Refine your bids

Refine your bids

With Microsoft Advertising, you’re in control of your budget. You set the highest price that you want to pay each time someone selects your ad—this is what your bid is. Set this price as the default bid for all your keywords in an ad group, or customize the price for each keyword.

Default bidding

With default bidding, you set the bid when you first create an ad group and it automatically applies to each keyword in the ad group. This means less work for you, and is ideal for any keywords you don’t want to actively manage.

For example, if you set a default bid of $1, that’s what you’ll pay by default when someone searches for any of your keywords and chooses on your ad. Because default bidding applies automatically after you set it up, we recommend default bidding if you’re new to search advertising or want a low-maintenance approach to paying for your ads.

How to edit a default bid

1. From the collapsible menu on the left, select All campaigns > Ad groups > Ad groups.

   If you're using the new Microsoft Advertising navigation, from the navigation menu on the left, hover over Campaigns and select Ad groups > Ad groups.

2. There are two ways to change your bid from the ad group table:
   1. Hover over an individual ad group's bid in the appropriate bid column and select the pencil icon that pops up. Change the bid value and then select Save.
   2. Select the checkbox next to one or more ad groups and then select Edit > Change current bids. Set the bid(s) to a specific value—or Increase or Decrease the bid(s) by a percentage—and then select Save.

Custom bidding

In addition to setting a default bid, you can set custom bids for each keyword. If you set a custom bid for a particular keyword, this bid amount will override the default bid you initially set when you created your ad group. We recommend custom bidding for advanced advertisers who want more control of their pay-per-click rates.

How to edit an existing custom bid

1. From the collapsible menu on the left, select All campaigns > Keywords > Keywords.

   If you're using the new Microsoft Advertising navigation, from the navigation menu on the left, hover over Campaigns and select Keywords > Keywords.

2. There are two ways to change your bid from the keywords table:
   1. Hover over an individual keyword's bid in the Bid column and select the pencil icon that pops up. You have the choice of setting a manual bid or using a default ad group bid. Choose the bid value and then select Save.
   2. Select the checkbox next to one or more keywords and then select Edit > Change current bids. You can then set the bid(s) to a specific value, increase or decrease the bid(s) by a percentage, or increase them to either the estimated top of page bid or estimated first page bid. When you're done, select Save.

Bid strategies

You can have Microsoft Advertising manage or set your bids for you automatically. To learn more, check out Let Microsoft Advertising manage your bids with bid strategies.