Bid Optimization

A bid is a forecast

Every bid is a prediction: how much is one click on this keyword worth to me? Bid too high and you overpay for traffic; bid too low and you lose the placements that would have converted. Good bidding is just making that forecast with evidence instead of guesswork.

Bid from revenue-per-click

The cleanest way to set a bid is to work back from what a click actually earns. If a keyword returns a certain revenue per click (RPC) and you want to spend a target share of that on ads (your target ACoS), then your bid should be roughly RPC × target ACoS.

Give every keyword a job

Before you touch a bid, decide what you want that keyword to do — then bid to match the goal:

• Proven winner below target ACoS → bid up to capture more volume.
• Converting but expensive → trim toward its profitable RPC.
• Spend with no sales → this is a negative-keyword decision, not a bid one.
• Strong converter stuck mid-page → bid up to claim better placement.

Adjust by evidence, not vibes

Do not react to two clicks. Give a keyword enough traffic to mean something, then move in measured steps. Big swings on thin data just add noise; small, consistent corrections compound.

Placements and timing are bids too

A single keyword bid is the starting point, not the finish line. The same keyword can be worth more at Top of Search than on Product Pages, and more at 8pm than at 3am. Placement modifiers and dayparting are how you express those differences — covered in the Advanced Bidding & Budgeting scroll.

Let automation hold the line

Doing RPC-based math by hand across thousands of keywords is impossible to sustain. This is exactly where automation earns its keep — applying the same disciplined logic continuously, on every keyword, without fatigue.

Master Sifu — SellerMate’s AI Recommendations surface the bid moves this math implies across your whole account, and Automation & Rules can apply them on a schedule so your bids never drift.