I was asked about returns on investment of using bid-bots and did some research. I am sharing the result I have found.
Whether it is a good investment or not really depends not only on the vote value ratio (usually 2x - 2.5x) of the bid-bots, but also on the exchange rate of Steem vs. SBD and the exchange rate of Steem vs. USD at payout time.
I did some calculations based on current conversion prices and came out with the following results.
At the posting time, the investment return of using bid-bots is positive when you get at least 1.88x vote value for 1 SBD bid. If you get 2.5x, you are getting at least 30% return. For Steem bids, the break-even point is 1.77x.
You can simply multiply your bid value to calculate your additional author reward payout from the bid-bots. No matter how much you invest, the return % stays the same :)
