Troubleshooting the bidding model

This page covers the questions that come up most often when a campaign under the bidding model is not behaving the way you expect. For each question, check the cause first, then apply the fix. If the behaviour persists after these steps, see The bidding model is not changing bids or contact support.

Before you start

You have access to the campaign in question.
You have Editor or Admin role.

Why aren't bids moving?

Most commonly, bids are not moving because they should not be. A campaign performing inside its target, inside its budget, and on consistent data is a campaign where stable bids are the right answer.

Other common causes:

The bidding model is not active on the campaign. Open the campaign detail page and confirm that the bidding model is turned on. If the campaign is paused or the Catchbase toggle is off, bids are not managed.
The Apple Ads integration has expired. If the token has lapsed, Catchbase cannot push bid changes. Open Settings → Integrations → Apple Ads and reconnect.
The campaign has fewer than a few days of post-configuration data. The bidding model waits for enough signal to act on. Give the campaign time before concluding that nothing is happening.
The target or the budget has just changed. New settings are picked up on the next bid update, not instantly.

Why is the target not being met?

The target is a direction for the bidding model, not a guarantee. Common causes of a target drift:

The target is tighter than the auction allows. If nobody is winning the relevant impressions at bids consistent with the target, the bidding model cannot pull cost down further. Consider a looser target or a different set of keywords.
The daily budget is very small. Small budgets mean few conversions per day, which means noisy cost-per-result estimates. The average over a longer window usually tracks the target even when individual days do not.
Revenue is still maturing. For ROAS targets using a cohorted window (D7, D14, D30), recent cohorts are not complete. See Data freshness.
The objective was recently changed. Switching between volume and revenue resets the target context. Give the campaign several days of data before reassessing.

Why does spend look low?

Spend under the daily budget is not always a problem. If the campaign is in the target-constrained scenario described in Bidding constraint scenarios, the bidding model is holding bids at the level that respects the target, and unspent budget is a feature rather than a failure.

If you want more volume at the current target, options are:

Add more keywords or broaden match types where appropriate.
Loosen the target if the economics allow it.
Review the keyword list for ad groups that are underperforming and could be retargeted elsewhere.

Why did a bid jump overnight?

Large single-step changes are uncommon. When they happen, typical causes are: a change in the target or budget you or a teammate made, a reconnection of the Apple Ads or MMP integration that refreshed the data, or a shift in Apple Ads competitive conditions that the bidding model is responding to.