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Setting your bid

Your bid tells DiscoAds what a click or a converted customer is worth to you, which is how the system decides when to show your brand. This guide covers all three models — CPC, CPA, and CPO — and which to start with.

Your bid models​

  • Cost-per-click (CPC) — you pay for each billable click on your offer (see How CPC billing works, below). This is what most advertisers start with: it's simple and straightforward to set up.
  • Cost-per-acquisition (CPA) / cost-per-order (CPO) — you pay against a conversion target instead of clicks. Useful once you have conversion tracking firing reliably and want to optimize toward a specific cost per customer.

If you're not sure, start with CPC. You can revisit the model once you have performance data — your Disco team can walk you through whether the Fixed CPA / CPO model fits.

On the CPA/CPO model, conversions are billed by customer type: new and lapsed (12+ months) customers at your Fixed CPA, and returning customers at your Fixed CPO. You can update both month to month — see [Disco's attribution model].

How the auction works​

How often your offer displays is a function of two things: how relevant your offer is to a given shopper, and your bid relative to other advertisers. For example: if your CPC bid is $5 and an equally relevant advertiser's is $3, your offer shows. But if their offer has a higher relevancy score for that specific shopper, theirs shows — even at the lower bid. The goal is always to show shoppers the most relevant offers, which is also what gives you the best chance of converting them.

How CPC billing works​

On the CPC model you're billed for billable clicks — the total outbound clicks Disco measures, counted once per advertiser, per Disco session (the IAB One-Click-Per-Impression method). In practice:

  • Two clicks on your brand in the same session = one billable click.
  • A click, a page refresh, then another click = two billable clicks.
  • A click, then another click on a return visit two days later = two billable clicks.

What counts: outbound clicks inside the Disco placement — your hyperlinked imagery, logo, text, or your offer's CTA button. What doesn't count: "next/previous offer" clicks (not outbound), clicks in the confirmation emails shoppers receive after claiming your offer, and impressions — you're never charged for impressions.

Billable clicks from new customers are charged at your CPC (New Customer) bid; clicks from returning customers at your CPC (Returning Customer) bid.

Set your bid​

Set your bid range and optimization target using the form for your model:

Submit the form for your model and the Disco CS team configures your settings and sets them live. Shortly after, you can monitor your spend in Reading your DiscoAds reporting.

A few things to keep in mind:

  • Conversion tracking is a prerequisite for CPA/CPO. The system can only optimize toward conversions it can see. Set up tracking first — see Setting up conversion tracking.
  • Your bid is a signal of value. A higher bid expands the auctions you're competitive in — it doesn't change who Disco matches you with.
  • Give changes time. After a bid change, let the system recalibrate for a few days before judging the result.