Low AdWords Bids - How Do I get'em?

[croni]

Well, here's the problem: I have a landing page that Google itself thinks relevant to the keywordsI bid on. I know this, because their keyword tool outputs the keywords I am bidding on when it analyzes the page's content. But I need to get minimum bids lower than 0.08 and only get 0.12, 0.25 and so on...

What can I do? I played with the content of the landing page and nothing happend. I pointed a link with relevant keywords to that page, still nothing... is it the ad's CTR (about 2%)? Or maybe even the keyword's CTR history on Google?

[anwaraa]

how old is your campaign?

[AdWords-Advice]

Your min Bid is a reflection of your QS and depends on a number of elements.

Landing page content is only one element, adtext and CTR also affect your Quality Score.

Google also sugest that some keywords have a universally poor quality score the example they gave was "weather" so this may also effect your campaign

[croni]

The campaign is online for 2-3 weeks at least...

The keywords, ads and the content are all relevant, so the QS should be ok. Has to be the CTR then?

[AdWords-Advice]

What is your CTR?

[TakeFive]

And what about competition? What's your position?

[robertpriolo]

Well, here's the problem: I have a landing page that Google itself thinks relevant to the keywordsI bid on. I know this, because their keyword tool outputs the keywords I am bidding on when it analyzes the page's content.

This doesn't really mean your page is relevant, it just means you successfully spammed your LP content keyword density high enough to the keywords your bidding on. Google can still find it irrelevant. But since you have not been slapped you should be fine on LP.

But I need to get minimum bids lower than 0.08 and only get 0.12, 0.25 and so on...

This can be corrected over time


What can I do? I played with the content of the landing page and nothing happend.

I will get to this in a second, the answer is really simple

I pointed a link with relevant keywords to that page,

Proof the SEO tactics make no difference. Im not sure who educated the community about this, but it does not work. AT ALL

still nothing... is it the ad's CTR (about 2%)?

Getting really warm

Or maybe even the keyword's CTR history on Google?

Getting even warmer


So the answer to getting your min CPC bid down is a matter of a few combined factors

#1 reason is your text ad.
#2 reason is your CTR
#3 reason is your ad history
#4 reason is your keyword history

To gauge your min cpc potential you need to look at your keyword QS

Goto Campaign >> Adgroup >> keywords tab >> unhide QS

If it says

POOR - If QS reason says LP No problems found. write a better text ad until it says OK. You can accomplish this in one day. Sometimes within an hour, however LP must say no problems found and you must not be slapped.

OK - Do an A/B text ad split test against your OK ad. The OK ad should have at least 100 - 200 clicks under its belt. Before split testing, ensure your ad rotation is set to 50%. The control copy text ad should have been live for at least 1 week so you can establish a mon - sun avg CTR variance. Position and bid should remain unchanged on the control copy during the benchmarking phase. (The 1 week history). Now run a secondary text ad against the control copy and beat its CTR. When you have beat the CTR of the original text ad for consecutive days remove the control copy, establish the new text ad as the new control copy, rinse and repeat until your QS is GREAT.

NOTE: Many times the QS will go from OK to GREAT very quickly, by the next day or within the 1st 24 hours. Continue your ad test, because if you remove a false winner your QS will end up reversing back to OK.

Lastly, the reason you are focusing on QS is because QS is what establishes your min CPC.

Min CPC in relation to QS is usually in the following ranges

Great $0.01-$0.05
OK $0.06-$0.30
Poor $0.40 and up
SLAP $5 - $10

so therefore you just need to get QS up higher

On a final note, if you have all your keywords and match types all mixed up, I highly recommend breaking them out in to 1 - 1 adgrouping

That means every keyword and match type has its own adgroup so that no other factors effect QS.

[jiffy_man]

Thanks for providing your tips, robertpriolo

[PPC-Coach]

The best way to get low bids is through account history or finding keywords where there is less competition.

[muchacho79]

The best way to get low bids is through account history

Account history is only 1 part of the algo. CTR is the main part.