What is Conversion Bid Strategy and what are its best practices?

Conversion Bid Strategy (CBS) uses our machine learning and AI methodology to optimize and auto-adjust your bid strategy in order to hit your campaign goals. To make the most out of CBS and evaluate which strategy can work best for your campaign, you first need to identify your overall Outbrain objective and your primary KPI. Once you’ve done that, you can simply choose whether Target ROAS, Target CPA, Max Conversions (previously Fully Automatic) or Semi Manual (previously Semi Automatic) are best for you.

Whatever mode you choose, here are some best practices to help you succeed with CBS!

General Best Practices

Start with Max Conversions or Target CPA. This will let less room for manual optimization mistakes.
Split campaign per platform (e.g., Desktop, Mobile…).
Implement a conversion event that has a CVR of between 10% – 20% in the funnel in addition to the lower funnel conversion (CVR 0.5%-3%) you are optimizing towards. For both target CPA and target ROAS, the system will use all conversions in the funnel for optimization purposes.
Remove any blocking set on the campaign level to avoid scale issues.

Target ROAS & Target CPA Best Practices

Avoid modifying your bid or budget more than once every 4 days.
Set a reachable CPA/ROAS goal to prevent scale issues.
For Target CPA, start with a budget of at least 3 times your target CPA.
For Target ROAS, start with a budget that can generate at least 8 conversions a week
Increase budget gradually when you’re happy with your CPA/ROAS; decrease budget if your CPA/ROAS has reached a plateau.
If you care more about spend than generating a specific CPA/ROAS, consider using Max Conversions.

Max Conversions Best Practices

Let your campaign run for at least 48 hours before applying any changes. This will give our machine learning technology enough time to optimize toward your goal.
Avoid modifying your budget more than once every 3 days.

Semi Manual Best Practices

Remove your section-level CPC adjustments to avoid a conflict with our automated CPC optimization technology (sections that have manual adjustments are not included in the A/B reporting and may lead to a reporting discrepancy).
Monitor your CPA and CPC closely: decrease your CPC if your CPA is too high; increase your CPC if your CPA meets your expectations to get more scale.

Want to know more about Conversion Bid Strategy? Visit our dedicated article on which bid strategy is right for your campaign objectives!