Max Bid or CTR?

Which has more influence on ranking?

[dedelus]

I am new to Adwords and have been testing it with my own site as well as affiliate links. Either case I can't afford to compete for top spots. So far I have found that when you bid low your position can be all over the place on a keyword that performs strong. Actually I am not sure if it performs strong but according to my account it does.

I have went in the span of a couple of days from position 6 to 15. In one more day to 70 something. I understand that I am in a very competitive market and I am bidding very low but that kind of variable in positioning is surprising. The keyword is still registering as strong. Overall I have a 0.5% click rate on this term. I know this is the minimum requirement for top placed ads but I am nowhere near the top.

The good news is that from the limited traffic I have had, the conversions are spectacular. I am wondering however, if it is possible to get a decent amount of traffic bidding 0.07 a click on terms that can go for $30 a click?

[brucec]

I am learning as I go along, but from what I gave gathered, you are writing ads that get people's attention. In other words, if you CTRs are high and you are receiving conversions, in spite of a low max CPC, then people are noticing your ad from whatever position it is located. Good job on that.

Now, the fact that your ad is ranging from 6 to 15 tells me that you are starting at a low max CPC like you said, but because of your high CTR, your "required" max CPC is going as you climb positions since Google ranks ads higher via high CTRs.

So, I must say I am impressed. Of course, if somebody disagrees with me, please say so, I can also learn this. If you agree with me, cool.

[eWhisper]

I am wondering however, if it is possible to get a decent amount of traffic bidding 0.07 a click on terms that can go for $30 a click?

That might depend on your defination of 'decent'. Can you get traffic - yes, will you get a lot - depends on what the other top 6-7 positions are bidding.

CTR & Max CPC figure equally into the placement formula, so neither is more imporntant, but its easier to manipulate Max CPC over CTR.