Table of Contents
Every bid strategy is a trade-off between how far your campaigns reach, what each result costs, and how much control you keep over the process. Lean too hard on any one of those and the others suffer.
Realize gives performance advertisers several ways to manage that balance on the open web, beyond search and social. You can let the platform handle bidding entirely, share control with it, or set every bid yourself. On top of that, Realize includes tools to refine bids by site and time of day, so spend goes where it’s most likely to pay off.
1. Maximize Conversions: Fully Automated Bidding
For most advertisers, the simplest path to results is letting the platform do the bidding.
SmartBid Sets Bids Automatically
With Maximize Conversions, SmartBid adjusts cost-per-click (CPC) automatically to drive as many conversions as possible within your budget, so you don’t have to manage bids placement by placement.
Works With or Without Conversion Tracking
Maximize Conversions works with either pixel or server-to-server (S2S) conversion tracking. It can also run without tracking by drawing on Realize network data to optimize toward page views and impressions, which helps warm up the algorithm while measurement is set up.
The Recommended Starting Point
Maximize Conversions is Realize’s recommended strategy for most campaign types. It’s a strong default when conversions are the main goal and you want the platform to find them efficiently.
2. Add a Target CPA for Predictability
Some advertisers require more than volume and need conversions at a cost that fits their margins.
Keep Cost per Conversion Near Your Goal
Adding a target cost per acquisition (CPA) to Maximize Conversions tells SmartBid to keep cost per conversion close to your goal, while still pursuing as much volume as it can.
Wait for Enough Data
Target CPA works best once a campaign has a solid base of conversion data, at least 50 conversions over seven consecutive days, with tracking in place. Set the target realistically, since an overly strict CPA can limit how far the campaign scales.
3. Enhanced CPC: Semi-Automated Control
Enhanced CPC suits advertisers who want automation to help, without handing over the whole process.
Set a Baseline and Let SmartBid Adjust
You set a baseline CPC, and SmartBid raises or lowers each bid depending on how likely that click is to convert. Bids go up where the odds are better and down where they’re weaker.
Efficiency With Visibility
This approach gives you some of the efficiency of automated bidding while keeping your input front and center. You always know the starting point, and you can change it whenever your strategy shifts.
4. Fixed Bid: Full Manual Control
Sometimes the priority is certainty, rather than constant optimization.
You Pay What You Bid
With Fixed Bid, the bid you set is the price you pay. There’s no automatic adjustment, so your cost per click stays predictable.
Manual Adjustments at Every Level
You can change the baseline bid and site-level bids yourself at any time. Fixed Bid is a good fit for campaigns where conversions aren’t the core goal, such as traffic or awareness efforts with a set CPC.
5. Fine-Tune Bids by Site and Time
Not every publisher or hour performs the same way. Realize lets you reflect those differences in your bids.
By-Site Bid Adjustments
The By-Site report shows how individual publishers perform. From there, you can raise bids on sites that deliver results and lower them on sites that don’t.
Day and Hour Bid Modifications
With Enhanced CPC and Fixed Bid, you can modify bids by day of the week and hour of the day. That helps you bid more competitively when your audience is most likely to act.
Campaign Scheduling
Campaign Scheduling goes a step further by running campaigns only during the hours that perform best. Budget isn’t spent during periods that rarely convert.
6. Protect Bids From Waste
Good bidding isn’t only about where to spend more, it’s also about stopping spend that isn’t working.
Custom Rules
Custom Rules automatically take action when performance conditions are met. If a publisher’s CPA climbs too high or its conversion rate drops, a rule can block that site, pause underperforming ads, or adjust budgets without anyone needing to step in.
Frequency Cap
Frequency Cap, available to select advertisers, limits how often the same person sees your ad by day, week, or month, keeping reach from being spent on people who’ve already seen the ad many times. It’s best suited to campaigns that aren’t on fully automated bidding.
7. Plan and Learn Faster
Realize also helps advertisers make bidding decisions with more confidence and reach stable performance sooner.
Performance Simulator (Beta)
The Performance Simulator, currently in beta, forecasts CPA and conversions before you change the budget on an eligible Maximize Conversions campaign.
Faster Learning for New Advertisers
Maximize Conversions suits new advertisers, too. As mentioned above, it can start without tracking, using Realize network data to warm up the algorithm while measurement is set up.
Make Changes Gradually
Bidding models need time to adjust. Change budgets and targets in measured steps, and give campaigns room to recalibrate before judging the results.
Key Takeaways
The advertisers who get the most from their bidding will be the ones who match the strategy to the goal, using full automation where conversions matter most and manual control where predictability is paramount. As open-web campaigns grow, site-level and time-based adjustments will keep spend focused on the placements and hours that deliver. Pairing automated bidding with Custom Rules and gradual, data-backed changes gives teams a way to scale without losing control of cost.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Realize vs. Google Ads bidding: What’s the difference?
Google Ads Smart Bidding, including tCPA and target return on ad spend (tROAS), optimizes search, display, video, and Performance Max campaigns and works best with sufficient conversion history. Realize bidding optimizes across premium open-web publishers with fully automated, semi-automated, and manual options, plus by-site adjustments and Custom Rules, making it an incremental performance channel that works alongside search.
Realize vs. Microsoft Advertising bidding: What’s the difference?
Microsoft Advertising runs search, display, video, and shopping campaigns across Bing and Microsoft properties such as MSN and Outlook, while Realize reaches audiences at scale across open-web content. Realize adds time-based control through daily and hourly bid modifications and Campaign Scheduling, while Predictive Audiences and intent targeting help bids reach people likely to convert.
Realize vs. Optmyzr bidding: What’s the difference?
Optmyzr is a third-party optimization tool, with rules and AI-assisted features, that works across platforms including Google, Microsoft, and Amazon Ads, and requires a separate subscription. Realize builds bidding and rules into the ad platform itself, pairing AI-driven Maximize Conversions with Custom Rules for rule-based control.
