Your bidding strategy directly influences your campaign performance, open rate, and overall ROI on platforms like Upwork. Effective bidding helps you:
Maximize visibility for your proposals by targeting the right jobs and clients.
Optimize costs by adjusting connects spent per proposal and avoiding overbidding.
Increase open and reply rates by being selective and timely with your applications.
If you have a low open rate or few replies, often the bidding strategy—not just the cover letter or profile—needs improvement.
Key Components of Bidding Strategy in Lancer
Bidding Delay
Set how long Lancer waits before submitting a proposal after a job is qualified.
Strategies:
Immediate bidding: Race to be among the first and catch active clients.
Scheduled delay: Wait and submit closer to times when clients are likely online. Useful for time zone targeting.
Bidding Criteria Warnings
Decide whether to skip jobs or bid anyway if you don't fully meet a client’s criteria.
Recommended: Skip if you’re not boosting, as low relevance can harm ranking.
Already Hired Action
Automatically skip jobs where the client has already hired someone to save connects.
Hourly Rate Strategy
Choose to match the job’s advertised rate, use your own rate, or set custom rules.
Adjust for market conditions or to remain competitive in your niche.
Boost Proposals
Use boosting to increase your proposal’s ranking for highly competitive jobs.
Set parameters:
Down to 4th place or beyond if you want guaranteed higher visibility.
Connects above previous bidder: Outbid the current top proposal by a chosen margin.
Max/Min connects: Control spend for each boost.
Fallback action if budget runs out (e.g., skip job).
Essential Strategies for Effective Bidding
Boost selectively: Invest more connects on jobs with high budgets, top clients, or jobs in your strongest skills.
Avoid boosting low-quality jobs: Save your connects for the best-fit opportunities.
Track and adjust: If you notice a consistently low open rate, increase boosts or re-evaluate job filters for better matchmaking.
Manual review for key jobs: For especially important jobs, manually adjust configuration (e.g., boost, add personalization, or schedule send).
Leverage time zones: Schedule proposals to land at peak client activity periods to maximize open rates.
When Open Rates Are Low
If your campaign has a low open rate, examine your bidding strategy:
Are you sending proposals when clients are awake/active?
Are you boosting enough to reach the top slots?
Is your hourly rate too high/low for the market?
Are you avoiding jobs with many interviews already scheduled?