Forum Moderators: martinibuster
I believe $50 per click is the max for Adwords.
I saw the max. CPC in AdWords is up to $100.
85 $ per click
What you have is the first position ad with max. CPC of $85. This max. CPC for the first position ad can be as high as $100 but the actual cost per click is much lower.
For example:
Ad position 1
Max. CPC=$85; CTR=5%
Ad position 2
Max. CPC=$5; CTR=2%
Ad position 3
Max. CPC=$5; CTR=1%
....
Actual cost per click
Ad position 2 --> actual CPC ($5*1+0.01)/2=$2.51
Ad position 1 --> actual CPC ($5*2+0.01)/5=$2.01
The above example illustrates that the max. CPC of $85 wasn't employed in the calculation. It means nothing. The max. CPC for the second or lower ranking may have some meanings which can indicate the level of ROI. These above actual costs are for search only. The actual costs for content sites with the same ads will be lower since number of ads in content sites is much smaller than the one from search network.
Hope you get the idea.
So, in this case, if you test the max bid in Adwords by placing your bid on a keyword and check your ads position, you won't get realistic result.