I'm sure there's a thread here about this (but I can't seem to find it)...but I have a site that any keyword I put in; there is a $10 minimum bid. I've improved my site; nothing has changed. Furthermore, I called google for help and they couldn't give me any advice on how to get my minimum bids down to normal levels.
what can I do to get my bids lower? is there someone i can pay offline to fix up my site?
i really wish google would give some direction. they say i should just put more content on my site (which i did). I can't make any site out of this.
Any pointers would be appreciated. I'm willing to hire a pro to fix this if neccessary.
Thanks,
Kevin
Nobody can help you much without seeing your site first. At the same time, per my knowledge, this would not be a place where you could point people to your site (which is totally understandable), so they can reply to you with their thoughts.
Still:
- if you are able to forget the fact that you own and run your site, would you see any value in it (your site) when you compare it to your competitors?
- what do you do with that site? Sell your own stuff, or of other companies - meaning, are you an affiliate?
- have you used Google AdWords for that particular site before, or you just started and got hit right away?
- what is your PR? How do you do in a world outside of PPC? (some may argue PR does not matter today)
Please keep in mind that any content may mean nothing to Google. It is more about why your site is out there, is there a reason why would people check on it.
In addition, being hit by minimum bids seem to be very hard to correct – based on some “hear say”, only few were successful to get minimum bids off their back.
I have a feeling that this is one of the many Google AdWords related topics that hasn’t been discussed in a way that would reveal real facts about quality score.
Sorry about reply that does not give much, still, I am pretty sure that points I’ve listed above are enough to give you something to think about.
Good luck!
You might try leaving all your keywords in at the bids you want for a while, even though they're inactive, and try activating just one keyword (one of your more important ones) for a day or two at the high cost (put a low daily budget on it) and see what happens.
I think with Google's announced purchase of Double Click for 3 billion 20 dollar bids may soon replace the 10 dollar ones. The money has to come from somewhere.
Google has plenty of money. It doesn't need to fund its purchase of DoubleClick with artificially high minimums that advertisers aren't really paying (and which were introducd as a polite way to get low-QS advertisers to clean up their acts or head for the door).
I just hope I don't have to start off back at sqaure 1 with a whole new domain. my site is a PR 4 by the way, and it does OK in the natural search. I realize PR 4 isn't the best..but I'd like to think a PR 1 would warrant $10 minimums, not a PR4.
I wish google would help me. i have compared my sites to the competition I know my site is better then most.
The site has been at $10 minimum bids for awhile; since their 1st day of the Google QS. I'm a full time affiliate marketer. I may be the only person to say this but; I don't really need Google right now. Yahoo and MSN pays my bills. HOWEVER, I would still like to straighten out Google so I can advertise there. I just have a hard time investing my time into a service that won't help me.
Again I urge you to actually join and spend money on Adwords then give us your opinion.
At no point has Google stated that they introduced this “as a polite way to get low-QS advertisers to clean up their acts or head for the door.” What we can say factually is all over the Internet people are reporting these astronomical bid increases when they’ve never reported them before. If Google really wanted to rid the system of MFA or Adword abuse they could simply shut down the programs for these sites. Since they’ve never made any great effort to control abuse with Adsense I’m not going to say they’re doing so in other programs. A price increase is a price increase. You either increase costs to make more money or because your expenses require you to do so. There can be other reasons but those tend to be the main ones.
I mean what is quality? Has Google been able to define it with advertising when nobody on this planet has ever been able to do so.
If Google really wanted to rid the system of MFA or Adword abuse they could simply shut down the programs for these sites. Since they’ve never made any great effort to control abuse with Adsense I’m not going to say they’re doing so in other programs. A price increase is a price increase.
I wasn't aware that we were discussing AdSense, so why introduce that red herring?
As for why Google has implemented high minimum bids instead of simply banning advertisers with low QS scores, that's easy:
1) Why ban customers when you can give them incentives to change their behavior?
2) Raising a minimum bid (which can be reduced if the customer's PS meets Google's standards in the future) is less final, less cruel, and less controversial than saying "You're fired."
Mind you, if anyone can demonstrate that the majority of adevrtisers who have been hit by $10 minimum bids have accepted that "price increase," I'll eat my words. :-)
Simple way to find out whats going on - create a new ad in a new ad group with YOUR url, but ad copy based on your COMPETITORS (who presumably arent paying $10).
Leave it paused, you dont actually want to copy others and run it live, but you do want to see how much of a difference your ad copy is making, and how much its down to your specific site.
ie you are testing an ad you know works, but with one change - your url.
