webdiversity - 12:32 am on Mar 17, 2004 (gmt 0)

An exercise in futility. When software is produced to "kill" your competitors, we are all in trouble.

It's all speculation as to what the $5 bid is in reality. It might be they have an unscrupulous agency managing it and to be lazy they just lock bids in at suicidal prices knowing that nobody would bid more than $5....... but along comes a "killer" and that $1 bid becomes a $5 bid.

Wthether you opt for software, as has been pointed out there will always be times that you are potentially vulnerable playing games. Even with human management, there is the time it takes to refresh a page, where things can happen, and often the bids you see in "More Bids" are different from the ones visible in the top 5, so what the "real" cost per click is going to be is anyone's guess.

Don't ego bid, not worth it, a well written ad at $1 will outperform the $5 every time.