Say I set up a campaign (not real term or prices shown here) with two phrases " pizza delivery" and "pizza delivery London". Google suggests that I should bid £0.5 for "pizza delivery" and £0.1 for "pizza delivery London" to achieve the most clicks.
I decide that I do not want to bid for "pizza delivery" as I am only interested in the London customers.
Ok so I run the campaign and the ad is not showing I am being outbid by all my competitors using broad matching on "pizza delivery". To get the ad to show I have to increase the bid to £0.5
Surely this is grossly unfair as I have specified a specific phrase/exact match and bid at a level that google its self suggests.
Is this Google trying to increase profits or is it me being and idiot and not understanding the system.
Few things will empty your pockets faster than getting into a bidding war with someone who doesn't know how to calculate ROI (return on investment). It's usually better to outsmart them than to outbid them.
If your ads and your targeting are better than theirs, the system will eventually favour you for that and you'll start to rise in the ranks even without bidding more.
In several cases, I've seen this happen too. It seems to devalue the long tail terms and reduces the quality of the results by broadening detailed queries.
Do you think that this strategy would work even if the ad is appearing way down the list, i.e off the first page?
It doesn't work instantly, but as long as your ad is getting a better than expected CTR for the position it's in, the ranking algo will give you credit for that. How much (or if) you moved up would depend on how aggressively your competitors were bidding, but fine-tuning your targeting and testing some ad variations will usually be enough to start nudging you upwards.
If your targeting is good and your site converts well, it may be worthwhile to raise your bids. But raise them because it's productive to do so, not because you've been seduced by the ego trip of beating your Evil Competitor.
It's true that someone bidding aggressively on broad match will indeed come in ahead of folks who have specifically selected long-tail terms. If they can make money doing that, they'll keep doing it, so you have to carve out your own reality. That's why it's so important to base your bids on your own ROI.
That's why it's so important to base your bids on your own ROI
I still think it is strange that the default matching is "broad match". Surely if the quality of results was what goolge desired this would not be the case but I guess they are in it to make money like the rest of us.
1) Bid enough to get on the first page.
2) Make sure your add copy includes the "London" target in the text.
3) Wait for your ctr to beat the other broad match bidders.
4) Dial back your bid.
Of course, this is if you can AFFORD to increase your bid for a short time.
This is an accelerated way to make things happen. You can always just wait for "nature" to take it's course but it may take longer. Still, the advice of the other poster is sound, base your spend on your own ROI.
