Two days ago I checked and lo and behold the minimum bid has been removed completely.
Many thanks Google. In the first day we had 4 times more click throughs then before.
Has anyone else noticed other terms that have been reduced or was it only this one?
The reason for this was because of the CPM Adwords program that was stopped last year. There are still some advertisers running with that and so as not to disadvatage them the minimum CPC was introduced, but it's less of an issue and more easily avoided.
YOU ARE CORRECT. THE MINNIMUM BID IS DOWN.:)
Here is what I found:
Of the 20 Ad groups
7 of the 20 are now down to the minimum bid (.05)
6 of the 20 are down by 50% or more.
7 of the 20 remained unchanged for the most part
Assuming my traffic does not change the cost for my company has declined by more then 50%.
btw. If you do not go in and recalculate, adwords still charges you the old price.:(
The problem with Adwords is that costs for advertising on the keywords "website design" (for example) around the same as advertising for "website design New york", or even "website design mexico", given they they all are getting their .05 minimums. Targeting the customer more DOES NOT reduce costs like in overture.
Now as long as you have a high cost keyword in your terms, no matter what you do to refine or target that term in the "same line phrase" it never really becomes cost effective for say the guy selling in mexico where affordability is lower and prices are lower. Unfortunately adwords therefore do a very poor job at targeting and relevance for the surfer.
Its not only geographic. For example pick any keyword with a high click through rate. Then add say "ethics" to the phrase. Both terms cost around the same, but those advertising the first string are most likely selling high value and highly profitable products, while those using the second one are possibly a community service site with little budgets. When you search for "searchterm ethics", the guys who sell "searchterm" will usually be ranked first becuase they have higher max bids on the keywords, and the guys who sell "searchterm ethics" are left floundering around at the bottom - despite their better relevance.
/rant over.
Maybe with these min costs coming down, it may help the niche advertiser (and the surfer) a lot.
I set up my search terms and set them all to $0.05 initially. Many did not display, but within a month or two almost all were being shown. I beleive they must have some kind of system where adverts will display when under the minimum in certain circumstances.
I know how to set max bids etc. Id it a matter of trial and error reducing your bids and waiting for google to tell you that "...your ad will not appear under your keywords for some countries blah blah message?..."
Chiyo, just click through your ad group to where it says "view/edit" and then "modify price or keywords". If there is a minimum bid it will be indicated on that page. Usually the minimum will be just to cover the USA or Japan (in our experience).
You only see the minimum bid on a particular keyword, when your maximum bid (Current maximum cost-per-click) for the Ad Group is set lower that that keyword.
For example,
Your max bid for an ad group is $0.05, you enter a certain keyword, if that keyword's min is greater than $0.05, then it will be a note (in red) saying that the min bid for that keyword is $.10 (for example)
My explanation is probably confusing, but I hope it helps.
BTW, I have noticed many max bids dropped. My total adwords clicks have been going up a lot in this past two days.
One of our keywords still has a .75c minimum for the US :( and its not a traditional "money word" an also attracts very few impressions. It sure still remains a "funny" system.
Kind of good if your competition don't understand how it works though :)
Lots more competition will come in, like pawns to the slaughter, and even if they won't make the minimum click level, it will be harder for me to make it as one of a bigger group, and to not be stuck at the bottom or pushed off altogether I'll have to raise my bid.
This may not be that bad of news if you are clever enough, but this dip in prices is a bit like free crack, aimed to get you hooked.
The swarm has already started unfortuntely. The slot above me is now taken by a completely off-topic major company that apparently has put in a bid for most of the words in the universe. Bad news for the little guys with good ads.
Search and conquer is kinda hard when you're working against the whole of dictionary permuations.
oh well.
Maybe google[guy] could provide this info? hmmmm...
