I have a 2 word phrase I want to target. when i perform a google search, only 1 advertisement appears. If there is only 1 advertisement, why is the minimum bid for that keyword phrase $0.50?
i would like to know this too i had a two word phrase i thought may do well on an affiliate run but they had a min of 25c per click for it when only 1 result shows at the moment
Something like that! The minimum bid is not based on what competitors do, it's based on Google's assessment of the quality of your advert. Your minimum bid says that Google doesn't like your site/advert. Here's a few potential reasons. 1) Your landing page looks a bit dodgy. Do you have a privacy policy? Do you look like a fine, upstanding member of the internet, which an honest business? Or have you packed your page with affiliate links? 2) Your clickthrough rate is very low. If people don't click on your advert, Google assumes that it's not what people are looking for. 3) You are only bidding on broad match. If you use BM, always use phrase and exact match as well. If you use PM, use exact match as well. 4) Your advert isn't relevant to the keyword. Include the keyword in the advert, ideally in the title. Given how high your minimum bid is, 1) is likely to be the main cause, or possibly 2).
Actually its supposed to be more an issue of the quality score of the domain too. If Google doesnt like your domain your bids go up. Yet if you have a domain they like, you can even put landing pages there that are not relevant at all to the rest of the site, yet bids will be lower than the first site. Also I have had many discussions with my Google reps and they maintain that affiliate links are fine. Maybe its more about how you present those links to an affiliate product on the page rather than the quantity. I come across sites most days indexed in Google with page rank which are blogs full of posts about products and services with affiliate links. HTH
"Fine" as long as you're willing to pay more (ie lower QS) That's organic though...no relation to AdWords.