Anyone else seeing a big shift in CTR and CPC ?

[karismatic]

Hi everyone,

We have a large campaign running for the last 3 years, not much has changed
on the 22nd of may we've seen a huge change in all our metrics.
CPC +40%
CTR - 5points
but average position is the same

has anyone else seen similar changes ?

++
Karis

[scottb]

Yes, similar changes. My CTR has declined 6% from 23% to 17%. The CPC is up 48%.

[RhinoFish]

Run Auction Insights report, sounds like somebody new likes what you're bidding on.

Its probably me.
Ha.

[karismatic]

hi guys,
thanks for your answer.
I did. no new player in the auction.
also if it was the case my average position should have changed.
@Scott what kinda vertical are you running on ? broad with low CPC or focused higher CPC ecomerce style ?
cheers,
Adrien

[scottb]

Adrien, my niche is travel weather with very low CPC. I don't have much competition at all. My important keywords have about 50% of the impression share.

What's really weird is that I have been running this campaign literally for more than 10 years. Prices have always been highly stable and in fact have gradually declined as I have continually optimized. All of my quality scores are in the 8 to 10 range.

I do see that broad match CPC has jumped a lot more than exact match.

[RhinoFish]

"also if it was the case my average position should have changed."
Nope. :-)
A person below you can most definitely affect your actual CPC, without changing your position.
The auction works that way.

[pavanear]

Yes, Some changes happened for my campaign . My CTR has declined 9% from 35% to 20%. The CPC is up 50%.

[RhinoFish]

For the searches of interest, does Google display a Google Shopping block?

As Shopping continues to spread, I've seen some searches change substantially when G decides to deploy the GShop block more often (for those searches).
This displacement can cause upheaval to previously stable Search ads.

[QuanChi]

I can confirm that from the 22nd may on Google Adwords has changed the algorithm. I have 2 projects running in the lower paid search ads 1-3Cent.

It hit both sites similar on at the same time about 50% down each. They have different niche but are in the lower paid area. Games & Fun Tests

Today from the 02.-03 August the next strikes seems to have lifted by Google. The behavoir is similar. Also around 50% lift in the CPC. Which is almost a death penalty to lower paid content ads.

2 Conclusions:

- Google raised the minimum bids for all keywords throughout by far as like BingAds does to not show many ads under 2 cent.

- Google favors product or higher bids over quality and shifts the better clicks to the higher paying (product) ads instead in decline to the quality factor.

I think 1 is the more likely option but 2 could be the outcome of that. Very bad Month for me and for all who are in those low paid niches.

The uprise of what to pay to get the same amount of clicks as before the update is about 150-200% now.

*Update

- The volume of clicks a day we talk about here on both sites were (are) 100.000 Clicks+ A day. So this is a representable stat and not small sites we talk about..