When I set the values as follows
MCP 15 cents
Daily budget 15 USD
It appears that the MCP part is ignored and the daily
budget governs the cost per click and I end up paying much more on average than 15 cents per click.
I have tried using Google help but still can't work out how the two values interact.
Welcome to WebmasterWorld, uefaeuro!
In a simplified overview, your daily budget effects how often your ad appears, while your Maximum CPC effects in what position it appears.
A higher Max CPC will tend to move you up the page, and may also reduce the number of times your ad appears in a 24 hour day (if your budget is not sufficient for 24/7 delivery), since fewer clicks will 'fit' within a given daily budget, if those clicks are more expensive.
Budget does not really "govern" your CPC, however - and if you find you are getting clicks for more than your Max CPC, one of two things will probably be behind this:
* You are looking at a date range which includes clicks from a time when your Max CPC was higher, or
* While the default Max CPC for the Ad Group is $0.15, you have individual keywords in the Ad Group which have a Max CPC which is higher than the default.
If this doesn't help to explain what you're seeing, then I'd suggest contacting AdWords support - who can take a look at the actual account, and get to the bottom of things quickly.
AWA
After 2 days of trying to figure out what was going on I think I have finally found the answer. A BUG in google adword software! (shock horror). To cut a long story short I think the software modified several keyword Max CPC via wildcards (**). I only discovered this this morning when I checked each keyword seperatley only to find some were set to **.92 when my Max CPC for the campaign was only .04. This bug has cost me a packet.
thanks again for your help AWA
After 2 days of trying to figure out what was going on I think I have finally found the answer. A BUG in google adword software! (shock horror). To cut a long story short I think the software modified several keyword Max CPC via wildcards (**). I only discovered this this morning when I checked each keyword seperatley only to find some were set to **.92 when my Max CPC for the campaign was only .04. This bug has cost me a packet.
uefaeuro, I've said before that I am not an engineer, and that I'm not highly technical. That said, though, I'm not aware of any way in which the AdWords system can use the ** format to change the Max CPC of individual keywords by itself. In any case I've certainly never heard of it happening in my three years with AdWords, nor has the tech team whom I've just pinged. ;)
The ** format you mention is one that is designed to allow advertisers to change individual keyword Max CPCs to an amount that will trump the Ad Group Max CPC default.
More info about that feature is to be found here:
Editing Existing Keyword CPC/URL Values and Site CPM Values
[adwords.google.com...]
If you are the only person who works in your account who might have made a change to keyword Max CPCs, and if you still feel this occurred automatically, I'd suggest contacting AdWords support. I'm all but certain that they'll be able to confirm when this was done, and by whom.
AWA
I take on board your last post, I think the best way forward for me is to put it down as a lesson learnt, trying to convince google that i suspect that they 'might' have a bug in the their software, is not something I would relish, and sorry to sound negative but from past experience I have found that taking on any giant from the www (or any walk of life for that matter) is just not worth the frustration. Time is money.
