So ... I recently created an ad based around a rather obscure keyword in my niche ... it the the keyword of a very specific product that seems to yield a lot of searches monthly ... about 29,000 or so, yet only ONE other person has ads up for that keyword, and its a broad ad for their entire website at that. So, what's the deal with Google? For specific products I've been bidding about 50 cents a click and doing really well. But, for this particular product, not only is google giving me a keyword quality score of 4/10 when it is the EXACT product ... they are saying .50 cents is not enough, 1.00 is required and they aren't even showing my ad. What the hell? One other person is advertising for that keyword. Why can't they just show me below that person? Would they rather make nothing than something? I type the keyword into Google and its just a whole lot of blank space under sponsored Ads. Sometimes Google confuses me. Correction: NO ONE is bidding on that keyword ... the other guy must have run out of money or something. So yeah, it's true, Google would rather show nothing than something.
Quality Score is BS. It's a way for Google to rip you off whenever they want. Don't believe blindly their system. Their system is there to get as much money from you as possible and they don't care whether you'll succeed. Their support also sucks and they will rarely help you. You will just get automated messages from a robot that has no clue what you want nor understands your problem.
TS, just try to add more keywords in meta tags and invisible (related to background) text under the footer. You quality score will grow up.
Well, Google would rather make $1 10% of the time than $0.01 100% of the time, so your 'doesn't Google want to make something rather than nothing' argument isn't right. Still, I feel for you, it's a scummy system. If your QS is bad, I can only assume your landing page is bad for those keywords.
So, why not just bid the $1.00 to see what happens? I have alot of keywords that are bid up to $3.00 and as long as I make money who cares, because it is all about making money.
I'm not sure what you sell but $1 per click is too much money to spend. Also, if nobody is bidding for that keyword, why do you have to start your bid at $1? I think Google AdWords is playing with you and trying to rip you off.
It sounds like Google are pushing up the minimum bid based on your Quality Score. Try matching your ad text closely with your keywords and your landing page. Also, QS is very much based on click-through rate. If people are clicking on the other ad and not yours, your CTR will be poor. Try to make your ad better than theirs