Funnel recipe: real-time ping/post auction for max revenue

When several buyers can pay for the same lead, a static waterfall leaves money on the table. This recipe runs Highest Bidder with ping/post buyers so each lead goes to the best live bid — then falls through if the winner’s post fails.

Why auction instead of waterfall

Waterfall is great for guaranteed preference. Auction is great when price discovery matters more than a fixed VIP order. If your vertical has competitive ping/post demand, Highest Bidder is usually the revenue-maximizing default.

What you need

• Campaign distribution = Highest Bidder
• Buyers configured for ping/post with bid extraction
• A campaign minimum bid floor that matches your margin model
• Optional multi-step ping (validate, then bid) if partners support it
• Filters, caps, and schedules so ineligible buyers never enter the auction

Build it

1. Set the campaign distribution method to Highest Bidder.
2. Set the campaign min bid price so sub-floor bids never win.
3. For each buyer, confirm ping endpoint, post endpoint, and response mapping that extracts the bid and accept/reject outcome.
4. Attach filters (geo, age, vertical fields) so you only ping buyers who can buy that lead.
5. Optional: enable multi-step ping when you want a cheap validation hop before the priced bid.
6. Caps and schedules: keep daytime VIP buyers from soaking overnight volume they do not want.
7. Run a controlled test lead and read the ping log: concurrent pings, winning bid, post attempt, and any fallback to the next bid.

Expected behavior

• Eligible buyers are pinged together
• Highest valid bid wins the post
• On post rejection, the next-highest bid is tried
• The source-facing payout reflects your margin rules — not necessarily the raw buyer bid

Edge cases

• A buyer with broken bid extraction looks “alive” but never wins — fix mapping before blaming the auction
• Zero-bid CPA partners do not belong in this pool; put them in a lower Advanced tier instead
• Over-tight filters can leave you with a one-buyer “auction”

What’s next

Once the auction is stable, add an Offer Wall on the thank-you page for leftover attention, and use rejection analytics to see which buyers ping high then post-reject.