This might have been Larry and Serge's intent but it's no longer in affect! The minimum bid allow in my countries currency (ZAR) is 0.40
I play in a band called Cutting Jade. I set up a campaign to take people straight to our profile on our booking agent’s website so they could book us for gigs. The first day the impressions were good and when I tested the keywords my ads showed almost every time.
The following day figures changed drastically and all my keywords were flagged as being below first page bid prices. But when you search 'cutting jade' there are no ads running at all so the cheapest possible rate should still be the highest bid.
I am accusing Google that they predetermine an amount they would like for advertising instead of what people are really willing to pay for it. There is therefore no true bidding but price fixing based on the popularity of the search. In essence on top of the minimum bid price Google is placing its own hidden reserve and if you don’t meet it your ads don’t get displayed or are put on very low rotation.
Nobody else is advertising 'cutting jade' in South Africa so every time I search it that ad should appear, but it doesn't.
I cry foul and have lost a lot of respect for Google. The cliché rings true that absolute power corrupts absolutely!
On the first day of my campaign impression were 1136, the second day after all the ‘below first page estimate’ tags 52 impressions.
Proof that if you don’t give Google what they want even though nobody else is using the keyword your ads don’t get displayed.
the ad is for the band Cutting jade and ad reads
Book Cutting Jade
Get one of SA's top original bands
to rock your venue or event today!
www.authenticideas.co.za
There are one or two kewords that are flagged for quality score but most of them including 'cutting jade' is marked as below first page bid yet nobody is advertising cutting jade so everytime that is searched in South Africa it should show.
It is their system and they run it as they want. You need to play by their rules.
Cheers..
It's rigged an unethical
could be something else, but knowing the QS could confirm or eliminate that as an issue.
My point is it worked and then once google analised it and decided based on what those words key words that they earn X amount from in the rest of the world that unless I comply with their requested pricing even though nobody in my country is running those keywords my ads don't even get displayed.
My piont is google is artificially inflating the cost per click up from the minimum possible bid. My point is that if nobody else in my country is bidding on that key words then the lowest possible bid is the highest and should be shown everytime there is a search.
They may use fancy terms to describe it..but 1 cent clicks on SEARCH are very very rare.. ( I always try to qualify this kind of statement because -someone- is going to and say they get 1 cent clicks regularly on SEARCH..but that is a real real exception).
And YOU never really get to know, who else is bidding on the keyword.. Yes.. I know, you can't find the ads.. but your view may be skewed..the advertiser may not be advertising with a big budget.. or not advertising at all times of the day.. etc etc..
"Your actual CPC will continue to be determined by the auction, but subject to a minimum price for top spots. "
In short it means if your price bid doesn't match our price for a topspot and even if there is nobody else in your country advertising on that keyword we will not show your add.
Google is busy inflating CPCs accross the board by setting it's own mark for first page bids and not letting it be determined by what people are actually bidding.
My point is this if there is only one bid on a keyword it should be shown. But google has determined it's own value for it and if you do not match that regardless of what your bid is your ad isn't shown even if there is nobody else bidding.
Even if I do a search on one of the keywords where my ads was shown on the first day and then do a search now there are consistently only two ads shown. The same two ads.
There is still plenty of space for my ad and it shuold be shown even if my bid is half as low as the other two.
It's really is extortion and not ethical.
I don't know about South Africa, but I have done extensive work with bands here in the US for over twenty years (including internationally touring bands) and AdWords isn't usually a good match for them. Band names can make a hard job harder.
You might do better with MySpace and/or Facebook, if you're not already there.
To Google placing an ad in a specific location has a minimum value to them. Your ad being on the first page with the other two ads draws clicks away from those ads. If the other ads have significantly higher bid rates than yours, Google would be reducing their net revenue for that search term by allowing your ad to show up on the first page along side the other ads. Would you sell an ad slot that resulted in you earning less money overall than if that ad slot remained empty?
With that said, advertising on the term "cutting jade" may not be your best route to getting bookings. For this search phrase you should be working on the SEO of your site so that it shows up on first page of the organic search results in your country.
In regards to AdWords advertising, what you need to do is find key phrases people would use who are looking to book acts for their venues and focus on those words. This will give you an opportunity to introduce your band to people who have never heard of you.
If you are targeting your band's name with an AdWords campaign you are only going to bring in people who are already looking for you. This is akin to hiring someone to hand out fliers promoting your business to people who are coming through your door.
Just because there isn't a bid on a keyword you pick means you get it of whatever you feel you should get it for, nor does it mean your keyword will show...Google has a set minimum in the system to display a bid based on the number of seaches..If your search term is so obscure it will not show up.
There is an expense to showing ads and Google will not show ads that won't cover that expense based on # of times the keyword terms are searched and or be displayed.
This isn't price fixing it is covering expenses.
Of the 1000 impressions how many clicks did you get? How is the account set up Broad Terms or Exact Match Country Specific, Geo targeted etc.
I know there is nothing I can do about it but, I still think this is highly unethical
People don't have a *right* to advertise on Google. That seems to be a common misconception.
The other thing is that you say the landing page is your booking agent's page. Is there any mention of Cutting Jade on it? I somehow doubt it. Therefore you are likely getting hit with poor keyword relevancy. Fix that by creating your own page and providing booking information that links to your agent's page.
I also would not use Cutting Jade as your keyword. Are you a famous, well-known band? Maybe, you have a Wiki entry. However, you don't want those that know and type only your name. If you are looking to get hired, people are going to search on something like "want to hire a band". So if you are not bidding on that type of keyword, you are not looking at the big picture. Don't bid on "cutting jade" but "cutting jade band" which is more accurate.
The 1000 impressions you had the first day, only some may have been looking for you, the band, the others for the process. I'm guessing too you were using the content network which inflated your numbers. So check your keyword relevancy, likely poor. Check your QS, probably very low which means you are not targeting the people you want. Once you fix that, your quality will be better and your costs will go down.
I have included terms like
Parlotones
Prime circle
south african music
sa music
band booking
band hire
cutting jade
10 seconds
etc etc.
all of these are very relevant keywords and on the first day they worked very well untill the google algorithms got hold of them and then nothing! they wouldn't even get impressions until I matched what their algorithm and inflated values specified.
The landing page is a dedicated cutting jade page with our booking agents the most logical place to send people for bookings.
I did'nt make the content network active as in the past with other campaigns I found it useless for conversion.
My point is it worked great on the first day then Google's algorithms got hold of it and F*ucked it up. Now it gets no impressions what pisses me off is that is workedgreat till they decided yes you can do well just pay us more.
Google's new ad strategy is simply this, "just pay us more!" They have become greedy and that is what pisses me off.
People don't have a *right* to advertise on Google. That seems to be a common misconception.
I feel this to be the case also. Not sure why advertisers think this.
Better off devoting your energies to learning their rules or just get out IMHO.
They don't need our stinkin' pennies.
The search page is their property, and they get to set the minimum amount they want to get for an ad, just as they get to decide every other level.People don't have a *right* to advertise on Google. That seems to be a common misconception.
All is good until it comes to monopoly. At that stage, we may see some movement that could fall under "Google being regulated".
But, about pricing, keywords are a kind of property, just like a leather and artificial leather jacket, or this house and that house.
We look at the keyword, and we focus on a number of ads around, CTR, bid, etc. From that perspective, we think about competition only.
If we see no or low competition, we assume the price should be low. Are Ford and Ferrari of the same price tag?
I'm sure Google takes competition into account, but still there is some more stuff that they derive from industry, popularity, whatever.
So now, you have a real leather keyword, and artificial leather keyword.
They all have their own starting weight when about price, while they "sit" in the database. Then, when the query happens, the competition stuff kicks in.
Instead of $0 to start with, each keyword has it's own starting point.
P.S.
With all these discussions and theories that we all "spit" out in places like WebmasterWorld, some of the stuff must be very entertaining to folks at companies like Google.
Also, some of this same stuff must be giving them great ideas for free.
Everyone talks as if Google themselves sets the prices. They don't. The advertisers do. It's a system of supply and demand. The advertisers are in control of their quality score. Evidently, many ignore to improve quality and increase their bids. You've been in this board long enough smallcompany. You must have read hundreds of post about Adwords in the past that you should have a good understanding of the system, better than most.
You've been in this board long enough smallcompany. You must have read hundreds of post about Adwords in the past that you should have a good understanding of the system, better than most.
Please sticky me if you want to tell me something. Commenting on my IQ in that way is not welcomed at all.
Of course, they set minimums.. depending upon whatever.. competition has nothing to do with this.
Are you truly blinded by all their PR and FUD ?
Of course, they set minimums...
That's what I was referring to. Competition plays a role, but it does not build the price from ground up. Google has the history, trends, offline data, they use golden information from "free" GA including conversion and pricing, they use data they have about profits, and who knows what else. They know everything as they already indexed everything.
All the above makes them not to let one go through with paying 5 cents per click while making a fortune.
How otherwise a single ad (no competition) in the space still pays way over a minimum bid per click?
If you ask Google they'll tell you something like there are ads but they're not showing at the moment, other advertisers have various budget settings, whatever.
We should do an experiment - if 5 of us decide to open a bid on a made up keyword (the OP's band name?) in the next 24 hours will the system let us all in?
Or some other combination/s that I'm sure many of you could devise.
(Of course I am only speculating and would not condone nor participate in anything that was outside the TOS)
i think frustration boils over into being unreasonable, at times.
happens to me too. :-)
if having a min bid for an auction isn't kosher, ebay's screwed. :-)
