When you create an advertising campaign in Campaign Manager, you can choose from bidding strategies that are aligned with your campaign objective. The bidding strategies available vary by the campaign objective and ad format selected for your campaign.
Available bidding strategies include maximum delivery (automated), cost cap, and manual bidding. If you choose cost cap or manual bidding as your campaign bidding strategy, you can review bid suggestions.
Maximum delivery (automated)
The maximum delivery bidding strategy uses machine learning to automatically bid for you while aiming to deliver your entire budget. The goal of this bidding strategy is to generate the most key results for your campaign, while using your entire budget with the most efficiency.
When you launch a new campaign with maximum delivery bidding, the campaign enters a learning phase, which allows Campaign Manager to gather auction data to better optimize the campaign’s performance.
Campaigns using maximum delivery bidding might be optimized for clicks, impressions, reach, leads, or conversions, depending on the campaign objective selected. Maximum delivery campaigns are charged by impressions (CPM) and don't have an option to set a bid or cost cap.
Cost cap
Campaigns using cost cap bidding charge by impressions. With the cost cap bidding strategy, you can set a cost per key result which Campaign Manager uses as a benchmark when automatically setting and adjusting bids for your campaign in the ad auction. The maximum cost per key result you provide is an average amount Campaign Manager tries to stay under by first going after the lowest cost events available in the ad auction.
Manual bidding
With manual bidding, you can specify the amount you’re willing to bid for a key result. Manual bidding might charge by impressions, landing page clicks, engagement clicks, sends, or video views, depending on the campaign objective, ad format, and optimization goal selected. Manual bidding gives you the most control over your bid amount, but it might not deliver the same campaign results as optimized bidding strategies.
Accelerated delivery
With manual bidding, you have the option to use accelerated delivery to maximize reach and delivery during a live event as it works to deliver your campaign budget to your target audience as quickly as possible.
Important to know
• Accelerated delivery is currently being tested, and we’re gradually making it available, so you might not have access to it at this time.• Accelerated delivery is only available for Classic ad campaigns with website visits and engagement campaign objectives using the Sponsored Content event ad format, manual bidding strategy, and lifetime budget.• You’ll need to create two or three Classic live event ad campaigns to run an end-to-end live event ad promotion incorporating accelerated delivery.
Bid suggestions
If you select cost cap or manual bidding, Campaign Manager recommends a bid range for your campaign. The suggested range represents an estimate of the current competing costs or bids by other advertisers who are targeting the same audience.
Here's a tip
If you select a Sponsored Content ad format and manual bidding for your campaign, the bid suggestion adjusts to your budget to help you deliver your full budget.
In general, the higher your cost cap or bid, the more competitive your ads, making it more likely that you’ll hit your campaign goals and utilize your full budget. Since you're competing with other advertisers for results, there isn't a set cost per result. It's auction-based and not guaranteed inventory.
The table compares the features and benefits of bidding strategies.
| Bidding strategy | Manual | Cost cap | Maximum delivery |
|---|---|---|---|
| How it works | You set an amount to bid in the auction. | You set a cost per result, which Campaign Manager uses as a benchmark when setting adjusting bids in the ad auction. | Campaign Manager automatically bids to deliver the maximum results with the best budget efficiency. |
| Charge by | CPC, CPM, CPV, CPS | CPM | CPM |
| Budget utilization | Depends on the bid. | Depends on the cost cap. | Designed to deliver the full budget. |
| Benefits | Control over bid used in the auction. | Maximize results for the campaign optimization goal within your acceptable cost per result. | • Hands-off; no bid management. • Better ROI with full budget delivery. |
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