webdiversity - 7:56 am on Jul 3, 2003 (gmt 0)

Espotting do have a "make me top" service which effectively amounts to maximum bidding, you decide the parameters of what you are prepared to pay and then it positions your ads at the highest position up to that level, and bids no more than a penny above the advertiser below you.

My view on this, if you have one, two or three advertisers all using this service then you end up in a swift rise to the maximum level and probably end up 3rd of 3 at a much higher price than you might have envisaged to start with.

It's also a paid service, so the more ads you want to manage the more it costs. I think it's £49 a month (£500 if you pay annually) for 1-499 keywords and tiered from that point upwards. Some would argue that the service would pay for itself in bid squashing, which it probably would, but it might be squashing bids at 50p to 49p instead of at a lower figure.