Overview
The AutoLeadStar platform is built around transparency and ease-of-use. The Acquire budget you input is the total you would like spent per month across all relevant channels: Google Search and Display Ad networks (Acquire Google) as well as on Facebook and Instagram (Acquire Social). AutoLeadStar does not take a percentage of your budget or spend, and bills for services separately so you can clearly delineate your Ad spend from your vendor costs.
How does it work?
Acquire spends the monthly budget in an organized and completely transparent manner optimizing for maximum LEADS WITHIN A GIVEN BUDGET. As a result, budget shifts take place across the platform and on a near-daily basis as the algorithm is constantly finding the best balance between your spend and getting you the most leads possible.
For example, Acquire will never spend the entire budget in the first week. Throughout the month, Acquire will make sure to spend between 95% up to 105% of your intended monthly budget.
While it is not recommended, you may choose to allocate your monthly budget by Objectives or by Channels to focus on specific goals or targets. You can choose to allocate your budget total or only partially, to a specific channel, or a specific objective. The remainder of the un-allocated budget will be automatically spent between the other Objectives and Channels based on Acquire's optimization algorithms.
Where can I set my budget inside my Dashboard?
The monthly budget is nested in the Acquire Product Settings under the Budget Tab.
While it is not recommended, you may adjust your budget at any time and as often as you would like. Simply click on the budget input editor button and type the new total amount you want spent by the end of the month. Acquire will automatically calculate how much increased spend per day needs to be added. Keep in mind, when increasing allocations, if the total by which you wish to increase exceeds your original total monthly budget, you should expect the Acquire system to spend the additional funds according to the new allocation you set up. In some cases, this may exceed the original budget.
Additionally, you will see a progress bar below that input field which will update in real-time indicating how much of your budget has been spent and how much, according to your new total amount, is left to be spent by the end of the calendar month.
Please note, if you reduce your budget such that at the time of making this adjustment you have already spent your total desired amount, ads will be paused, no further money will spent, and the amount you input will be set up to run the following month.
If your account has special allocations set up, for example budget limits set by channel, you may see slightly higher spend then your total input. For more information on this, please read about Google's cost and daily spend calculations.
How is my budget optimized?
Acquire optimizes for leads and therefore will endeavor to get your dealership the most leads within a given budget. If the system sees that leads are beginning to accrue from a particular channel or objective, more budget will be shifted there. It is important to note however, that a % of your budget is always left available and spread across other channels and objectives to make sure other avenues for leads are constantly being tested. If a new channel or objective begins to perform well, the system will have enough data and funds to quickly shift accordingly.
Read more about our bidding strategies on Facebook and Google ads here.
What types of leads will I see with a more modest budget/ what is the impact of increasing my budget in terms of lead type?
Acquire optimizes for leads and therefore will endeavor to get your dealership the most leads within a given budget. The more money you add to your budget, the more diverse and qualified your lead haul will be. This is because upper funnel leads tend to cost less while more qualified leads, closer to purchase tend to cost more. Upper funnel leads tend to come from the Branding or Trade-In objectives.
A shopper searching for your dealership by name is not difficult to capture as a lead because they have expressly typed your name in their search and winning the auction for a bid with your own name in it is less costly than competing with other dealerships in your area who may be bidding on New or Used vehicles searches for shoppers who are not yet decided on where or from whom they would like to make their purchase.
These leads are more valuable but also cost more and therefore will have a higher CPL. See the graphs below for more visual explanation of this point.
