Hi, Facebook advertising platform works in an auction principle: at the same time numerous people are competing for a limited advertising space in order to reach some target audience. The most efficient way to allocate that space is by offering it to those who are bidding the most (although that won't always be the case). Essentially, if you set a lower bid than everyone else has set, you are bound to lose those auctions, and your ads will not be displayed at all - something I'm sure you wouldn't be happy about. So although your aim is to get the lowest cost per click, you might consider a slightly different approach.

I agree with something Laura said about setting a much higher bid at the beginning of the scheduled campaign, so that Facebook gives you a preference and starts pushing the ads. However, the maximum bid you set doesn't mean you will pay that price - you will pay only as much as you need to win the auctions.

Now, the most important thing about getting lower cost per click, which is way too often disregarded, is getting the *highest possible click-through rate* for your ads. If you think about it, Facebook only benefits when someone clicks on your ads, so if there are two ads with the exact same bids, targeting the exact same audience, it will give preference to that which is performing better - receives more clicks per number of impressions, and generates more revenue to Facebook. Even if you disregard your bid completely and leave it automatic, you can have much lower costs by focusing on the click-through rate, and that can be achieved by: choosing the best ad placement (desktop news feed, mobile news feed, sidebar), picking the most relevant target audience, and choosing the most effective ad design, including the headline, ad copy, visuals and even call-to-action buttons. If you manage to find the best performing combination through split-testing, you will need to think less about what is the right bid.

I hope that helps, and if you wanted to discuss it further, feel free to get in touch for a quick chat.

Cheers!
Adomas