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Auto Bid Increase with Overture

Is there such a thing?

         

Visit Thailand

1:58 am on Jan 18, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



I check my bids at Overture daily and have noted that each time I up the bid the next day this one massive company has also upped it!

We have taken one keyword from 28 cents to 54 and each time I up the bid by one cent the next time I check they have also upped the bid by one cent over me.

Does this happen automatically or are they doing it manually just like I am?

If it does happen automatically does anyone know how long after I up the bid does their bid increase?

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and what happens if we both use auto bid set for number 1 position?

hurlimann

2:35 am on Jan 18, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



> Does this happen automatically or are they doing it manually just like I am?

It can be either. Likely to be an independant auto bot if you are checking more than once every 1/2 hour. Overture allow approved autos 48 updates a day.

>what happens

If you both use this type of tool or do it manually, overture wins every time!

I have seen this many times with many clients and even when the war ends in the meantime another bidder has come in at a very high price to get pos 1,2,3, or 4 and doesn't change the bid as they don't track what is happening.

Applies to sole traders and large corporations equally.

Many tales of bids that without a bid war would still be 10 cents but are now stuck at 3.50 dollars.

bodine

2:55 am on Jan 18, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



> Overture allow approved autos 48 updates a day.

Is this new? I have not checked in a while. I know they used to allow only 6 automated updates. Then they upped it to 24. Are they up to 48 now? Since I am the one paying for it, they should allow me to update as many times a day as I darned well please, but that is another matter...

Visit_Thailand, the only thing you can do if you only want to update once a day is to up your bid to what you feel comfortable paying (whatever the ROI is), and let it go. Me, I do like to run up the other guys' bids and check often enough that I don't get stuck paying too much...but that is just me, and it probably just puts money in Overture's pocket.

Visit Thailand

3:05 am on Jan 18, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Problem is it is one of the biggest companies in the world with oodles of cash so I do not really want to go to war with them but I do not like to be second!

Mike_Mackin

3:14 am on Jan 18, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



>but I do not like to be second!

2nd can be very good
Title & Description can WIN

Visit Thailand

3:18 am on Jan 18, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Mike - do you mean that even if your bid is less than theres you can still get to the top position if your ad is designed to better conform with the keyword chosen? Or that it may appear more attractive to users?

bodine

3:48 am on Jan 18, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



What Mike is saying is that #2 is better if you can catch the person's eye with good ad copy. Also, I have found that #2 is better for ROI than #1. If I were you, I would settle for #2 or #3. They both get the same exposure (if we are talking US Overture; don't know about others), but #2 gets better traffic. Do you keep up with who buys with which keyword?

Visit Thailand

4:03 am on Jan 18, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Thanks Bodine,

Deleted as misread post.

Yes we do monitor who is advertising alongside. One is as I say one of the biggest compsanies in the world, the other a household name as well and then us!

I will try and see what happens with second place, as it is silly to play this game with this giant company. I have noticed though that even the thrid place is keeping up with the increases though!

So you say that your perfect position is second?

bodine

4:32 am on Jan 18, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Sorry. What I meant by "Do you keep up with who buys with which keyword?" was do you use tracking urls with your keyword in them and see that when you bid on "perfect widget" you get a sale. Then, you can see how many clicks you had, and generate a Return On Investment (ROI) report based on that. On the login page at Overture US, they have a ROI tutorial. (I wonder how many people will actually pay attention to it. It seems everyone loves to bid up and up.)

> So you say that your perfect position is second?

I wouldn't go that far. ;) For some keywords, it is better than #1. For some, I like #3 or #4. Depends on how much the keyword costs per click...

Visit Thailand

5:11 am on Jan 18, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



lol that was what I had first understood and replied to and then deleted as I thought I had misunderstood! but basically what we do is we know how many we normally sell, we add on X amount for growth, and then we have a figure of what we should be selling.

We then monitor the ads for each specific product and see if there is any change over a certain period.

If not and the click throughs are high we change the keyword, and retry etc.

So no we do not have an automated system in place to track the ads but we do have a vague idea on the ROI.

We rotate the ads and products we sell to get a good picture.

I should point out though that we have never done Overture before or adwords and so are still very new at it.

So far Overture seems to be a little better in the quality of the clicks.

bingymon

6:41 pm on Jan 18, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



If you both use this type of tool or do it manually, overture wins every time!

Tell me about it. I wonder how many bidding war's there are going on at a time. I bet there's some person at overture employed just to report on the amount of extra money they make out of war mongers. Wouldn't it be great if advertisers who are invloved in a war could contact each other and agree at a certain price? Maybe the UN could step in ;)

I do know however that some auto bid management tools allow you to set rules for controlling out-of-control wars. Basically they allow you stay in position 3 all the time unless position 1 is only three pennies away. In that case, the rule kicks in and automatically moves you to position 1. If someone outbids you at 1, you are automatically moved back to position 3.

That kind of tool comes at a price but may be worth it if your ROI improves. I bet overture don't like it.

hurlimann

7:08 pm on Jan 18, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



48 has been around for a while now. It is limited because of the stress on resources caused by bots.

I know that truces have been called before: Two condom sellers called one on espotting when bids went over 2UKP a hit.

Visit Thailand

9:33 am on Jan 20, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Thankfully I have been quite lucky as pos 3 did not move over 42 so I decided to leave the High and Mighty to position one and keep position two at 43 cents which is already cheaper than the 55 we pushed it to. Will be interesting to see how this affects the hits.

diggle

10:44 am on Jan 20, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



hurlimann,

nice name by the way - is it after the beer? :)
what does an independent auto bot do and how do you get hold of one.
I am considering ppc - what would you say is the best value for money?

diggle

10:48 am on Jan 20, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



How does adwords compare with,say, overture?

hurlimann

12:12 pm on Jan 20, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Yes it is in praise of the beer.

Some 3rd parties offer bid management software ( at it's core a auto bot bidder).

Best value depends on your needs but none are that cheap.

Probably the one with most bells and whistles costs:

Up to 50 keywords, 48 bid updates a day is about 250 USD to 750USD a month depending on which PPC engines you sign up for.

webdiversity

12:25 pm on Jan 20, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



With a lot of the software solutions firstly they need to be Overture approved, this is why there is the 48 times apply, but it does apply to a 24 hour period, so in theory you could update every 10 minutes for an 8 hour period between 9 and 5 and then not have your bids changed.

You can also chose the best 50 keywords and alter them as your business requires. (anyone would think I'm trying to sell the software here!)

Personally, there will be some that will go down that route, some will outsorce, some will not bother. It's not for smaller budget clients, that's for sure.

hannamyluv

8:17 pm on Jan 20, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



You know, you can get a bit of revenge when your up against those types of companies. We have a keyword that is up against a web giant (though, if I had to guess, it isn't the one you are up against). We pushed their auto bidder up to $3 a click. We only paid .26 in second place. It feels good that at least if they are going to use their deep pockets, you make them go a little deeper.

scottpes

9:32 pm on Jan 20, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



I agree with bodine and mike_mackin. #2 or #3 can be good for ROI. If I have a keyword being clicked on many times a day and the competition is just below what I have bid, I will actually lower my bid if it will have a significantly lower CPC without making my position too low to be seen. As a rule I don't drop below #3 because some partners only show the top three positions. So far I don't think it's hurt my traffic.