Adwords system doesn't make a lot of sense

[gregdavidson]

I honestly don't understand how Google could have such an odd system for determining the CPC for a keyword/phrase. Did it ever occur to them that maybe they're part of the reason why the impressions aren't converting to clicks? They don't give you enough room in your title and you can't add upper case words anywhere in your description. Most people don't even look at the sponsored area which is how Google makes their money. Maybe they should add 5 ads on the top of the results and 5 ads on the bottom so they'll make more money.

[seoster]

google aims for relevancy. their qs model works, as it aims to give people relevant options for exactly what they want. It is a model that has been working. Google is one of the most profitable companies and a lot of companies and people are becoming very rich off of their systems. I would not go as far as claiming:

"Most people don't even look at the sponsored area which is how Google makes their money."

Most people may not look at the sponsored areas (an assumption I would not agree with), but the many that do are making Google and its users a lot of money.

[gregdavidson]

Well, I'm really starting to get confused about their system. I bid $.15 a click and Google ran my ads for about 1 hour and then brought the bidding up to $10.00 or $5.00 a click. Why is that? Was it because my ad wasn't performing?

[seoster]

you are probably in a competitive niche, but first, you need to check the relevancy between the keyword, ads, and landing page.

Heres a thread about min cpc:

http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=693655&highlight=min+cpc

[gregdavidson]

They were pretty relevant. The niche I'm going for is "wholesale" which is very competitive. What are my alternatives?

[gregdavidson]

I'm trying to run a campaign using "Placement Targeted" ads but I'm not too sure whether that's worth my time. If my ads are going to appear on other websites, I'd might as well just use Adbrite.com.

[seoster]

go to:

https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

type in your keyword, wholesale, and notice the results...

high competition / high traffic

you are in an expensive niche my friend, expect to pay more than 5X (so set your bidding higher), at the least, to even get ranked. you really need to go way more niche than just wholesale if your budget can not compete.

15 cents is considered a very very cheap click. the competition will always drive up prices generally. check them out and see how many pages in the search results show them competing.

[gregdavidson]

If that's the case then I will just stick with Adbrite.com. I'm sure advertising through the content network isn't any more effective and will probably be more expensive.

[humbleman]

You can set max. CPC price to avoid this.
Pay only what u can afford to.

Well, I'm really starting to get confused about their system. I bid $.15 a click and Google ran my ads for about 1 hour and then brought the bidding up to $10.00 or $5.00 a click. Why is that? Was it because my ad wasn't performing?

[robertpriolo]

If that's the case then I will just stick with Adbrite.com. I'm sure advertising through the content network isn't any more effective and will probably be more expensive.

the content network does not work like the PPC program. You will not get slapped with content marketing and its not more expensive, its actually less expensive if done correctly. Only problem is many people don't understand how content works, so you will hear more complaints than positives.

Mainly because everyone thinks content works like search marketing. You cannot run search and content on the same campaign, well technically you could, but it wont work out.

[gregdavidson]

I already tried the content network and it doesn't seem to be working for me. I add the maximum of 2,000 sites and all I got were tons of impressions and no clicks.

[robertpriolo]

I already tried the content network and it doesn't seem to be working for me. I add the maximum of 2,000 sites and all I got were tons of impressions and no clicks.

exactly what i mean, most people don't understand it so they assume it doesn't work. Your targeting to many things at once, content is about tightly grouped campaigns and intense tracking and optimization.

[CustardMite]

I bid $.15 a click and Google ran my ads for about 1 hour and then brought the bidding up to $10.00 or $5.00 a click. Why is that? Was it because my ad wasn't performing?

The reason that this happens is that Google has to review your landing page for relevance and quality. It doesn't always do it immediately, so it can take a few hours or even a day before it gets to yours.

Then they look at your site, and slap a big minimum bid on your keywords, if they don't like it.

To understand what they like/don't like, I'd read this:

http://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=46675&topic=9356


If the problem was that your campaign was underperforming, the minimum bid would gradually increase over a period of time - these almost immediate jumps are almost always caused by their review of your website.

[lavista4u]

Greg...you ain't serious right...Google adwords is one the best kept models on planet earth..common...tell me how many Ph'd's in mathematics hangs around in digital point forum..even if one comes along the way..i will strip naked for one hour and browse the web :)

Google has 1000's Ph'd working for them yes..one thousand and 16 thousand employes more..Google has the most number of PH'Ds than any company on planet earth..

I had the fortune of meeting one such person who had in PH'D in mathematics and , they have the level of understanding on what goes inside adwords..they are magicians...its not reason that google makes 30 millions dollars a day in advertising...

Microsoft has billions more yet, they cant beat adwords, there is this magic created by these guys..we just need know how did they do it and we will soon make money

[robertpriolo]

haha... they have the secret sauce... thats for sure

[CustardMite]

I wrote a blog about whether the Quality Score does what it's designed to last year:

http://www.epiphanysolutions.co.uk/google-adwords/does-the-quality-score-work.html

For me, there's only one real flaw in the concept. They reward people for having a high clickthrough rate, but want to get more relevant search results.

But does the search for a high clickthrough rate cause advertisers to write what people want to see, and effectively mislead people into visiting their site when they aren't really what the searcher was looking for?

A good PPC agency will always keep in mind that if you are paying for each visitor, you need to be honest about what you do/sell, but how many advertisers have focused entirely on optimising the clickthrough rate?

I suspect it's quite a lot, and if so, this may work against Google's objective of trying to deliver the best search results that it can.

I'm not saying that Google are wrong to include the clickthrough rate in their Quality Score, but does it carry too much weight? Should things like Bounce Rate be more important (or are they already very important - we don't really know the details of the algorithm). They suggest that it is critical here:

http://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=10215&query=quality+score+ctr&topic=&type=f&onClick=

Opinions?

[fragin_bastich]

Can't live with em...
Can't live without em...

The fact is we have to play by big G's rules, even if they don't make any sense. Takes a lot more work these days to run a successful campaign the the G, and takes a bigger budget to tweak and optimize. Perhaps that is what google wants, to drive out smaller advertisers and let the big boys play.

They will [on a wim with no warning] increase your bid to $5 and $10 based on their all so secret quality score. Time to relearn the system and roll with the punches...build better landing pages, etc.

But that's all part of the game, and there is always a way to game the system....if you take the time [and budget] to play a little bit.

[ibibo]

thanks for the info will apply