"when you increase your bid, your ad will appear in new auctions"

Google's economist's latest research

[pavlovapete]

Hal Varian, Google Chief Economist publishes his latest research about position and conversion rate - his findings?

conversion rates don't vary much by position

[adwords.blogspot.com...]

These findings are interesting of course, but my eye was really caught by

when you increase your bid, your ad will appear in new auctions

What on earth do you think this means?

Any opinions, advice or speculation would be greatly appreciated.

[beesticles]

I assume he's talking about non-exact match keywords. When you increase your bid on a broad match keyword, it increases the likelihood of you appearing on more search queries (aka new auctions).

[pavlovapete]

OK thanks beesticles, that makes sense.

So I guess if your theory is correct he is not talking about exact or phrase bids?

[beesticles]

He could be talking about phrase too, but not exact.

[pavlovapete]

<sound of penny dropping />

thanks very much - helps a lot

[Rehan]

If you follow the link in that blog post, it eventually leads to [adwords.google.com...] where the question "Can a higher bid lead to more ad impressions?" is answered.