increase my bid slowly ?

[tonynoriega]

so im bidding on a "keyphrase" and am ranking about 3.8..

i could probobly increase the CPC bid by 2-3 more us dollars.

obvioulsy i dont know where the top bidder stands.

QS is 7/10 for this keyphrase.

should i step up my bid by .50 cents a week and see where i stand? or shoudl i just drop $3 on it and see where i stand?

[buckworks]

You could do it either way, but when you've already got pretty good visibility from ranking 3.8, my preference would be to work up to higher bids by incremental increases.

Watch your conversion rates and cost-per-conversion every step of the way. Sometimes the highest positions attract more "curiosity clicks" so they're not necessarily more profitable.

Look for ways to improve your quality score. Improving your QS can have just as much power as bidding more. If you've identified a certain phrase as an above-average performer, consider moving it into its own ad group and match it with ads that are fine-tuned for that term.

[RhinoFish]

you may not be bidding for ROI (rather exposure / branding), but i think this video is great food for thought regarding adjusting your bid:
youtube.com/watch?v=jRx7AMb6rZ0

youtube description: Our Chief Economist, Hal Varian, explains the how to adjust your bids to maximize the profit from your marketing investment on AdWords.

[idolw]

Is there really no chance to improve the QS?
I noticed the QS really makes a huge difference.