What is Facebook bidding? How to optimize your advertising budget?
That’s a common question. You may not be aware, but Facebook supports two bidding methods: automatic bidding (minimum cost) and manual bidding (cost control, minimum ad spending, bid limits, target cost). You can choose the appropriate Facebook bidding method based on budget requirements and distribution expectations. Applying flexible and suitable Facebook bidding strategies can help sellers achieve measurable business results, such as increasing total sales, attracting more customers, or enhancing brand visibility.
In this article, Bluefocus will help you select the appropriate Facebook bidding strategy and guide you on how to determine the metrics for measuring advertising success before choosing a bidding strategy that aligns with your business goals. Let’s dive in and learn!
What is cost bidding on Facebook?
The ultimate goal of this bidding method is to spend your entire budget and get as many results or as much value as possible.
Minimum Cost
- Essentially, this bidding model aims to maximize distribution and conversions based on the budget provided. Situations where this can be applied include: strict budget constraints, aiming to increase advertising ROAS based on a fixed budget, no strict CPA requirements, and no clear definition of advertising efficiency.
- When the Minimum Cost bidding strategy cannot tightly control CPA, increasing bidding intensity may lead to increased Facebook advertising costs.
Highest Bid on Facebook
- Maximum bidding is the most widely used bidding method on Facebook by e-commerce advertisers. When employing this strategy, you simply set a budget, and the system endeavors to exhaust the budget before the ad group’s schedule ends, achieving the highest shopping value through Facebook bidding.
- Some scenarios where this may apply include: aiming to maximize conversion value rather than the number of conversions without strict budget constraints, and aiming to maximize ROAS as much as possible.
- If you aim to utilize the highest value Facebook bidding strategy, it’s essential to set up pixel code or SDK functionality to track conversion events.
You’re concerned about the effectiveness of your business’s bidding campaigns. To assist you in this matter, Bluefocus offers a Facebook agency account rental service.
Facebook Bidding Based on Objectives
Determining Cost-Performance Goals
Maintaining your spending close to the target amount without setting cost-per-performance goals. When planning ad distribution for users on devices with iOS 14.5 and above, it’s necessary to keep your ad group running for at least 75 hours.
Ensuring Return on Advertising Spend (ROAS) Goals
You may not be aware, but Facebook will strive to maximize purchase value and generate a higher ROAS than the amount you set. Setting too high a minimum value can lead to ineffective Facebook advertising.
This strategy is suitable for advertisers with specific ROAS goals. For example: If you aim to attract new customers and are willing to spend part of your budget in a short period, you can set the minimum advertising spend return to 0.7, meaning you spend $100 and can generate at least $70 in purchase conversion value.
Distinguishing Between Maximum Bid and ROAS Targeting on Facebook
Maximum bidding and ROAS targeting stand out as the top choices for e-commerce advertisers. With maximum bidding, Facebook’s system aims to spend the entire budget before the ad group’s campaign ends, all while maximizing the value derived from purchases.
On the other hand, opting for ROAS targeting doesn’t assure budget expenditure. Only once the set ROAS is attained does the system begin working towards achieving maximum shopping value.
An aspect that businesses should pay attention to is focusing on the following points after selecting a bidding strategy:
- With a cost-per-performance goal, your advertising expenditure will progress slower. If advertisers are not strictly concerned with CPA goals but rather with the possibility of spending the entire budget, then maximum bidding is a more suitable choice.
- The difference from other bidding strategies is that using a CPA target may extend the machine learning phase of the ads, thus increasing the level of fluctuation in your spending.
- After the ad group exits the machine learning phase, ad distribution tends to stabilize. Facebook will optimize ads based on the cost-per-performance goal set by advertisers, although costs may exceed the set target. This could potentially lead you to a situation of advertising debt on Facebook
- What you need to do is set an observation period of over 7 days, and the ad performance will gradually stabilize after 7 days.
Manual Bidding on Facebook
Bid Cap on Facebook
- When advertisers set the maximum bid of the auction manually, Facebook is not allowed to flexibly bid based on costs or expected values. This option is only available for certain types of ads. If your campaign goal is brand awareness, you must use minimum cost bidding instead of bid caps.
- When you want to use bid caps, you need to accurately estimate the potential costs of ad space to avoid setting bid caps too low and missing out on ad space. Another important aspect is to monitor your campaign to update bid caps if necessary.
- Note: If you want to use bid caps, first run a test campaign with a different bidding strategy. This will help sellers calculate more accurately the ideal bid cap fee. You must remember to always adhere to Facebook’s advertising policy.
Conclusion
Bluefocus emphasizes the importance of strategic decision-making in Facebook bidding. By understanding the nuances between different bidding methods such as manual bidding, bid caps, and ROAS targeting, advertisers can optimize their ad campaigns for maximum effectiveness. We recommends careful consideration of campaign goals and continuous monitoring of performance metrics to ensure success in Facebook bidding endeavors.
