When to Adjust Your Bids
Once your campaign is live you can adjust bids to improve performance. When you make the change matters as much as what you change.
If you are using the Revenue or Conversions Optimizer, let the campaign run for 21 days before changing anything. That is how long the model takes to pass its learning phase. A bid change during that window sets the model's progress back and makes it harder to tell whether your change helped.
If you are using the Clicks Optimizer, the learning phase is shorter, a few days rather than three weeks, so you can adjust sooner.
Adding new products does not restart the learning phase. The model learns click and sales patterns for a new SKU faster than it learned the line item as a whole.
The Three Bid Levers
You have three ways to change what you bid, in increasing order of precision:
Lever | What it changes | Use it when |
|---|---|---|
Keyword bids | What you bid on individual search terms | Specific keywords are performing well or badly |
Product bid overrides | What you bid for individual products | You want to push or pull back particular products |
Page type bid multipliers | Your bid by the kind of page the ad appears on | Performance differs by shopper context |
We recommend working from the broadest lever inward. Change the line item CPC first, then use these three.
Adjust Bids by Keyword
Keyword bids let you set a different CPC for individual search terms, whether the keyword was generated automatically or you submitted it yourself.
There are two ways to use them:
Raise bids on high-performing keywords so you win more of the auctions that are already working.
Add or exclude keywords to control which search terms you appear on.
Where a keyword bid exists, it takes precedence over the line item CPC for that term.
Adjust Bids by Product
A product bid override sets a specific CPC for one product, replacing the line item CPC for that product only.
Use it to:
Prioritize particular products, such as a new launch or something on promotion.
Fine-tune performance where one product behaves differently from the rest of the line item.
Raise the bid on a product that is losing auctions because it is less relevant to the searches it enters. A less relevant product needs a higher bid to compete, and you can bring the bid back down once performance improves.
To set a product bid override:
On the Campaigns dashboard, select your campaign.
Click the line item you want to change.
On the Products dashboard, find the Product Bid column and click the Edit icon.
Enter the amount you want to bid for that product.
To see every product across a whole campaign instead, select the campaign and then click Products in the left sidebar of the line item dashboard, rather than clicking into a specific line item. That view lists all products across all line items in the campaign, with the same Product Bid column.
Edit Product Bids in Bulk
You can change bids on many products at once rather than one at a time.
Select the checkbox beside each product's ON/OFF toggle. You can do this inside a line item, or in the campaign-wide product list.
To select everything, click the checkbox in the header row above the Total row.
Once anything is selected, a count appears above the header row with an Edit Bid option. Click Edit Bid.
Choose how to adjust the selected bids: By set amount. Every selected product gets the same bid; By percentage. Each bid moves by the same proportion. A $1 bid increased by 20% becomes $1.20.
Review the Original and New Bids columns, then click Save.
You can also bulk remove product bid overrides by selecting the desired products in the line item dashboard and clicking the Remove Bid button.
How the Increase Maximum Bid Option Works
When a bulk increase would push product bids above the line item's Max CPC, you are offered an Increase Maximum Bid option. What it does depends on how you are adjusting bids.
With the option selected, the line item's Max CPC rises to accommodate the new bids:
Existing product bids | Existing Max CPC | Change applied | Resulting bids | Resulting Max CPC |
|---|---|---|---|---|
A: $1, B: $1.50 | $2 | Increase by 110% | A: $2.10, B: $3.15 | $2 → $3.15 |
A: $1, B: $1.50 | $2 | Increase by 20% | A: $1.20, B: $1.80 | $2 (unchanged, because $1.80 is below it) |
Without the option selected, increases are capped at the existing Max CPC:
Existing product bids | Existing Max CPC | Change applied | Resulting bids | Resulting Max CPC |
|---|---|---|---|---|
A: $1, B: $1.50 | $2 | Set amount to $2.10 | A: $2, B: $2 (both capped) | $2 (unchanged) |
Three things follow from this:
When increasing by set amount, the new Max CPC matches that amount.
When increasing by percentage, the new Max CPC matches the highest resulting bid in the set.
If none of your increases would exceed the current Max CPC, the option has no effect either way.
Adjust Bids by Page Type
A page type bid multiplier changes your bid according to the kind of page your ad appears on. Use it when one shopper context consistently performs better or worse than the rest. For example, Search may convert well while Product Detail does not.
The multiplier applies to a page type, so it affects every ad slot on every page of that kind. Individual slots are placements, and you cannot bid on one placement alone. To learn more, please see Getting Started With Onsite Sponsored Products.
Page types available:
Homepage
Search
Merchandising
Category
Product Detail
Checkout
Confirmation
Deals
Search Bar
AI Assistant
Which of these you see depends on the retailer's inventory. Not every retailer offers every page type.
To set a page type bid multiplier:
On the Campaigns dashboard, click the campaign containing the line item.
On the Line Items dashboard, click the line item.
Navigate to the Placements tab under the top information panel.
In the Bid Multiplier column, click the Edit icon for the page type you want to change.
Enter the percentage increase or decrease, then click Save.
The Bid Multiplier percentage and the resulting Adjusted Bid both appear on the Placements page, so you can confirm the change landed as you intended.
How Bid Hierarchy Decides Your Final Bid
When more than one lever applies to the same bid, the platform resolves them in this order:
Line item CPC. The default for everything in the line item.
Product bid override. Replaces the line item CPC for that specific product.
Page type bid multiplier. Applied on top of whichever bid came out of steps 1 and 2.
Therefore:
No product bid set → the line item CPC, adjusted by any page type multiplier.
Product bid set → the product bid, adjusted by any page type multiplier.
The multiplier is always the last thing applied. It modifies whatever bid the hierarchy has already settled on rather than replacing it.
Limits That Always Apply
Whichever lever you use, two limits are absolute:
Your final bid can never exceed the line item's Max CPC.
Your final bid can never fall below the category minimum bid.
A multiplier or override that would break either limit is capped at the limit instead. This is the usual reason a bid change appears not to have taken effect: it was applied, then clamped.
Who Sets The Minimum Bid?
The retailer defines the category minimum bid and synchronizes it to us, and we display it in the platform. So it is a retailer decision, not ours, and it can differ by category and by retailer.