Auto-bidding

Auto-bidding is a strategy that automatically adjusts your bids to help you optimize budget utilization and maximize your reach. Quora offers both CPA (cost per action) and CPC (cost per click) auto-bidding options to cater to different advertising objectives.

CPA auto-bidding

CPA auto-bidding focuses on maximizing performance at a desired cost per action while improving budget utilization rate. This strategy uses machine learning to optimize your bids in real-time, ensuring that your ads are shown to users most likely to complete the desired action.

Benefits of CPA auto-bidding

• Efficiency: Saves time by automating bid adjustments.
• Improved ROI: Focuses on conversions, potentially leading to a better return on investment.
• Scalability: Helps in scaling campaigns by prioritizing budget utilization and generating conversions.

CPC auto-bidding

CPC auto-bidding aims to maximize clicks on your ads while managing your cost per click. This strategy is ideal if your primary goal is to drive traffic to your website.

Benefits of CPC auto-bidding

• Traffic Focused: Ideal for campaigns where the goal is to increase website visits.
• Cost Management: Helps manage costs and optimizes budget utilization by automatically adjusting bids.
• Automation: Reduces the need for manual bid adjustments, saving time.

How auto-bidding works

1. Goal Setting: You’ll set a target CPA or CPC, which is the average amount you’re willing to pay for each conversion or click.
2. Machine Learning: Quora's system uses historical data and real-time signals to predict the likelihood of a user converting.
3. Bid Adjustments: The system automatically adjusts your bids to maximize conversions or clicks.

Who is eligible for auto-bidding?

The auto-bidding tab will always show “ineligible” when creating a brand new ad set. However, you can switch an existing ad set over to auto-bidding if it meets all the below criteria.

For CPA auto-bidding:

• Ad set is on oCPM bidding (conversion optimized bidding)
• Ad set has been running for at least 2 days
• Ad set has >= 10 click-through conversions in the past 7 days

For CPC auto-bidding:

• Ad set is set to standard bidding with the ad delivery method set to “Cost per click”
• Ad set has been running for at least 2 days
• Ad set has spent at least $40 within the last 2 days

How do I set up auto-bidding?

CPA auto-bidding setup

1. Verify the ad set is eligible for auto-bidding by editing an existing ad set.

2. Click on the “Auto-bidding” tab to configure. In the summary section on the right rail, you should see auto-bidding “On”.

3. Fill in “Daily Spend Goal”: This is the maximum the ad set would spend in one day.

Note: We don’t guarantee if the ad set will spend all of its budget.

4. Fill in “Target CPA”: This is the target CPA that you want to achieve.

5. Choose “Target Conversion Type”: We support two kind of conversions type “Click-through and view-through conversions” and “Click-through conversions only”.

6. Click on “Update” to save.

7. Optional: You can choose to verify the ad set by editing it again. You will see that this ad set is now in the ramp up period.

Note: during the ramp up period, advertisers are not allowed to edit their ad set. Once the ramp up period is over, they will be able to edit again.

CPC auto-bidding setup

1. Verify the ad set is eligible for auto-bidding by editing an existing ad set.

2. Click on the “Auto-bidding” tab to configure. In the summary section on the right rail, you should see auto-bidding “On”.

3. Fill in “Daily Spend Goal”: This is the maximum the ad set would spend in one day.

Note: We don’t guarantee if the ad set will spend all of its budget.

4. Fill in “Target CPC”: This is the target CPC that you want to achieve.

5. Click on “Update” to save.

6. Optional: You can choose to verify the ad set by editing it again. You will see that this ad set is now in the ramp up period.

Note: during the ramp up period, you will not allowed to edit your ad set. Once the ramp up period is over, you will be able to edit again.

Auto-bidding FAQs

Why am I setting budgets at the campaign and ad set level when using auto-bidding?

Auto-bidding has an additional ad set level budget component, which should be less than or equal to the campaign budget. It’s possible that a campaign could have multiple auto-bidding ad sets, each with their own budgets, as well as multiple non-auto-bidding ad sets. The total spending of all ad sets in a campaign will not exceed campaign budget, so keep in mind that if there are multiple ad sets in a campaign, the campaign budget should be high enough to allow all ad sets to spend.

Can I change my target CPA/CPC?

We highly recommend setting an accurate and realistic target CPA/CPC when setting up auto-bidding, as it will be difficult to achieve success with a moving CPA/CPC goal. After starting the ad set, you should avoid changing the CPA/CPC often to allow the system to self optimize and achieve greater performance. Making continual changes once the ad set is running will only result in worse performance.

How long will it take for my auto-bidding campaigns to optimize?

After switching an ad set to auto-bidding, there will be a ramp up period for the ad set to achieve its optimal performance. The length of the ramp up period usually depends on the gap between the ad set current spending and target budget and could range from around two to five days.

It’s important to note that during this ramp up period:

1. The performance of this ad set could fluctuate a lot. This is normal and expected as the ad set optimizes over time.
2. This ad set will be locked, and not editable. This is so our system can stabilize without interferences and optimize for better performance.

Will my CPA/CPC ever exceed my target CPA/CPC?

Target CPA/CPC is the goal that our auto-bidding system aims to achieve. However, there are many factors that influence the actual Ad Set CPA/CPC. When starting out with auto-bidding, it’s important to set a realistic target CPA/CPC and not make any changes during the ramp-up period. When auto-bidding is actively running, try to avoid continually decreasing the target CPA/CPC or editing the budget and target CPA/CPC too frequently (we recommend no more than twice a week).

Can I switch between CPA and CPC auto-bidding?

Currently, our system does not support direct switching between CPC Auto-bidding and CPA Auto-bidding due to their distinct eligibility requirements. If you do wish to make the switch, the approach should be as follows:

• CPC auto-bidding -> Standard CPA bidding until CPA auto-bidding eligibility requirements are met -> CPA Auto-bidding
• CPA auto-bidding -> Standard CPA bidding until CPC auto-bidding eligibility requirements are met -> CPC Auto-bidding