$.05 a click?

adwords won't let me

[madman21]

Google states that you can bid .05 per click for keywords.
It forces me to bid $.50 which is not cheap. Am I missing something simple? "Must be at least 0.5"

thanks

[Robsp]

Google always "suggests" a value (which typically gets you to the top spot). Just type what you want to bid in this field

[madman21]

Ok, say I type in 0.05 as a max CPC. I get red words stating the max CPC must be 0.5. Am I doing something wrong? How do I change the max CPC to 0.05?

[madman21]

well I e-mailed Google. Lets see what they say.

[Robsp]

comma"," vs dot "." issue?

[madman21]

I am using a period. It shows my daily budget as
40.00 SEK
CPC as SEK. Is that a currency? I couldn't find any info on google as to what it stood for. I am stationed in Japan but my billing info is a US address.

[madman21]

hmm .50 Sweden Kornor = .05 USD
Maybe that answers my question

[Robsp]

Yep,

SEK is the Swedisch crown. Good luck on Adwords and come back to the forum!

[madman21]

THanks for your help. I thought google was ripping me off paying a $50.00 activation fee. :P

[Shak]

I was watching where this thread was gonna lead :)

glad to see its resolved...

Shak

[colinirwin]

When you log into AdWords the 'Change Language' dropdown has an impact on the minimum bid you can place.

Col

[Robsp]

And another tip, if you are in europe but run a world wide campaign don't forget to select $ as your currency as it will save about 25% (depending on the xchange rate) on your adwords bill :-)

[JonBoy]

How's that Robsp? That's serious money!

[Robsp]

It only is when you spend your money in Euro's, so this our only advantage of the "low" dollar, a lower price on advertizing....

[madman21]

Anyone know if i can change my currency to USD via my account?

[Robsp]

I don't think you can as it is set when you start an account. Creating a new account is the only way I know, let me know if there are other ways..

[JonBoy]

It's more serious than I thought ...

If all your ads are at the minimum bid, you pay

In the UK
£0.04 min bid, plus 21% sales tax = £0.048

In the USA
$0.05 min bid = £0.027. No sales tax.

So minimum bids cost US-currency Us-address advertisers 56% of what they cost UK advertisers!

Have I made a mistake here, or is it time to run out and get my hands on a credit card with a US billing address?

P.S. Any idea why I can never get smileys to work? :)

[madman21]

You don't need one. Just reopen an account and use USD
I had to reopen mine to change my currency to USD. It really sucked :(

[JonBoy]

Adwords charge 21% VAT (EU sales tax) to anyone with an EU billing address (who does not have a valid EU VAT no).

If I want to avoid this, I need to get a credit card with a US billing address. I wonder if this is legit, or illegal VAT evasion?

[Robsp]

Just start a company and U will be able to deduct the VAT, that's no big deal.

[madman21]

Go to Netbank.com and open an account and get a check card. If you have any relatives or close friends in the states, you can us their address and have them forward the check card to you.

[JonBoy]

Robsp:
VAT registration would mean having to increase our charity's prices by 17.5%, not to mention the admin hassle. So definitely a BIG deal. Apart from Adwords most of our expenditure is on staff, so we would not be able to reclaim much VAT.

Madman:
Netbank could be a good idea, if our company credit card provider won't give a card to an employee with a US address (I'll have to check that out).