keyword quality score is great which means I get into the auction stage easily.
to show in #1 spot I have to bid approx. £15 for this keyword, but when its clicked on it costs me only £8.
if i bid £8 I only show about 6 or 7th. why cant I bid £8 and show in position 1?
Try running a search query report for that adgroup, and see exactly what position your ads are showing, and also notice the actual search queries that are triggering those ads.
one for auction to get position determined
one to calculate the actual cost per click
I think that this is a sickness of all PPC engines, at least of the three major ones.
If you go and try MSN or Yahoo, and use their estimate tool that shows you how much you need to bid for position #1, you'll see (many times) recommended bids like $57, $34, $67 and so on… while the estimated cost per click is much lower. IN order to really see how much would it be you have to take a chance.
I completely understand you where you are coming from and agree with you. We are “in the black” as this is not really a way that we could base our business on.
After several years in this business I’ve figured that, while being quite successful, all was (and still is) a big GUESS.
I’ve also figured that THAT big GUESS was actually a key to a success of companies like Google.
Please note that I am not arguing with the fact they are doing a good job on technology side. They DO deliver good traffic which converts, otherwise we would not be having our ads out there.
BUT… we are all still in the black, you are right.
Remember that Google AdWords is an animal with no head or tail… nothing to catch it for. Still they are the best among big three. Personally I found that MSN is charging much more for positions #1 on same keywords. The key is that Google (somehow) is able to keep it as a kind of market driven price which means you have space to make positive ROI. With MSN, I found many campaigns on negative side so I shut them down, even on trademarked terms which have (in very most cases) been converting well.
Still we have no control over it which is the biggest glitch. We SHOULD have control se if we get charged $7.65 for firm #1, why we are not able to bid $8 or $9 but have to bid $16?
one advertiser has set a BIG maximum CPC on a keyword. to rank above them in the 'position auction' that you suggest, I have to match their huge bid.
now that my bid has got me into position 1, google looks at my quality score and finds out that it is really great, so only charges me half of my max CPC.
anyone have any thoughts on this?
impression action
and
click action
At the same time, all factors that would play a role in position determination process, they also would play a role in cost per click determination process, too. No brain to resolve it, really.
At the end, the whole thing is like an amoeba, one cell only, changing its shape all the time, yet nothing to catch for.
You have to test and see how it goes. If it works you leave it and watch it. You know how much you spend and you know how much you earn, so your ROI is known.
This what you’ve questioned – big black… …and it works well for Google, even if they did not plan it, honestly. So many times we had situations like yours where you bid high, you pay low, on exact matches only. Then you go with phrase and, uuupsss, man it would drain you out if you let it go, big time.
Click here, click there, times who knows how many billions…
...sounds more and more like there's a couple formulae at work in determining where we actually show up.
