But I'm thinking one of 2 reasons.
The keyword you've picked is incredibly competive, and your competitors are willing to pay a huge premium on clicks.
You've just been hit by a google slap. Have you ever run any campaigns in the past that achieved a really low CTR? A bad account history could have triggered a slap.
Best thing to do is contact google about it.
made a new ad group just now, and the minimum bidding price is set to a whopping $8! Why is this? The keywords are highly relevant to the page in question (brand name actually)...
Not too long ago I posted with a lot of information on quality based bidding, Quality Score and minimum bid in a similar thread here on WebmasterWorld, which I think may be useful here as well. So I have copy/pasted it below - and hope that it'll prove to be of use to you.
For those who would like to more deeply understand the subject of Quality Score and minimum bids (the understanding of which is key to success with AdWords, in my opinion) I have linked to a bunch of topics from the AdWords Help Center below, as a good starting point:* Quality-Based Minimum Bids
[adwords.google.com...]Excerpting from that page:
[...] Minimum prices are based on the quality and relevance of the keyword, its ad, and associated landing page. This minimum price is called a minimum cost-per-click bid (CPC bid). This pricing model favors higher quality ads by requiring lower minimum CPC bids for them to enter the auction. Lower quality ads require higher minimum CPC bids."
* What is a 'Quality Score' and how is it calculated?
[adwords.google.com...]On the page linked-to below, you'll find some general guidelines regarding the creation of landing pages that could help improve your landing page quality score:
* Landing Page and Site Quality Guidelines:
[adwords.google.com...]Also, please be aware that there are some types of websites that will simply be difficult to advertise affordably with AdWords - as discussed on this page from the AdWords Help Center:
* Are there any types of websites that merit low landing page quality scores?
[adwords.google.com...]Finally for those who want to take a really deep dive into the subjects of quality based bidding, Quality Score, minimum bids, landing page quality and so forth, you will find literally dozens of pages of information, starting with the four links on this page:
* Ad Quality and Performance
[adwords.google.com...]
AWA
