robertskelton - 11:15 am on Apr 29, 2005 (gmt 0)

BTW...

AWA says the algo has been in effect since Jan.

Any more recent increases in CPC could be be related to the new Budget Optimizer tool (other advertisers allowing Google to pump their max cpc) - especially if you hold a #1 position with a much higher max cpc than actual.

We have noticed this - especially where corporate advertisers have been using very vaguely related keywords.

Suddenly someone advertising pink widgets, previously at #7 for pink butterflies, is now at #1 or #2. And we are thinking - what idiots! They are costing us more to maintain position, but hey, it's a free world.