Bullying, A black Hat Adwords Trick?

Discussion about bullying technique

[milan oberoy]

I am about to start Adwords campaign for website. While referring the available tips (and so called tricks) online I came across Bully Technique in an Ebook.

What I understood from that ebook is....

person 'A' bids $2 for a keyword. That obviously make person 'B' think that it is highly bidded keyword and he can't afford to compete on that. BUT the fact is google will charge only increased amount of the current bid for that keyword i.e if B bids $2.10 then google will charge him $0.10 instead of $2.10.

How far its true?

[janharders]

erm, I've never heard of that and it wouldn't make any sense at all.

Are you sure you got it right? It'd make sense to "bully" someone out by bidding higher amounts so they drop the keyword from their campaign, then go back to reasonable amounts with less competition...

[milan oberoy]

Yes I've got it correct. Its exactly what i have understood.

[Philosopher]

Doesn't sound right. Google doesn't show you what other's are bidding so you would have no way of knowing what person A bid.

All G will show you is what is needed to be on the first page.

Add to that, the fact that G ranks on much more than just the max bid price what you described would be rather hard to do.

[poster_boy]

How far its true?

Sounds like the book was "published" in 2002 - and this chapter was in reference to GoTo/Overture.

[nudei096]

It is indeed a trick that is being and has been used. In case of adwords it takes a little bit of time for the keyword to run to be able to use this. Lets say you have been bidding $1 for a keyword for some time and it is being shown on spots 2-3. And you wish to be #1 consistently. You could bid $10 (lets say) for a few hours and see what are you being charged by google to get an idea of what the #1 spot is worth. If it suits your budget, go ahead and bid $50 or whatever and ensure that you are on #1 unless your competitor is willing to pay more than $50 (your bid) for that keyword.

PS: If your competitor is smart enough he can determine that you are bullying and bid just under your bid (lets say $45 in this case) and soon you will find yourself paying $45.xx for #1 spot which would definitely not be worth it). So its quite tricky and unless you are sure of what you are doing, I suggest you stay away from such techniques.

[smallcompany]

How far its true?

Not true at all.

It is indeed a trick that is being and has been used.

That has nothing to do with initial post where the idea is to pay the difference of 0.10 in case of #1 bidding 2.10 vs. #2 bidding 2.00

Today there is nothing linear in regards of Google AdWords.

In regards of the high bids in general, remember that an example of 50 vs. 45 falls under old category since AdWords update that has addressed maximum bids in the way where cost per click formula would take into consideration more the actual max bid then the max bid of the competitor below.
Plus, there is expected CPC for keyword on a certain position, meaning, even without competitors, you may be expected to pay $1 just to have your ad showing, even if your minimum bid is way less than that.
Or, you may get it showing but never in premium area, but on a side only which will "kill" your CTR and make your campaign baaaad.

Anyhow, let that idea go away from you.