Bid Glass operates on a pay-as-you go billing model. That means you're not charged up-front, but charged periodically as your ads are shown.


Here's how it works:


  1. Before you can create a campaign, you need to add a payment source. This way we can charge you as your ads are displayed.

  2. When creating a campaign, you choose an ad unit to advertise on and a bid rate: the maximum you're willing to spend per 1,000 impressions (CPM). By creating a campaign, you're entering into the auction for that ad unit with your bid rate during the dates you've chosen to run your campaign. As that ad unit is displayed to visitors on its website, the ads are served based on a live auction consisting of all of the campaigns active on that ad unit placed by bidders like you. Bid Glass auctions run at second-price, meaning the top bidder is only charged an effective rate of $0.01 CPM more than the next highest bidder (unless it's a tie in which case they pay the matched bid rate). So if your bid is $2.00 CPM, and the next highest active bid is $1.75 CPM, your effective rate is $1.76 CPM. Bid Glass doesn't only show the highest bidder's ads however - it distributes ad impressions among the top bidders based on our prediction of how much traffic that ad unit will get throughout the day and the bids active on that ad unit for the day. So, if your ad is among the top bidders and your ad is displayed, you'll be charged the second-price rate if you're the top bidder, and your maximum bid rate otherwise. Every impression served accrues a micro-fee calculated by that impression's effective bid rate divided by 1,000. So a single impression served at a $1.00 CPM accrues a cost of $0.001. As your ads are displayed in this manner, you accrue advertising fees.

  3. Once your campaigns start running, we will pre-authorize your credit card for your estimated spending over the next 24-hours. However, this authorization is not yet a charge. As your ads are displayed and you accrue advertising fees, once your owed balance reaches the authorization amount your payment source is charged. If after 6 days past the original authorization your accrued fees are less than the authorization amount, you will only be charged for the fees accrued.

  4. Sometimes payment sources can be declined. For this reason, you're encouraged to add one or more additional payment sources if it's likely that your primary payment source(s) will be occasionally declined. This way we'll be able to charge your back-up payment source(s) and your ads will be able to continue running. In the Billing & Spending area of the Advertiser Portal, you can add additional payment sources and rank them in the order in which you'd like us to charge them.