Cladson - 9:52 pm on Aug 10, 2007 (gmt 0)

If I remember correctly, this is the old way that Google used to consider placement for the top positions, and is the way they currently consider placement in all other positions; they use quality score x CPC Bid.

The original change was to ensure that keywords of poor quality or with low CPCs don't make it to the top spots, so the only way to get there was to have a good quality score plus a mid to high CPC.

They then realized that in some cases an advertiser with a good quality score won't be placed up there under the current formula since that advertiser may have a low CPC due to any or all of - that advertiser's high quality score, the other advertiser's low quality scores, or the other advertiser's low bid.

So they changed it. The solution: consider CPC bid, but still require a minimum actual CPC to stay up there.

Basically, the Adwords Discounter is no longer in effect for all positions.