Paybee Features: Silent Auction Max Bid

PayBee’s Auto Bid Feature

After helping nonprofits and charities host hundreds of in-person, virtual, and hybrid events, we’ve discovered silent auctions get some of the highest engagement of any fundraising type. In addition to being an excellent way to raise funds, an online silent auction is also a great way to generate buzz around your fundraising gala.

Building on the success our clients have enjoyed through silent auctions, we've decided to create a new feature to make bidding more convenient for guests and more profitable for your nonprofit organization. It's called max auto bidding.

What is Max Auto Bidding?

In the past, if guests wanted to partake in a PayBee-supported silent auction, they would visit the silent auction page, make a bid and enter their contact info for follow-up. Subsequently, our system would notify each bidder via text and email them if they're outbid on an item. From this notification, a link is included to make it easy for donors to return to the auction page and place a higher bid if desired. This cycle continues until a winning bidder is declared.

Under this type of system, bidders constantly have to check their devices and return to the silent auction page to place new bids. In today's digital world, where messages are constantly being sent and received, it's also easy for auction notifications via text to go unread or unnoticed--leaving some bidders out of the action.

This is where the "max auto bid" feature comes in. Using this feature, your guests can set up bids to be placed automatically at the next available bid increment, until your desired "max bid" is met. This way, guests don't have to worry about constantly monitoring auction bidding and your charity maximizes its opportunity to raise as much as it can.

How Does Auto Bidding Work?

The process starts by either visiting your organization's silent auction page, setup on PayBee, or by scanning the QR code printed on the silent auction bid sheet on one of PayBee's auto-generated silent auction bid sheets.

Next, your guests will reach your digital silent auction page where they can simply enter the highest amount they’re willing to spend on an auction item, also known as their "max auto bid". This can be any amount that’s more than the current bid by at least double the set bid increment.

For example, if guests are bidding on a vacation worth $500, with bids increasing by $50 increments, someone would have to set their maximum auto bid at a minimum of $600 (or more) for the system to accept it. The PayBee system then automatically bids for guests at the next available bid increment so that donors don't have to constantly refer back to the website to make their bid. No other bidder will know how high each person's maximum bid is, making for a more engaging auction.

When a guest reaches their maximum bid amount, they'll receive a notification from PayBee so that they can place an additional bid if desired. If the auction closes with their max auto bid being the high bidder, they'll receive another notification letting them know they won the item.

Other Bidding Options

The max auto bid feature is optional, you have full control to disable or enable it for any of your silent auction campaigns at your discretion. When disabled, PayBee's original "Bid Once" option still allows guests to select their bid amount and bid immediately. If they get outbid, they'll receive a notification from PayBee so that they can return to the silent auction page and keep bidding. This is great for those who want to enjoy the silent auction experience in realtime with other guests.

No matter where your guests are, they can use PayBee's mobile silent auction bidding feature to bid on items from their mobile device using the QR code printed on Paybee's auto-generated silent auction bid sheets. If there is a tie in the bids, the person who placed the winning bid first is considered the winner. This encourages fair play and fast bidding during your auction.

Some guests just don't want to wait for the auction to end to win their desired item. PayBee has a solution for that too by offering a "Buy It Now" option. With this option, you can set a price that will let guests immediately buy an auction item and end the rest of the bidding.‍

Moving Forward

As you can see, PayBee constantly updates its online fundraising platform to make it more convenient for your guests to use (and more profitable for your organization). Stay on top of all our latest tools and features by having your event staff periodically test out our system.

Sign up for a free demo of the PayBee system and experience first hand what your guests will enjoy at a PayBee-supported fundraiser. If you’ve never had a chance to use our platform before, you’ll discover how intuitive and easy-to-use the controls are. Each demo also comes with a mock live auction where you can bid on items with virtual money, letting you see how much fun these events can be.

Want more one-on-one support? PayBee now offers “mini-demos” where you can schedule one-on-one sessions with our team of experts. You’ll be able to ask all of your technical questions and be able to discover the advantages that come with hosting an in-person, virtual, or hybrid fundraiser using PayBee’s digital tools. Discover how you can use the latest online tools to make your next fundraiser your most successful one to date. Sign up for a free demo now!