What is a relevant ad?

Can you confirm this?

[Dr_X]

I don't know where I got this insane idea, but I thought I read somewhere that when your ads are more relevant, and have more clicks, that the cpc would get cheaper and I can hold on to position for less.

It seems that I'm now able to get my existing, high ctr words to a lower bid, but if I set them that low, they get no impressions. Or if they do, they're on page 3 gazillion.

For example, I had some words that would not activate unless I bid a dollar, so as a test, I said, what the hell, give Google a dollar. It put my ad in the number one spot (wasn't looking for that, but thanks). After a few days of being up there and getting clicks charged to me at about .50 to .75 cents each, I tested to see how low I can set them. First I set to one penny below what I'm being charged. I thought I would slide an appropriate position or two. Instead I end up somewhere in BFE with position 15 - 20 or so.

If that's the way it's supposed to work, why bother with saying "minimum bid is .03 cents"? Why not say "if you want this word to work, it will take 75 cents ... period"?

I guess what I'm asking is, what's wrong with a high relevant ad with 5% ctr and keywords that have no less than 5% ctr but requires bids of 75 cents or more to stay on the first page? What am I doing wrong? Please confirm if high ctr and high relevance will allow lowering the bid without losing possition.

Thanks for any help.
-Dr.X

[edited by: eWhisper at 4:14 am (utc) on Sep. 27, 2005]

[mhhfive]

Is it a dumb question to ask: how competitive is your field? Perhaps just as you lowered your bids.. other ads jumped in? Or did you return your ads to the higher bids and get right back at the top?

[HitProf]

I don't know how or why it works this way, but I've experienced the same thing. My ads cost let's say 50 for a certain keyword. Max cpc is 100. I lower the max to 75 and the keyword goes invalid. I raise the max to 100 again and get my clicks for 45.

Seems to make no sense at all to me, this is just one example. I've even seen keywords in campaigns with the Budget Optimizer go invalid.

Positions and prices have overall been better so far since the new system so I'm not too unhappy. It just doesn't make sense.

[Dr_X]

Is it a dumb question to ask:

There are no dumb questions.

how competitive is your field? Perhaps just as you lowered your bids.. other ads jumped in? Or did you return your ads to the higher bids and get right back at the top?

I stand corrected. You're full of dumb qustions.
LOL, Just kidding. :-P

I don't think my feild is competitive. I mean, the product I sell, there really is only a few companies that can claim they do what we do (they're wrong ofcorse, heh-heh;). I think if the effect I'm seeing is because of the competition, then they are over bidding and I'm just having to deal with their incompetance.

And yes, when I return my bids to a dollar, my rank goes back to top place.

What bugs me is this: Right now, one of my keywords, let's say [widgits are us], I'm bidding one dollar for. When some one clicks it, I'm charged .74 cents. That gives me the impression that I could have been bidding .74 cents and I'll keep the rank I'm currently holding. But if I lower my bid to that, my ad ends up showing at about position 12. That sux. If I go to .73, my ad is no where to be found and if I wait a few hours for G to update their stats, (while not getting sales I might add), it eventually shows me ranking in the 20's. What's that? Page four? Pretty wild too since the majority of the competitors ads that are showing on the first page have little to nothing to do with the [widgits are us] key words. Like I'm being penalized for having a highly targeted ad like google has been preaching for us to do. I've placed irrelivent keywords in my adgroup and got three cent minimums AND THEY SHOW ADS!

it's like a sick joke. o_O

-Dr.X