Trying to advance in the Rank!?

Near impossible

[bigdealio]

Basically, there's a keyword. There's a guy who's got a premium spot... he gets killer CTR and pays reallly low CPC. I could bid $10 a click , yet that does not push him from his position. He's paying a few cents. And my ad is actually better than his. I can't get a good ctr if my ad is down below and i cant get low cpc as a result and i cant advance even if i bid $10. Seems like the Adwords system is really #*$!ed up. How do I move up in the ranks?

[netmeg]

How do you know what he's paying?

[chief72]

The system rewards good performance history. That's the beauty of it. It is what inhibits advertisers with deep pockets coming in and running -ROI campaigns so as to wait out competitors and monopolize kwords.

How do you know what he's paying?

....or what his CTR is?

[Soze]

Are you an affiliate?

[bigdealio]

Yes, the reason he's untouchable is his performance history. So basically he monopolized the top spot. That's beauty to you? And yes, he's an affiliate, just like I am.

[bigdealio]

booooooooo

[Soze]

Out of luck I guess. Find another keyword. I guess you can keep trying, though you may get hit with some huge costs. Maybe his pockets are a lot deep than yours. BTW, how do you know he is an affiliate?

[bigdealio]

I know who that guy is actually :) Trust me I know.

[Soze]

Whatever. Good luck. Though you really have no clue what he is paying or what his CTR unless he told you.

[edited by: Soze at 10:30 pm (utc) on Aug. 2, 2006]

[chief72]

Yes, the reason he's untouchable is his performance history. So basically he monopolized the top spot. That's beauty to you? And yes, he's an affiliate, just like I am.

It's a subjective argument. I would think the person sitting in the top spot sees the beauty of it, as I do. It's what prevents upstarts with a few grand to burn kicking the s*#t out of long standing, high performing campaigns, heating up the market & inflating bidprices before p*#ssing off with empty pockets.

And my ad is actually better than his.

Why? You can't know that without split testing the copy. Even then the display url could be the difference.

With all due respect, it disturbs me that you seem to know so much about your competitors campaign ie. click price, ctr. I can think of no ethical method for acquiring this kind of information.

[Hipsoul]

Are there actually unethical methods for finding this information?
I've never seen them, short of hacking Googles servers...

...or doing a DNS lookup of competitors domain name and getting the street address,
pay him a visit, hold him hostage at gunpoint while you ransack his computer for the Adwords login and then spy on his account while he watches,
right before you knock him off so you don't get caught.

Is that what you meant by "unethical" chief? ;)

[chief72]

Nothing quite so sinister Hipsoul:D Consider perhaps a situation where someone has derived this information from a friendship, partnership or business relationship.

[Hipsoul]

I'll admit, BigDealio seems to know this guy pretty well...
SO well in fact, that he's asking us to trust him!

That's asking a lot from a room full of perfect strangers!
(Whatever you do, don't tell him your bid prices!)

:P

Don't be sweatin' the dude Dealio...
play by the rules (read: fix your site quality score) and you'll eventually get the second spot for a good price.

That's a better spot to be in anyway.

[edited by: Hipsoul at 6:36 am (utc) on Aug. 4, 2006]