Overture Bidding

I'm surrounded by idiots!

[martyt]

I was checking my listings on Overture today and found that I've been bumped way down in the stack by higher bidders.

But the thing that absolutley vexed me was the three high bidders on one keyword:

$6.00
$5.99
$0.74 (yes, 74 cents - the bids drop rapidly below that)

If I understand the bidding process correctly, the #2 bidder will pay $.75 per click but the #1 bidder will pay $6.00 -- is that correct? And if so, why would someone be so stupid as to bid that much?

[seth_wilde]

Yes you are correct.. People sometimes overbid in an attempt to intimidate the other listings from competing for the top spot (not thinking they'll actually have to pay their high bid).. I think pretty much all of the Overture management solutions have a feature to help combat this (keeping your bid .01 below, forcing them to pay, while minimizing your risk from the #3 spot doing the same to you)...

[itisgene]

If #1 guy is your biggest competitor bidding $6.00, you can piss him off by bidding $5.99.

You pay only $0.75 and your competitor pays $6.00 per click. If the keywords is medium traffic keywords, that competitor will see huge amount of invoice or credit card bills later...

[anallawalla]

If #1 guy is your biggest competitor bidding $6.00, you can piss him off by bidding $5.99.

No, that's the bid of the second guy who has been smart enough to jam the top bidder so as to deplete his budget. To jam the latter, the OP should bid $5.98 to make him pay $5.99 while you pay the figure just above $0.74. (wasn't clear where the OP's bid lies)

I think these situations occur when the other bidder uses some bid tool and specifies a max bid across the board, and when a cheap keyword comes up, a jamming war can take the combatants way above the norm.

(These are expensive games to play if you are not able to watch the bids closely)