My adwords account is showing a QS1 for 4 of my campaigns. In Adwords Editor it shows min bids as $10 so seems like a human review slap. Just wondering if this is an account wide thing so anyone else seeing the same?
Its happening to me too. Before this QS, we had thousands of impressions a day and after QS was implemented, we got no impression at all. And after I was done making my ads, the bid that adwords was asking is $10. Are they trying to trick the advertisers to bid on $10?
I would not go so far as to say they are trying to trick anyone but I suspect many are chasing Google's suggestions without giving it much thought. Remember, the suggestion is only what is supposedly required for first page exposure and your ad should still be showing if you bid lower. The important thing is to watch your average position. I have many keywords, some just QS2, where I am bidding well below the suggested rate yet still getting hundreds of impressions on page one, even as high as ave. position 2. I also have a number of keywords where the QS has dropped significantly and/or the suggested bid has risen dramatically yet it has had no effect on the words performance, i.e. impressions and ave. position are unchanged. So, keep an eye on your stats before making any hasty decisions about bids. However, if you really are getting no impressions at all that suggests something is seriously wrong with your campaign.
John06, I have PM'd you with link. To expand on my previous comments I offer in evidence the following example of weird QS behaviour. My site sells silver jewellery and "silver jewellery" is obviously an important and relevant (I thought!) keyword in my campaign. When the new QS system started it had a QS of 8/10 and I was bidding for it to appear about position 30 - 40 (just to catch anyone that may have missed the natural listings higher up). At the weekend the QS dropped to 5/10 but it still appeared to be showing in the same position so I did nothing. Since then its average position has actually started to creep up and today it is averaging position 22.4 - still with a QS of 5/10! (BTW, another curiosity re. "silver jewellery" is that all misspellings of the phrase get a QS of 8/10!!! - excludes "jewelry" which is obviously not misspelled and scores 6/10) I have another keword that I cannot reveal and is , theoretically, irrelevant to my site . I did not have it showing on the old system when G had put the min. bid up to £2 (c.$4) and I was only bidding £0.15. Under the new system it started with QS 5 and a recommended bid of £0.45 but I started getting hundreds of impression per day at ave. position 2.8. The recommended bid started to creep up almost daily until it reached £5 yet I was still getting the same impressions and position. Finally about a week ago the QS dropped to 2 and the recommended bid disappeared to be replaced by the message that my keyword was not triggering any ads. Since then nothing has changed, I am still bidding £0.15 and I am still getting 100s of impressions at ave. position 3. If anyone can get their head around this and explain what is going on they are a better man than me.
P.S. Just to 'muddy the water' still further I should add that for the keyword "silver jewellery" the average CPC has dropped about 35% in the last couple of days, , and that the second, unprintable keyword has one of the best CTR's in my campaign (which suggests CTR does not carry much weight in QS.)
I would like to start adwords campaigns for a new real estate search product in my local area that no one else has. In addition I would like to see greater traffic to my blogs that are of the same niche and finally I want to try and improve the traffic level to my forum. Can someone give me ideas on how to best start my campaigns?