It looks like Google is fixing or rigging prices on Adwords!

[tony101]

It looks like Google is fixing or rigging prices on Adwords.

I’ve done a search using the same two key words for weeks on Google and no Adwords at all. I just started an ad that uses those same key words and now Google says I have to bid CPC .40 to activate those specific words. I have never seen any ads when I put those two words in. I have very common key words that go for CPC .10 and there are always lots of ads on the Google search when I enter them in.

Can anyone tell me what is going on?

[KLB]

I've always seen this with some key words. Basically Google seems to think that it would be better to have no ads on certain searches than to have ads that are below a certain bid point. It has something to do with the click through rate of the ads.

[tony101]

Is this Google’s way on censoring information and inhibiting commercial enterprises?

The key words I’m talking about have nothing to do with politics or anything adult!

I know, we will charge double for pumping gas going into all red and pink cars! Wow, that a good idea and it makes more senses now.

[rpanella]

Yeah, it is their Quality Score. They rate your ads based on the ad copy as well as the relevance of your keywords and landing page and use that to set the minimum bid. If you increase your quality score the minimum bid should go down.
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Herbal Vape

[Cutter]

Kris Jones said it real well on Shoemoney's show this week -- search marketing is becoming as hard, if not harder than SEO. There are a ton of variables at play now, its completely false to call Adwords an auction based system anymore.

What this really does is allows Google to accelerate their rate of growth to keep the stock high while the original owners continue to sell it off. An added benefit is it keeps lower quality ads, specifically PPC arbitrage stuff, out. Unfortunately it totally screws the small business owners who don't do this full time and just want to get a couple of ads up on Google. I've noticed the mainstream press switch from "PPC advertising is great and very cost effective" to "PPC advertising is, horrible, expensive, there is fraud, and companies are cutting budgets." Times change.

[tony101]

Here is what I notice when you start an Adwords campaign:
A popular key word will be allowed to work at .20 CPC then later jump to 10.00 CPC for it to work.

I’ve just been restarting the Adwords campaigns so that same keyword goes back to .20 CPC again. It’s a pain to restarting everyday.

I think I'm going nuts!

[BusinessGeek]

Google is much like a casino house. The players are all gamblers and the house is the real money-maker. Google does allow minimum bids on certain popular keywords to as low as $0.02 and I've seen this with my AdWords account as I have been trying out new campaigns for months now.

After improving my landing page, quality score, and ad relevancy (remember this also means you need to use appropriate negative keywords to ensure best conversion), I've managed to get my CPC down to just $0.06 after the redicously high priced $25 they had on me months earlier.

However, my ad impressions have also gone down after lowering my bid, regardless of increasing my dail budget. Ultimately that has decreased my CTR by more than 40% after getting an amazing %9.5 gain with that particular campaign (this uses highly competative keywords btw). So in the end I realized Google just takes some time to gain on you, but they always drive up your CPC to ensure their stocks are increasing.

It's a dirty little trick, but mind you AdWords isn't for everyone. The one's truly benifiting from this program are those who have managed to setup an effective system that works for them and converts their click into leads or sales. I consult with my clients a lot about AdWords and they seem to be mostly interested in converting not cost at first, but later that turns into a problem of non-profitable leads as many of these CTs are just fraud clicks.

[tony101]

Your right, my first Adword program was no so great. $35.00 and 108 clicks later and two time waster emails. There was no market for this particular product; it does not even do well in the real world. I just had to try, to say that I did give it a try.

With a better understanding and open mind, I’m going to write an E-book and use clicks, affiliates and other strategies to do it. I need to have a complete plan that will take things to the next level.

If Google had been cheaper on the clicks, I might of stuck with the program. It makes no senses to through good money after bad. This was a learning event for me and it has been good from that stand point.

Tony

[Cutter]

$35 and 108 clicks isn't even close enough to how much you have to spend to draw any conclusions. I have promoted my own products and services on Adwords before. It is very difficult. You are going to need to spend a lot of money as you optimize your campaigns, keywords, landing page, product offer, and so on.

[tony101]

My main problem was the product I was selling. So your right that I will have to spend more to find out. I just need to change the product and go from there. Once I have my own pruduct, spending $300 or $500 will not be a problem. I konw this market very well and my main mistake was going into an unkown area with a hard to sell product.

Thank you for the heads up.

[Cutter]

Yeah, thats a tough one. If you already know if the product and web site will convert the visitor, and have an expectation of what those conversion numbers should be, PPC isn't very hard. Its when you don't know those things that it can become a real pain.

[BusinessGeek]

Like I said the biggest concern I've seen for serious businesses that start using AdWords to promote their products and services online is always conversion. I can buy lots of cheap clicks and there have been weeks on AdWords where I managed to get over 1,000 for as little as $50 but that's crapy traffic and we know that doesn't convert.

It's better to get just 4 or 5 clicks that cost you $50 and convert to $100 then to get 1,000 clicks that cost you $50 and convert to $10 (or in some cases nothing at all).

That's why AdWords starts off by costing you thousands to learn and tweak before you know how to get cheap but converting clicks that drive up your sales. You have to spend a lot of money making mistakes, but you need to learn from those mistakes (by tracking your clicks, researching keywords constantly, and studying other campaigns and their performance).

AdWords can be a very powerful promtion tool when used wisely, but I guess it's not in Google's best interest to tell people how to use the system wisely or else the secrets are out and Google goes broke.