Budget Optimizer experiences?

[nixon60]

I hope this hasn't been answered ad nauseum elsewhere, but I looked several pages of threads down and didn't find anything. Anyway, as I'm working with my campaigns I keep seeing that nagging "Budget Optimizer" option. Can anyone share their experiences, pro and con, with this before I dare to dive in and try it?

[dave741]

try this:
[google.com...]

[nixon60]

Thanks, Dave!

[wrgvt]

I've recently converted a couple campaigns to the budget optimizer again. It seems to work better than when it first came out. Where I've found it has an advantage for me is with campaigns with cheap keywords. It used to be that I could run ads with keywords less than a dime per click. Some of the most popular keywords for that ad might disable after a while, but I was able to run the ad with the keywords around the product release date, the most important time for them to run.

With the recent AdWords changes, when I tried to run these types of ads, AdWords wanted 20-30 cents to activate some of these keywords. If I ran the keywords at 30 cents, I had to constantly monitor them to see if I could lower the bid. Now these typically are keywords without a lot of competition, maybe 2 or 3 other ads. So I didn't necessarily want first position and to pay for that option. By turning the budget optimizer on with a maximum click of 30 cents, I could start a new ad and the most popular keywords would start near that maximum. If the keyword had a good CTR, then the budget optimizer would constantly drop the CPC for those keywords. Some dropped to a nickel or less, some in the dime range, and some never dropped. Those that didn't drop had an CTR that was too low and I'd then disable those keywords. Those that did well were now running as cheap as I could get them.

I do see an occasional problem with new ads, though. I'll put a new ad in the campaign and it won't run the ads saying I must bid 20 cents to activate the keyword. Well, the budget optimizer is set for a maximum of 30 cents, so run the damn ad already! I've tried changing the maximum click by a penny or so and sometimes they start running. I can't tell if those two actions are related though.

[SafetyElectricInc]

I tried the Optimization offer on Wednesday 11/09/05 and it created choas for me and our company. The individual who actually did my optimization really screwed me up in a sense. I had several Adword Groups under Regional and non-Regional and I only "Approved" a portion of them, however, EVERYTHING got optimized and I lost all of my keywords in groups that had worked fine for me for over a year! He changed verything including the cost per click, etc. Of course, he called me after I reached him through Chat Support and he denied changing the non-approved groups. I am telling you to be CAREFUL if you decide to try it.

[edited by: eWhisper at 1:19 pm (utc) on Nov. 11, 2005]
[edit reason] Please don't drop names. [/edit]

[netmeg]

I have found that the Budget Optimizer works best on some of my smaller accounts, with lots of words that aren't necessarily all that competitive or expensive - it's a good way to kind of put things on "auto-pilot" if the account isn't one you want or have time to monitor closely. The stated objective is to obtain the most clicks, and not necessarily maintain a particular position, so it works well enough from that standpoint.

However, for my accounts with expensive ($5 to $25) keywords, or for which there is a lot of competition for ad placement, or for words that are difficult to keep active at a particular price point, the Budget Optimizer really doesn't work so well.