A logical explanation needed here please

CTR going through the roof, low ads and high CPC!

[Mtlinfo]

Can some give me a logical explanation for this one here.

I tried a new Ad Group today and out of the 6 keywords I have in the ad group, I have 3 keywords that have a 6%, 7% and 12.56% CTR. Not bad for my 1st Ad group.

The other thing is that i'm in a niche that has no competitors with just 7-8 Adwords ads on the right side.

Now this is what I don't get. Adwords still wants me to bid a Max CPC of $0.45 for each one of those 3 hot keywords to reactivate them if I bid under that!

Why?

My CTR is HIGH and there are only 7-8 ads so why charge me 45 cents each click when I could be listed on page 1 for 5 cents or less?

Is Adwords even more greedy than Yahoo or what?

Or is it just a matter of time before Adwords notice my high CTR and let me lower my Max CPC?

In other words, how can you guys manage to pay 3, 4 or even 5 cents for each click? I just don't get it.

Also, what is this stupid "improve your quality or bid higher" message when my 3 keywords contain the keywords used in the search not only in the headline, the descriptions lines and EVEN the URLs?

Sorry for all the questions but I don't understand the logic behind paying high CPC when there is no competition at all and where my ads have a high CTR like that.

Thanks

Rick

[sagerock]

"7-8 Adwords ads on the right side" sounds like a decent amount of competition to me.

What is your actual cpc? Sometimes we set our max bid really high but we don't pay it. So it's possible you might not have to pay that high rate. You just have to be willing to do so.

[Mtlinfo]

yeah but I know that with my high CTR ad I could beat those guys hands down by being listed last at 1 penny.

I don't care about the competition, I don't even want to start a bidding war here, I just want to be placed the last one for $0.01 and I know my ad will take it from there...

Man 12.56% CTR, can you imagine! You would have told me I could reach this level 2 days ago and I would have laughed.

AWA said in another thread that it's because of the @#$% QS.

I started it at $1.10 because I couldn't get it lower than that. Then when the hits started to arrive, I noticed I could drop it to $0.45 but because of the low QS of my affiliate landing page, I can't seem to make it drop lower.

Any suggestions?

Rick

[edited by: Mtlinfo at 7:57 pm (utc) on Feb. 20, 2007]

[Pengi]

How do your key words relate to your landing page, and what is the overall value of your site / landing page to the user?

These issues are much more important in determining the Quality Score and minimum bid than the CTR for your ad.

A minimum bid of 0.45 suggests your QS is poor - is this backed up by the campaign summary Ad Group Keyword page (select the optional "show QS" column.

[sagerock]

That is a great CTR. Is $.45 what you are actually paying? I do kind of miss the days of just paying what you wanted to pay. This whole QS makes that pretty much impossible anymore.

[Mtlinfo]

Ok, I decided to post my campaign info because I don't think I will get back in this niche again and I need to know what went wrong.

Now if you can see where the bug is, please let me know, because I don't have a clue. The keywords Bass Fishing is everywhere (keywords, headline, description lines, URL, content page, etc...).

The keyword was:

[Bass Fishing] ---> kick a** 12.56% CTR

The Ad was:

Bass Fishing Secrets
Learn Hot Bass Fishing Secrets And
Catch More Fish Than Your Friends!
BetterBassFishing_com/Secrets

The landing page was:

BetterBassFishing_com (with my ClickBank Aff# at the end)

There was only 7-8 Adwords Ads and the minimum CPC was $0.45 to reactivate.

Thanks for your explanations because I really don't get this one!

Rick

[edited by: Mtlinfo at 2:34 am (utc) on Feb. 21, 2007]

[makee]

It is a new group, it normally takes 2-week time for building the history to lower CPC.