Tracking marketplace bids as a channel
Most agencies bid on Upwork out of a browser tab and report on it out of memory. This is the same work with a feed, a gate, a record per proposal and an outcome written back.
- Gated feed, not the firehose
- Win rate by profile and category
- Connects stay a human decision
The short answer
- Saved searches run on a schedule and a gate filters what reaches the list, using client spend, hire rate, category and budget. A feed that shows everything is the same as no feed.
- Each proposal is recorded against the job and the profile that sent it, and outcomes come back as interviewed, hired or no reply. That is what makes win rate by category and by profile a real number.
- A job becomes a deal without needing a company record, because the Upwork API does not expose client company names. Contact and company links on a deal are both optional by design.
Trigger to logged
The loop an agency runs every day.
- 1
Trigger: a saved search runs
upwork_search_create defines it and upwork_search_test proves it before it goes on a schedule. Searches mirror what you would type on the site.
- 2
The gate filters the results
Client spend, hire rate, category and budget thresholds decide what is worth a human's attention. Everything else stays out of the list.
- 3
The human decides and bids
A person reads the job and writes the proposal. Spending connects is human-only under the default policy, and the Bid agent that would draft the proposal is on the roadmap.
- 4
The proposal is recorded
upwork_record_proposal ties it to the job and to the sending profile, which is what makes per-profile performance visible later.
- 5
The outcome comes back
Interviewed, hired or no reply. Without outcomes the feed is a list; with them the channel has a measurable cost per win.
- 6
What gets logged
Jobs, proposals, outcomes, client records and the deals created from them, all in the same database as your email and LinkedIn pipeline. upwork_stats reads the summary.
What gets configured
Objects, settings, and the two lines that do not move.
| Object | What you set | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Saved searches | The query, the categories, the schedule | Test before scheduling; a noisy search wastes a person's morning every day |
| Feed gate | Client spend, hire rate, budget and category thresholds | The gate is the product here. Without it you have rebuilt the website |
| Profiles | Which profile bids on what | Attribution per profile is how you find out which positioning actually wins |
| Proposals | Recorded per job with the profile | Recorded, not sent. Nothing bids for you |
| Outcomes | Interviewed, hired, no reply | The half everyone skips, and the half that makes the rest worth having |
| Clients | Records built from what the API returns | Company names are blocked by the API, so attach one yourself rather than guessing |
| Deals | A job promoted to a deal | Company and contact links are optional, which is why a bid can be pipeline on day one |
| Connects | Spend on the platform | Human-only under the default policy, in every agent mode |
Where it stops and a human starts
Spending stops with a person. Connects are money, and money is the one class the policy table never hands to an agent regardless of its mode. That line does not move.
Writing the proposal stops with a person today. The Bid agent is on the roadmap, and when it arrives it drafts into the approval queue like every other agent, because every external send starts in review.
Platform rules stop with you. Upwork's terms of service govern contact off the platform and SalesCrew does not route around them. The module is built to make the channel measurable, not to get clever with someone else's marketplace.
Questions
- Does it submit proposals for me?
- No. Proposals are recorded rather than sent, and connects are a human decision. The Bid agent on the roadmap would draft into the approval queue, not submit.
- Why can I not see the client's company name?
- The Upwork API blocks it. SalesCrew stores what the API returns and lets you attach a company or LinkedIn profile by hand, which is more useful than a plausible guess.
- Which tier includes marketplaces?
- Agency at $1,200 a month, which also carries data sources, the marketing module and all agents. Seats are unlimited on every tier.