won at no
additional cost.

Your Guide to Facebook Bid Strategy 11

How to set a
Bid Strategy
Amount
If you choose to set a bid cap or a
target cost, use the following guidance
and troubleshooting strategies.

NOTE: Before setting a target cost or bid cap, install the Facebook
pixel or SDK to optimize delivery of your ads to the people most likely
to take an action. Consider the following best practices:

• Use the Facebook Pixel Page and Pixel Helper to verify that the
pixel is functioning and the App Ads Helper to verify your app.

• Keep your objective in line with what you choose as

‘Optimization for ads delivery’ (e.g., select “conversions”
if that is your ultimate goal).

For help getting started with the Facebook Pixel, please visit the
Facebook Business help center.5

5  https://www.facebook.com/business/help/952192354843755

Your Guide to Facebook Bid Strategy 12

How to set a target cost
If you want to achieve a stable cost per result on average throughout your
campaign, you can set a target cost. This lets Facebook bid to hit that target
on average, over the lifetime of your campaign.

To determine your target cost, make sure you consider:

The average cost your business is willing to pay for a desired result
from your target audience
• Determine what your desired result is worth to you, based on your profit
or revenue goals.

• For example, assume you are optimizing for a website purchase and you
have determined that the purchase is worth $20 in revenue at a $5 profit
(excluding Facebook marketing costs of $15). If your business objective is
to achieve that $5 profit, you might want to set a target cost of $15.

If you want to achieve more results

• Suppose you run a campaign with a target cost of $50 per mobile-app
install, and don’t achieve the profitability you want. But you notice
that when you try a $60 target cost, the number of mobile app installs
improves dramatically. A result like this should prompt you to consider
whether you’re willing to trade profitability for growth. If so, you should
adjust your target cost accordingly. A “test-and-adjust” mindset like this
is recommended for improving outcomes on Facebook if you are trying to
scale your volume and are more flexible on ROI or CPA.

Lifetime value

Lifetime value for your business, as generated by future purchases new cus-
tomers could make. Consider more than just the value of someone immediately
purchasing one of your products, as long-term growth is what matters most.

Your Guide to Facebook Bid Strategy 13

How to set a bid cap
If you want to make sure that no individual result costs more than a certain
amount, you can set a bid cap. Because of the way discount pacing works (as
described above), setting a bid cap means that each result will cost less than
the amount you set, starting with the lowest cost results and gradually rising
toward your cap.

To set a bid cap, make sure you consider the following:

The maximum cost your business is willing to pay for a desired

result from your target audience:
• Similar to the description above, determine the maximum amount that
your desired result is worth to you, based on your profit or revenue goals.

The average cost you actually pay for a desired result

• When you set a bid cap, first ensure that your bid cap is reasonable,
based how much you are currently paying for your desired results on
Facebook. You will want your bid cap to exceed the average cost per
result that you are currently paying. Use the ‘How to interpret your costs’
section for guidance on how to determine your average cost per result.

Lifetime value
• Lifetime value for your business, as generated by future purchases new
customers could make. Consider more than just the value of someone
immediately purchasing one of your products, as long-term growth is
what matters most.

Although your bid is not equal to your final cost, capping your bid ensures
that you generally do not pay more than your bid.

Your Guide to Facebook Bid Strategy 14

Troubleshooting your bid strategies
If you’re unsatisfied with the results of your bid strategy, here are a few strate-
gies to improve performance:

Confirm your bid strategy is in line with historical data.

• If you use past performance data to set a bid cap or target
cost, make sure the data you use matches your optimization
settings. For example, you may need to adjust your attribu-
tion window in reporting.

Switch to a higher-funnel conversion event.

• If you’re optimizing for conversions, your ad set should
achieve a certain number of conversion to have a chance of
succeeding. The number of conversions depends on your
bid strategy. When you set a bid cap with the lowest cost
bid strategy, you should aim to achieve at least 50 of the
conversions your ad set is optimized for per week. When
you set a target cost, this number of conversions should
also be 50.

• If you’re not achieving this number, switch the conversion

event to a more commonly-occurring, higher-funnel event.
For more details, download our
-- For example, if you’ve optimized for purchase events and decision tree7 of best practices
you’re seeing less than 50 conversions with a bid cap, to resolve under-delivery of
try optimizing for an event like Add-to-Cart instead to get
your ads.
better delivery and performance.

Refine your audiences.

Refine your targeting to reach people more likely to be interested
in your ad. Your new strategy could incorporate:
• A Lookalike Audience based on your most valuable customers

• A Custom Audience from a pixel or customer data file

• Interest and/or behavior-based targeting

Refresh ad creative.
• Try testing different creatives, as you may have exhausted
the effectiveness of your original design. Use Audience
Saturation in Delivery Insights to determine whether you’ve
saturated your audience

Switch bid strategy.

• If your ad set is under-delivering and you’re not sure how to
improve performance after trying the strategies listed above,
switch to the lowest cost bid strategy without a bid cap. This
can help you determine the actual cost per result you can
expect for your budget.

7  https://www.facebook.com/gms_hub/share/ad-under-delivery-decision-tree-en_us.pdf

Your Guide to Facebook Bid Strategy 15

Bidding
Best Practices
If you are not sure what to bid, start with the
‘Lowest cost’ option.
• If you’re not sure what to set as your ‘target cost’ or your bid cap, use
the ‘lowest cost’ option without a bid cap to learn how much it costs to
achieve your desired results.

If you know the cost you are willing to pay for a result,
select target cost or lowest cost with bid cap option.
• Use target cost bidding strategy if trying to scale to higher spend while
keeping your cost per result stable or if trying to inform how much you
can spend at your target cost.

• Use lowest cost with bid cap bidding strategy if trying to achieve the
lowest cost possible at your initial budget or if you intend to scale to
higher budgets and don’t care as much about maintaining stable cost
per result as you scale.

Avoid making multiple changes to your bid strategy in a

short period of time.
• When you change an ad set’s bid strategy amount, our system may need
time to re-learn how to optimally deliver it. During this time, your ad set
may go through a period of sub-optimal delivery as we re-learn who best
to show your ads to, including new people being reached because of the
new amount.

Consider adjusting your bid strategy for different audiences.

• Different people bring different levels of value to your business. If you
have high-value customers that you particularly want to reach, consider
increasing your target cost or bid cap for those customers. However,
always segment your customers carefully, as setting too many con-
straints could limit your delivery.

Your Guide to Facebook Bid Strategy 16

Things to
Remember
For every opportunity we have to show
an ad to a person on Facebook, our ad
auction system selects ads that maximize
value for both advertisers and people.
You can help make our machine learning models work better for you by
thoughtfully using the controls at your disposal, including the bid strategy
that you choose, to get the best results possible. As you create campaigns on
Facebook, remember the following concepts:

Your bid is an important factor, but not the only factor that
determines how Facebook delivers your ads.

• Your ads are ranked based on “total value,” which maximizes advertiser
value and optimizes consumer experience. Your bid is a key driver of
“total value.”

Decide on a bid strategy by evaluating benefits and considerations.

• Depending on your business goals, you’ll want to evaluate different bid
strategies by their benefits and considerations.

Consider your customer’s lifetime value to determine the amount

to bid.

• Interpreting the correct cost per result is critical for determine your bid
cap and evaluating costs on Facebook. Weigh more than just the value
of someone immediately purchasing one of your products, as long-term
growth is what matters most.

Your Guide to Facebook Bid Strategy 17

LE AR N M OR E
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