Starting Bids
What is a good starting bid for a new target with no data?
When adding new targets and setting the starting bid, Amazon will always give you a suggested bid range. For example $0.75-$1.50.
Amazon generates this suggested bid by looking at the bids that already exist for the target you have chosen.
In short, if you bid the upper range of the suggested bid, you are nearly guaranteed to win auctions and have your ad shown.
If you bid below the low range of the suggested bid, you are nearly guaranteed to lose auctions and you will not have your ad shown.
Therefore as a general rule of thumb we can imagine that if we are bidding high, our spend will be high, but we will get back lots of data. If we are bidding low, our spend will be low, but we will get back little data. Each of these things is advantageous in different scenarios.
Let's split the suggested bid into thirds and then we can discuss the pros and cons of each.
The following bid ranges are based on the example suggested bid of $0.75-$1.50. Your actual suggested bid will be different, adjust the ranges accordingly.
Low range
IE: ($0.75-$1.00)
Bidding in the low range of the suggested bid is recommended in the following scenarios:
- You are running a bootstrap campaign that is out of it's discovery period and are adding new targets to it.
- Profitability is the current priority over data gathering.
Mid range
IE: ($1.00-$1.25)
Bidding in the mid range of the suggested bid is recommended in the following scenarios:
- You are early in a bootstrap campaign, still in the discovery period and trying to gather data.
- Data gathering is moderately important, but not the top priority.
High range
IE: ($1.25-$1.50)
Bidding in the high range of the suggested bid is recommended in the following scenarios:
- You are running a VC campaign
- Data gathering is the top priority.
- Boosting organic rank is the top priority.
If you are unsure
If you are unsure which range to bid in, bid directly between the low-mid range.