Cost per Click Confusion

[Two Bass Hit]

Hopefully someone can explain this to me. I have set up an adwords campaign to promote a product. Several of the keywords I am targeting have a minimum bid of $1.00. What baffles me is, when I search google for these $1.00 per click keywords, only one adwords ad is displayed in the search results. No other paid advertising for the keywords exists in the G results. If there are only 1 or 2 people max buying adwords for these keywords, how can the minimum bid already be up to one dollar per click? These keywords don't have huge traffic either. Average is between 10-30k searches per month.

Thanks!

[jk247g]

It's because the quality score is so low on that KW that you have to pay a premium to be listed. Sometimes changing the match type will reactivate it but need to make sure you get some clicks to stay active.

[Two Bass Hit]

I'm pretty sure it's not the quality score of the ad itself. The minimum $1.00 per click was from the inception of the campaign, before I even had any ad impressions. Adwords would not show my ad at all unless I bid at least $1.00 per click.

[AdWordsAdvisor2]

Two Bass Hit,

When you are adding new keywords to an account, especially with a completely new account, your quality score will be based on the historical data that we have available for those keyword terms. If your Ad Group performs better than the historical average, you will see those minimum CPC bids come down appropriately.

AWA2

[bostonseo]

"If your Ad Group performs better than the historical average, you will see those minimum CPC bids come down appropriately."

Except that Google keeps aggressively changing the pricing algorithm so it's unlikely a new advertiser will ever see their CPC prices come down.

[Two Bass Hit]

AWA 2,

My adwords account is 2 years old. Would the age of my account still be a variable in this? (is 2 years considered a new account)? Also, does the monthly dollar amount I spend with adsense advertising have any effect in raising or lowering the quality score of these keywords? The quality score of these keywords apparently is suffering due to its history (lack thereof) It seems in the past not much $ has been spent on ads targetting these keywords.

Thanks much!

[jim2003]

AWA2,

Are you sure your reply is complet? My understanding is that it is possible the high cpc for a new ad could also be related to landing page quality score. And that even very high CTR's may never lower the CPC for a particular ad if it is being penalized for poor landing page quality.

[Two Bass Hit]

Jim2003

You could be correct in your assertion, (and it would be good to know if it is factual) BUT... the scenario I brought forward here doesn't involve the landing pages of my adsense ads. I raised this issue based on the fact that certain keywords I would like to bid on have (in my mind unjustifiable) high initial CPC's at the inception of the campaign. This is BEFORE any ad impressions are made, and before the "quality" of the landing page could be established. These keywords have relatively low traffic and there are no other advertisers bidding on them. No disrespect to you at all, but I'd like to keep this discussion focused on my original issue if possible. :-)

[bostonseo]

AdWordsAdvisor2 gave the Google answer from 2 years ago; unfortunately it's not reality anymore. In fact, over the last year my CTR rates have improved
every month and my prices have gone up every month.
And no it was due to new competitors in my space - it was due to Google continually 'asking'/'charging' more for every click.

Lower CPC prices when you achieve better Click Thru Rates - that's a good one :)

[jim2003]

Two Bass Hit,

I believe that when you put in a new ad, that when Google reviews the ad, it reviews it for an initial landing page quality score. For 100% identical ads and 100% identical keywords, except for the landing page, I get dramatically different scores when I start new ad groups. Even with no account history for the keywords.

[ronmcd]

For 100% identical ads and 100% identical keywords, except for the landing page, I get dramatically different scores when I start new ad groups. Even with no account history for the keywords.

True, but this happens now even if you DONT have different landing pages. Create 2 different ad groups with same ads, keywords, urls, and you can still get hugely different min cpc. Not every time, but often. Whats the difference? Ad group name? Like most things with adwords now, who knows.

This lack of visibility and apparent "random" element is what causes so much frustration, and frankly I have to come to the conclusion it's googles way of taking as much money as people will give them while still pretending everything is based on quality. Its not. Im sure the cpc for most new ads can be significantly improved with continual tweaking, using words & phrases google has history for, and building history, but even when this process does work its fairly random - how can advertisers be expected to spend heavily on something where the rules are unknown? Even by those who speak for google.... try asking a rep how to improve things and they cant give you anything beyond what awa2 said, and frankly that doesnt wash anymore.

Anyway Two_Bass_Hit, in theory the answer to your question is building history for those keywords in that ad group in that campaign, but it still might not work. In fact as mentioned it might get more expensive.

[AdWordsAdvisor2]

Yes, I apologize but my answer was less than 100% complete. The landing page quality for that Ad Group can effect your initial minimum CPC requirements. However, a low landing page quality is not a hard stop to lowering your minimum CPC requirements. It is another factor in the equation, but does not carry more weight than your CTR.

Two Bass Hit, to address your question specifically, the age of your account in days won't have an impact on your quality score, but the age of your account in impressions should. An account with a good historical history should see lower minimum CPCs than an account that has historical performed less than well, and potentially better than a brand new account depending on what the AdWords average performance is for your terms.

AWA2

[capercaillie]

ronmcd wrote
<<Create 2 different ad groups with same ads, keywords, urls, and you can still get hugely different min cpc. Not every time, but often. Whats the difference? Ad group name? Like most things with adwords now, who knows. >>

Being new, can I ask if this is permissible - to use the same keywords for different ad groups?
What happens when the ad triggers - do you get two ads from the same campaign showing on the search page, or does Google automatically filter one out?

[michaelhood]

caper,

google will show only one ad per account:keyword relationship on a given result page.

they'll show the one that makes them the most money.

[ronmcd]

Yes, as Michael says only 1 will show. But you can try the keyword in multiple ad groups and see which has a lower min cpc to activate, ie which (for whatever reason) google decides is the better "quality".

[Israel]

This has been my experience when using the same keyword in different Adgroups:

I don't know if this is a bug or a feature but for a few months, they'll show one ad on page 1 and another ad on page 2 for the same keyword during the same search. It does not appear to increase conversions and I potentially get hit for 2 impressions if they don't click either.

I mentioned it here a while back as did others.

I don't like it or want it to happen but it suits my testing needs to use different Adgroups which share some keywords.

Again, to the original poster, yes indeed you can use the same keywords in different adgroups if it suits your needs (as it does mine in certain cases).

Israel

Before someone asks, I have only one Adwords account