Google quality score and ad prices fluxuate randomly

[trotline]

I have a site that has a few Great and many OK keywords. This is an account that usually only runs up about 20.00 a day.

Occasionally one drops to Poor and I have to increase the bid 10-20 cents to turn it back on. It usually jumps up a few positions and gets more clicks when I do this. That is not what I want.

Google them reanalyzes it and adjusts it back to OK and drops the price again.

The problem is the ad runs up a 30-40 dollar bill during the period it takes for Google to update my ad costs so I can analyze the changes. And if I get busy and don't check for the adwords update the thing runs up a 100 dollar bill.

The conspiracy theory is that Google does this to increase revenue. By the time they update my costs they have made 30-40 dollars.

Is this algorithms gone wild?

Anyone else?

Trot

[TrafficGal]

interesting....have you tried setting a daily budget/or time frame?
Curious if this effects the outcome in any way.

[LifeinAsia]

What happens if you just leave it inactive. I've found that a lot of my keywords become active within 1-2 days without any intervention on my part. Your mileage may vary.

[trotline]

I was just wondering if any one else sees this and I guess the answer is yes. The QC moves up and down on most folks.

In answer to a couple of questions...
The budget does not seem to effect it. It is set very high so it will not hinder the flow of ads.

I have left it in place at the bid I set before the downgraded it and seen them run them even when the price was under the QS minimum. And yes they sometimes readjust back down to the level I had without me raising it.

I suppose I just took the bait and increased it, causing me a big hit and therefore them a revenue surge. Only a few take the bait but multiply that by Google and it's not chump change.

I try things just to see the effect and now I know what the deal is with this.

I for one will be glad when they quit turning the knobs at Google and let things settle down for a while. I have worked harder that I have worked in the last ten years of Interneting during the last 8 months. Why? Keeping up with the geniuses at Google who keep tweaking the algos.

"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro." Hunter Thompson

[TrafficGal]

yes i am also starting to suspect it's best to do less tweaking on things.....in regards to bids that is ...increasing the bids just plays into their greedy hands more often than none

[vinhboy]

its actually very very annoying that the QS randomly moves up and down.

i dont change anything and my QS changes.

its also weird to me that my competition can manage to maintain top positions. its not like they have better content than me. and i doubt they have a $5 minimum bid.

[narsticle]

I've found that a lot of my keywords become active within 1-2 days without any intervention on my part.

I wish this was the case for me. My experience seems to be in line with the original poster.

[karamkshetra]

I think it considers the daily spend and the max cpc as anyhow it will affect the impressions and clicks... which in return will affect on quality of the ad copy....