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Boost Your Proposal to the Top of List

kochubei_valeria
Community Member

Update 10/13: Our Boosted Proposals test has ended, for now, so we can study the results and learn. We sincerely appreciate all of the feedback you gave us during this test, and we’re taking time to review our data and plan some improvements with your input in mind. 

We will share more information about our plans for a re-launch of Boosted Proposals. So stay tuned!

 

Open auctions will run their course; however, no new boosts will be available.

Our goal remains to support the best outcomes for Talent and Clients and help you win more. We’re working to make this feature even better as part of that effort!

 



We are testing a new way to help you
make your proposals stand out to clients. We’re dropping the required price of proposals to 1 Connect and allowing talent to bid for a chance to boost their proposal to appear in one of three promoted slots at the top of the client’s proposal manager. With boosting, you can promote yourself to clients by signalling that you are highly interested in their job. You can use your Connects to boost your proposal and increase the chances of being among the first that’s noticed. When clients see “Highly Interested” next to a blue lightning bolt, they’ll know these proposals are from talent who paid to express their interest by investing extra Connects into their proposal.

 

 

How it works 

When you submit a proposal, you can choose to boost it by spending additional Connects — whatever amount you think it’s worth. If you bid high enough relative to the other bidders, we’ll boost your proposal to the top of the stack, so it’s one of the first proposals the client sees.

 

  • Decide. If you really value a job, choose to bid to be eligible to boost your proposal above others. 
  • Bid. Set the number of Connects you’re willing to use to outbid other freelancers. We encourage you to bid the amount you truly think the job is worth.
  • Submit. Your proposal will be boosted to the client if your bid is high enough. If another freelancer bids more than you and your proposal is not boosted, we will refund some of your Connects (if boosting did not result in an engagement with a client). You’ll be notified either way and your proposal will still show up for the client, even if you’re outbid. 
  • The auction will last up to 7 days. It starts when the job is posted, and it is cleared after 7 days, or sooner if the job is closed or a hire has been made. 
  • Using Connects. The value of a job is always up to you, and you never have to worry about wasting Connects if you over or underbid. 

 

  • For example, if a job post allows for 3 boosted proposals, the top 3 bids will win those slots, and the final cost will be set by the lowest of those 3 bids. 

  • So if you spent 7 Connects to boost a proposal, and the lowest of the top 3 bidders spent just 5 — you’re in! Plus, you’ll receive a refund of 2 Connects to match the cost of the lowest qualifying bid.

  • What if you had bid just 3 Connects instead of 5? No worries! Your proposal won’t be boosted, but it will still show up for the client just like a regular proposal, and you’ll be refunded all the additional Connects you spent to boost your proposal.



We know you put a lot of effort into developing quality proposals, especially for projects you’re excited about. That’s one of the reasons we created the option to bid to boost your proposal, so you have an even better chance of being seen by clients for projects you’re really passionate about. We see this as a way to express your level of interest while increasing the odds of being noticed. So, in cases where boosting your proposal results in an engagement with a client, you will be charged - even if you are outbid, since this exposure can often lead to future interactions. An engagement means one or more of the following was done by the client (in other words, the client engaged a freelancer in at least one of these ways): viewed your proposal, messaged you, shortlisted you, sent an offer, and/or archived or declined your proposal. It’s another way to make your Connects work for you!

 

Screenshot from September 8, 2021 9_20 AM.png

 

For more information about boosting your proposals so you’re more likely to land the work you really want, check out our help article.

 

Excited to try this out? We are eager to gather feedback while we’re testing this feature. Let us know your thoughts so we can continue to make the work marketplace even better for you.

629 Comments
dannykhoury
Community Member

Sorry, but this will make a freelancer's job harder... deciding on what to spend more connects on. 👎🏻

Less is more. Less options to decide on please!

 

martina_plaschka
Community Member

Oh no. I was sort of hoping this idea had disappeared for good after the avalanche of negative feedback. 

So a client will see: This freelancer spent 60 cents because he is so extra-interested. Blue lightning bolt.

(sarcasm warning)

Wow that will look fantastic to a client who just spent 500$ a month for client plus (don't come for me, I didn't look it up). It will look nothing but cheap. It cheapens the freelancer who does it, it cheapens the whole platform. Why and how a client should be impressed by this, I really don't know. 

And just to make it perfectly clear: I only send proposals to jobs I'm really interested in, or passionate about. Sending a proposal is testament to my interest. I don't need no blue lightning to show my interest. 

Again, no, please no, please don't do that. It will look absolutely terrible to the client. 

Finally, not looking forward to the new "I was outbid, why did I not get my connects back" thread. I implore you, can this. Please. Into the can. 

hglewis
Community Member

OH! Pleeassseee 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

 

Pick Me! Pick Me! Pick Me! Pick Me!

 

I'll up my connects and throw in a vacation for two!

 

Come on!!! What's it gonna take for you to open my proposal?

 

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

 

 

wescowley
Community Member

So I guess the outcry when this was accidentally turned on wasn't enough to stop this mess. I posted a list of questions then which were not addressed at the time. Can you perhaps address them now? Here are those questions again, slightly updated:

 

I'm still seeing the "2 connects" etc. when I open a job. Is this only being rolled out to certain freelancers for now? 

How are boosted and unboosted proposals separated on the client's view?

What do they need to do to see non-boosted proposals?

Can clients sort proposals on other criteria?

Are clients clearly informed that the boosted proposals are first in line due to payola rather than the match to their needs? (I see the "highly interested" lightning bolt on the proposal screenshot - that doesn't indicate anything about the positioning being paid for).

Are boosted proposals that don't meet the client's stated requirements (location, $ billed, for example) still flagged as not meeting them?

How does this affect proposals submitted through invites?

How are the number of boosted bid slots determined?

Are you going to be implementing other aspects of Fr*r.com's proposal system like highlighted bids and open vs sealed bids?

martina_plaschka
Community Member

The example works fine with 3 different bids, but what happens when there are 20 bids that used the same number of connects? How will the client see those? 

Once a new bid enters, the featured freelancers will rotate. When the client refreshes the page, he might see a completely different selection. That might be very confusing to the client. 

What happens after 7 days? All bids disappear? Everybody needs to start again? Please clarify. 

The rationale behind this concept must be that the client is looking for the most enthusiastic freelancers, expressed in their willingness to bid. Enthusiastic unfortunately does not necessarily mean most qualified or most professional, as demonstrated daily in the "New to Upwork" section.  

hglewis
Community Member

Hello Martina!

 


Martina P wrote:

Enthusiastic unfortunately does not necessarily mean most qualified or most professional, as demonstrated daily in the "New to Upwork" section.  


Sadly, it is that group that will fork over the connects.

 

Those of us who've been here a while are not easily persuaded to jump.

 

kochubei_valeria
Community Member

Hi Wes and Martina,

 

Thanks for sharing your feedback and questions. This option is currently being tested with select jobs so it will not be available for all jobs.
Boosted proposals will be pinned to the top of the client’s Proposal Manager. All other proposals will be located below and they will be ranked organically just like they are today. The client can scroll down to see all proposals and will be able to sort them as usual. Boosted proposals will stay pinned on top. The client will see a blue lightning bolt icon with “Highly interested” next to a boosted proposal. If they hover over, they'll see a message "This freelancer spent more on this job to get noticed."

We will enforce all of our standard rules for proposals and client job preferences. Replying to invites will still require no Connects. While those proposals can’t be boosted, they are given a dedicated place within the Upwork Proposal Manager and will have an “Invited” badge.

Currently, while we’re testing this feature, there are three slots available to boosted proposals. In the event of a tie bid, the earlier time stamp prevails.
The auction is closed after 7 days and there will not be an option to boost a proposal after that. The top bidders at that time will appear at the top of the list and the rest of the proposals will appear organically as usual. The bids will not disappear and there will be no need to resubmit them.

roberty1y
Community Member

If anyone here is a regular client as well as a freelancer, I'd be interested to know how it looks from that side, and what it might eventually mean for freelancers. Are boosted proposals flagged as such?

AveryO
Community Manager

Hi Robert, 


You may check a sample screen grab in this article here or in Val's announcement post, where I merged your post.

versailles
Community Member

Valeria K wrote:

 

We know you put a lot of effort into developing quality proposals, especially for projects you’re excited about. That’s one of the reasons we created the option


No, it's not. It's not the reason why you came out with this (totally stupid) idea. The true reason is that you want to sell connects. The thing in itself it totally stupid.