Recently I find myself unable to get my ad to show. I can bid up to $100 and not get my ad listed. This really pisses me off that people can take advantage of the system like this.
I see the exact same person on top in the blue box for 99% of all keywords I try. He uses the exact same description for each, and just changes the name of the site.
Because Google has given me no help with this issue, I have developed my own solution. I create ads that gets a rather weak ctr of a few percent. I then change these ads to be totally irrelevant to the keyword and use different domains and set the campaign budget to something like 5 dollars. I then proceed to make my max cpc $1-2.
Do you think this person is paying above $1 per click? I have some ads set to $5 per click and I still show up below this person. I have done this with keywords that have gotten, from my experience, several hundred clicks/day.
I don't see how it is possible for someone to sustain such prices. He would have to make thousands per day just to break even.
Does Google watch accounts that are spending thousands of dollars per day? It seems very fishy that someone could afford to keep ads up when I am bidding such amounts. If they converted 1:100 for me with a $35 payout, they would have to convert 1:35 at worst for him. Something just doesn't seem right here.
I always seem to pay above what the ad below pays, so shouldn't he be paying above my max cpc?
a) I think that if you're bidding on the same URL as that guy, then even though you may have the second best Adrank of all the advertisers, Google is NOT considering you the second bidder. Basically, if you're not the top dog, then you're not even considered in terms of how you affect his click price. (The advertiser with the number 2 Adrank does directly impact no. 1's clickthrough rate, although it's a complicated formula). So, simply put, no -- your $100 bids aren't having any effect at all on him. The guy who shows up second -- his bids are, but your aren't.
b) I've speculated that this advertiser is an Adwords employee, but that's just speculation. I've also read that the new rank formula takes into account the history of an account, and this guy's account is very old, and he was one of the first ones out there using Adwords to advertise adult sites. That's what's carrying him now, in terms of Adrank, in my opinion.
c) The sad truth is that Adwords couldn't care less about affiliate advertisers, because they represent such a small sliver of their customers. And they care even less about adult affiliate advertisers, because -- well, the same reason no big company ever sticks their neck out for adult entertainment of any sort.
-- Slam Thunderhide
That makes no sense.
If he is ranked higher, and by ranked I mean that both ads are shown and his is above mine, shouldn't he be paying somewhere near my max cpc?
If my ad is in spot two and his is in spot one, and I am bidding $10 per click, shouldn't he be paying a very high ammount?
Because his CPC is set at $100 and has had a almost nonexistant amount higher of a CTR, I can never do anything to compete. I have monthes worth of clicks at %38 and now some nobody can come along and take my spot.
Their engineers a retarded. How can they let such a simple exploit go uncorrected?
I should just go to every keyword I want and set my CPC to $100. No one can bid higher and all I need to do is get a decent CTR for a day and voila.
I am tired of talking to these useless reps. Is there anyway to contact someone other than their generic unhelpful tech support?
If you competitor is crazy enough to bid high and not make money, then bad luck. I am not sure what you expect Google to do for that. Take heart that at some point in time, the truth will dawn on your competitor and have him lower his bid.
Because his CPC is set at $100
They told you the other advertisers max CPC? If not, how do you know?
How else could he be promoting the site and outrank $90+ dollars?
This persons ad came out of nowhere. I had been top rank at a mere $.50 max cpc. Next day comes along, I am gone, I raise my ad to 5, 10, 25, 50, and 95 and still dont show.
So even if my ad is sending traffic to www.website.com and his is sending traffic to www.otherwebsite.com, his cpc isn't influenced by mine? That makes no sense.
If you are advertising different domains and yours shows up below his, then yes your CPC, amoung other things, does effect the CPC he will end up paying.
If he is ranked higher, and by ranked I mean that both ads are shown and his is above mine, shouldn't he be paying somewhere near my max cpc?If my ad is in spot two and his is in spot one, and I am bidding $10 per click, shouldn't he be paying a very high ammount?
How else could he be promoting the site and outrank $90+ dollars?
Not necessarily as his CPC is only partly a result of your CPC. If his ad has a high CTR, he may actually be appearing above yours and paying a lower CPC than you - regardless of whether his max cpc is higher than yours or not. For more info you can view the following tutorial:
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I dont see why people competing for the same domain can't influence cpc. What good is max cpc if you can set it to infinity (infinity because it is the highest possible and unbeatable)? Most affiliates probably don't realize what is happening and just think that the ad above them is simply out ranking them (which it is).
I make a pretty penny from adult affiliate programs and I know that no adult paysite affiliates would dare pay over $1 per click. Most payouts are $35 tops, and convert at a rate of about 1:80 from targeted SE traffic. Because of this, I doubt you'll find many people that bid above $.15-.20.
My best program is having the best month ever and converting 1:41 and netting roughly $.60 per click on a keyword with 0 competition in sponsor links and SE results.
Most others are considered to be doing well at about $.20 per click. Obviously paying $.15 per click mean making hardly any money. So unless they are simply trying to burn a hole in the competitions pocket, they won't set their cpc so high.
Now back to the $100 bid. By bidding $100, he will most certianly jump to the top listing, once there his ad will probably go to the top blue links. Once there it will obtain the highest CTR that is possible with the keyword. Once that happens, no new ad will ever be able to outrank him.
While it would be theorhetically possible to acheive a higher CTR, we all know this won't happen. Nearly all top ads have better CTRs for obvious reasons. My ad on the side bar did about 4%. When in the second or third blue box position, they were about 8-10%. The top ad did 40%.
So the main problem with this $100 max cpc is that it can make the ad near unbeatable. Given realistic statistics, the ad will in fact be unbeatable due to the highest CTR for the keyword and a bid that is only matchable.
I know this is a long read, but I think it was worth typing.
Not necessarily as his CPC is only partly a result of your CPC. If his ad has a high CTR, he may actually be appearing above yours and paying a lower CPC than you - regardless of whether his max cpc is higher than yours or not. For more info you can view the following tutorial:
YEah, I understand that is possible. My cpc ranked below him was coming in about about $.12 while bidding $50. I can understand how the quality score could make a big difference if it was low, but I don't see how my score could so low that he would be paying less than my bid or me for that matter, with a 38% CTR. That is pretty darn good from my experiemce.
While tech support didn't tell me my quality score, they did say my CTR is very strong.
Also I think I remember reading AdWords wieghts the more recent impressions over impressions from awhile back so while your overall CTR for a keyword may be 38%, it may be, and is very likely if its position has dropped, to be lower CTR more recently.
In the mean time, you both run the risk of actually paying a much higher CPC during this time frame and trust me it is not pleasant to wake up login and see you just paid $75 CPC or greater for a keyword that normally is below $1 CPC. But that is the risk you take in order to compete for some keywords.
So if I bid $100 on a term and leave it their for a bit and get a real good CTR I can then lower the bid and be unbeatable.
no, the problem is that they dont lower it and it makes it very very difficult for you to obtain a ctr comparable to their because they are the top and and have the max you can bid.
I tend to try and screw those who do it by making ads that have a $5 or so max cpc then leave it up for a while. i find that the other guys ad disapears fairly quick. However, I only do this while I am at home working/monitoring stuff. I wouldnt dare leave with it at $5. I also use campaigns with low limits. Its a risk, but if it screws the guy who thinks his 100 bids are going to fly, I am satisfied.
