When to Use Manual Bidding

The Highest Volume Bid StrategyThe default bid strategy for most objectives. Meta will attempt to get you the highest volume of optimized actions within your budget. No concern will be given to value, ROAS, or cost per action. More is the default. You’re using that strategy without realizing it. The algorithm will try to get you the most optimized actions within your budgetA budget is an amount you’re willing to spend on your Facebook campaigns or ad sets on a daily or lifetime basis. More.

But, you also have the option of using a manual bid strategyWhen you enter an ad into the auction, Meta will bid for you. But in some cases, it may benefit you to adjust the bidding strategy to get better results. Options include Highest Volume, Cost Per Result Goal, Highest Value, ROAS Goal, and Bid Cap. More, which is usually a Cost Per Result GoalWhen using the Highest Volume bid strategy, advertisers can choose to set a Cost Per Result Goal. This allows to establish how much you’re willing to pay for the optimized action. It’s not a hard cap, but a goal the algorithm will consider. More or Bid CapBid Cap is one of Facebook’s bid strategy options, which guides Meta on how to bid in the ad auction. A Bid Cap sets a maximum bid across auctions, rather than allow them to bid dynamically. More.

Should you be using them? Or are there specific times when you should?

In most cases, just stick with the default. Since Meta is already trying to get you the most optimized actions within your budget, overriding that strategy will rarely be beneficial. But there are exceptions.

You might consider manual bidding when your performance goal is to maximize conversionsA conversion is counted whenever a website visitor performs an action that fires a standard event, custom event, or custom conversion. Examples of conversions include purchases, leads, content views, add to cart, and registrations. More, especially when that conversion is a purchase, or maximize value. If there’s a specific cost per purchase that you can’t go over to remain profitable, it can be a good option.

But it won’t create miracles as it will most likely impact volume, so make sure that you’re spending enough or your ads may stop delivering — or underdeliver. You may also run into optimization and learning phase issues if you are already on the edge of 50 conversions per week.

I would not advise using manual bidding when using a performance goalThe Performance Goal is chosen within the ad set and determines optimization and delivery. How you optimize impacts who sees your ad. Meta will show your ad to people most likely to perform your desired action. More for any top-of-funnel action (link clicksThe link click metric measures all clicks on links that drive users to properties on and off of Facebook. More, landing page viewsLanding Page View is a Facebook ads metric that represents when people land on your destination URL after clicking a link in your ad. More, post engagementPost engagements include all of the actions that people took on your Facebook ad post. Examples include:
• Post Shares
• Post Reactions
• Post Saves
• Post Comment
• Page Likes
• Post Interactions
• 3-Seconds Video Plays
• Photo Views
• Link Clicks
More, ThruPlay, etc.) or possibly even leads.

By restricting the algorithm, the focus will be on low-cost actions, so Meta will go to specific sources to find those actions at a lower cost. This will almost always be at the expense of quality.

Of course, top-of-funnel optimization always has the potential to be problematic anyway concerning quality, but manual bidding can make it worse. And if you are struggling to generate quality leads, setting a Cost Per Result Goal is unlikely to help.

This is one of those cases where you’re often better off just letting Meta handle it automatically, beyond the rare exception when your optimized action is a purchase. If you’re looking for a magical way to generate cheap engagement or leads, this is unlikely to be a solution — other than generating surface-level results.

In those cases, you’re not going to outsmart the algorithm, so don’t even bother.