Bidding is one of the primary ways leads get assigned to customers. When a lead comes in, Juiced runs a real-time auction—customers with active bids compete, and the highest bidder wins the lead. It’s like eBay, except the auctions happen in milliseconds and nobody’s bidding on vintage lunch boxes.
How bidding works
A bid is a customer’s standing offer to purchase leads matching specific criteria. When a lead arrives that matches a bid’s lead type and location, that bid enters the auction. The outcome depends on several factors:
- Bid amount — Higher bids win
- Customer wallet — Must have sufficient funds
- Customer status — Must be active (not paused or archived)
- Bid status — Must be active (not paused or archived)
- Caps and budgets — Must not be exhausted
- Competition — How this bid compares to others on the same lead type and location
The lead type connection
Every bid is placed on a lead type. The lead type’s bidding settings determine:
- Which scopes are available — Can customers bid at the county, state, or nationwide level?
- Fixed price vs. range — Is there a single set price, or can customers bid within a range?
- Minimum bid — The floor price to participate (or the only price when fixed pricing is enabled)
- Maximum bid — The ceiling (hidden when fixed pricing is enabled)
- Bid increments — The step between valid bid amounts (hidden when fixed pricing is enabled)
You can’t place a bid on a lead type that doesn’t have bidding enabled.
Scopes
The scope defines the geographic reach of a bid:
| Scope | What it covers | Example |
|---|
| County | A single county | ”Los Angeles County, CA” |
| State | An entire state | ”California” |
| Nationwide | The whole country | ”United States” |
Creating a bid
To create a bid, you’ll need to specify:
- Lead type — Which lead type you want
- Scope — Geographic level (county, state, or nationwide)
- Location — The specific area within that scope
- Amount — How much you’re willing to pay per lead
The form will only show scopes that are enabled for the selected lead type, and the amount field will enforce the minimum, maximum, and step values from the lead type’s bidding settings.
Optional limits
If enabled by the tenant, bids can also have their own caps and budgets:
- Daily/weekly/monthly lead caps — Maximum number of leads this bid can win
- Daily/weekly/monthly budgets — Maximum spend for this bid
These are separate from customer-level caps and budgets. A bid might hit its own limit even if the customer still has capacity.
Managing bids
From a customer’s bid list, you can:
- Add new bids — Click “Create Bid” to place a new one
- Edit existing bids — Change the amount or limits
- Pause/unpause — Toggle the bid on or off without deleting it
- Delete — Remove the bid entirely (archives it)
The pause toggle is available both in the bid table and on the edit page.
Pausing a bid is different from pausing a customer. A paused bid shows as “Paused” in its own status, but if the customer is paused, all their bids are functionally paused even though each bid might still display as “Active.”
Bid statuses
Like customers, bids have multiple underlying statuses that roll up into a single display status. The display status is what you’ll see most often, but the underlying statuses are available as optional columns in the bid table.
Underlying statuses
These four statuses each track a specific aspect of the bid’s health:
| Status | What it tracks | Possible values |
|---|
| Operational | Whether the bid is manually on or off | Active, Paused, Archived |
| Funding | Customer wallet relative to bid amount | Available, Limited, Exhausted |
| Cap | Lead cap consumption | Unlimited, Available, Exhausted |
| Budget | Budget consumption | Unlimited, Available, Limited, Exhausted |
Display status
The display status combines the underlying statuses into a single, summarized value:
| Display status | What it means |
|---|
| Active | Everything is working. The bid is on, the customer is on, and all caps/budgets have availability. |
| Paused | The bid itself has been paused. |
| Limited | The customer’s wallet or the bid’s budget is running low—not enough to cover the full bid amount, but enough to participate at a reduced level. |
| Exhausted | Something has run out. Could be the customer’s wallet, a lead cap, or a budget. The bid won’t receive leads until the constraint clears. |
| Archived | The bid has been deleted. |
What “Limited” really means
When a bid shows as “Limited,” it can still win leads—but at a reduced amount:
- Funding limited — The customer’s wallet balance is below the bid amount. The bid competes at whatever the wallet can actually cover.
- Budget limited — The remaining budget is below the bid amount. The bid competes at whatever the budget has left.
What “Exhausted” really means
When a bid shows as “Exhausted,” it’s completely out of the auction:
- Funding exhausted — The customer’s wallet can’t cover even the minimum bid for this lead type.
- Cap exhausted — A lead cap (daily, weekly, or monthly) has been reached.
- Budget exhausted — A budget has been fully consumed.
The bid automatically returns to “Active” when the constraint resets (new day/week/month) or the customer adds funds.
Bid positions
Position tells you where your bid stands relative to the competition for the same lead type and location. It’s your quick answer to “Am I winning?”
| Position | What it means |
|---|
| Top | You have the highest bid. Leads matching this lead type and location come to you first. |
| Tied | You’re tied for the highest bid with one or more other customers. Leads are distributed round-robin among tied bidders. |
| Under | Someone else is bidding higher. You’ll only get leads if higher bidders hit their caps or run out of funds. |
| Out | Your bid isn’t being considered at all. This happens when the bid is paused, archived, or the customer’s funding is exhausted. |
If you’re “Under,” you can still win leads—you’re just not first in line. Higher bidders might hit their caps or budgets, at which point leads cascade down to lower bidders.
Bidding limits
Bids can have their own caps and budgets, separate from the customer’s account-level limits.
Lead caps
Lead caps limit the number of leads a bid can win:
- Daily cap — Resets each day
- Weekly cap — Resets each week
- Monthly cap — Resets each month
When a cap is reached, the bid shows as “Exhausted” until the period resets.
Limits reset on the calendar day, week, or month in UTC timezone—not your local time.
Lead caps only count leads won through bidding. If a customer purchases leads from the marketplace, those don’t count against bid caps. That’s why these are called “bidding limits”—they specifically govern the bidding channel.
Budgets
Budgets limit the amount spent through a bid:
- Daily budget — Maximum daily spend
- Weekly budget — Maximum weekly spend
- Monthly budget — Maximum monthly spend
When a budget is consumed, the bid transitions from “Limited” (can still participate at reduced capacity) to “Exhausted” (completely out of the auction).
How limits interact
A bid respects the most restrictive constraint. If you have:
- A daily cap of 10 leads
- A daily budget of $500
- A bid amount of $40
You’ll stop receiving leads when you hit 10 leads or $500 spent—whichever comes first. In this example, 10 leads at $40 each would cost $400, so you’d hit the cap before the budget.
The same logic applies at weekly and monthly levels, and also considers customer-level limits. The bid stops when any relevant limit is reached.
Bidding settings
Beyond individual bids, there are tenant-level settings that control how bidding works across your operation.
Global bid lock
The bidding settings page includes a global option to lock bids. When enabled, customers cannot make changes to their bids through the customer portal—only tenants can modify bids.
This allows tenants to create a fully managed pricing system where they control the price of all leads.
Customer bidding access
You can restrict customers from accessing bidding until they’ve deposited a minimum amount of funds. Once they reach or surpass the threshold, bidding access is automatically granted.
Tenants control the messaging shown to customers in the modal that blocks their access. This is useful for scenarios like requiring customers to schedule a call with your sales team before they can start bidding.
Smart pricing
Smart pricing ensures customers only pay what’s necessary to win a lead—not their maximum bid. When a customer wins an auction, they pay one increment above the next highest bidder, regardless of how high they bid.
Example: If the minimum bid is $10 with $10 increments, and a customer bids $100 while the next closest bidder is at $10, the winner pays $20—not $100.
This encourages customers to bid their true maximum since they won’t overpay when competition is low. It also means customers can confidently bid for top position without worrying about the actual price until the lead is won. 
