Are Google going to increase their minimum bid?

When is it going up to 10 cents?

[1Lit]

After my business plans have been savaged by the likes of Overture increasing their min. bid rate by 1000% in two years, I was wondering if people think it is a good idea to rely to heavily on Adwords (or, for that matter, any internet company).

It is a very fickle industry and even companies with a decent reputation can change their attitudes when their managers are looking for a pay rise.

Is it sensible to rely heavily on Adwords? I myself will never put all my eggs in one basket anymore.

[chiyo]

no, that's not sensible. Advertising departments in organizations always are looking for new mediums and placement options. That's why the only reliable long term promotion plan is diversified through many media and placements. If one stops altogether or stops returning ROI or becomes too competitive, the other ones are still there. Dont just put all you money into the one with the largest ROI but intelligently allocate budget across a range. Thats the only way for long term survival in the ad market - on or off line.

From what i know of the Adwords system, increasing minimum bids is not as significant for their bottom line as it is for OV's auction type system. So i dont really expect them to change that soon - there are so many other ways to maximise their return!

[webdiversity]

The industry itself is not that fickle.

As the number of advertisers increase, the cost of technology to satisfy them increases also. It's only right that some of the cost of this is borne by the advertisers, otherwise we have a particularly bad service, non-existent account management and poor ROI.

In each industry minimum bids will rise according to the ability of a site to translate traffic into results. I know so many advertisers that have their bids grand-fathered at 5 cents but find themselves in 6th and 7th place with little or no traffic or results to show, whereas an increase to 10 or 11 cents will result in a much more prominent position and results to be proud of, it's just a false eceonomy in some instances to stay out of the game.