I just got into the affiliate marketing; therefore, I am kind of a newbie in this. And, since I am a newbie, I have a question regarding Max CPC bid. I'm running some offers regarding insurance, and I noticed that if I place my max CPC to $1, I won't get any impressions or clicks, but QS says minimum bid $0.08. Therefore, I increase it to $2, no impressions or clicks, then to $3, then to $5. When I placed my max CPC to $5, Google actually started showing my ads (search wise) and got few clicks and leads. However, Google said that my average position was just 6-7th. Is this possible? Do people actually bid this high for their clicks? If I am paying around close to $5 for a click, how much is the people having their adverts on 1st position cost? $10? Is there any possibility to bring my CPC costs down and increase my placement? (yes, i have a a long list of long tail keywords).
They're not necessarily paying that much more - they could have a much better quality score - better click-through rate, more relevant ad text, & landing page. Which is how you bring your costs down.
Your position is dependent on your minimum bid multiplied by your Quality Score. As long as you are bidding more than your minimum bid, your advert will appear, but if your Quality Score is not very good, then you could easily pay 2 or 3 times more than your competitors to appear in the same place as them. There are two Quality Scores, the Minimum Bid Quality Score (which determines your minimum bid) and your Ranking Quality Score (which determines your advert's position). You can't see your RQS, but your MBQS can be seen - to show it, go on to your keyword report, and select it in 'Customise Columns'. We do know that the RQS and MBQS have similar inputs - so most people take the MBQS as a guide for MBQS. Since your minimum bid is $0.08, it's not bad, but there's still room for improvement. The main drivers to your RQS are: Advert Text Website Clickthrough Rate Keyword Matching Type Your advert should contain your keyword, preferably in the title (and DKI is cheating, and doesn't help). Your website should look reputable (!?) - things like a Privacy Policy will help, though yours is probably alright, since your Minimum Bid would be higher if it wasn't. Your clickthrough rate is the tricky one - you want to get it as high as possible, without attracting poor quality traffic. See this link for more details: http://www.epiphanysolutions.co.uk/...advert-text/maximising-the-click-through-rate Your matching type is simple. If you are advertising on Broad Match, always advertise on Exact and Phrase as well. If you are advertising on Phrase Match, always advertise on Exact match as well. And make sure your list of negative keywords is as complete as possible. What is your clickthrough rate, since you started appearing in 7th? Have you used www.google.com/adpreview to search for your advert, and see why people aren't clicking on it?
wow thanks for the info! By the way, my ad is: Free Life Insurance Quote Get Free Life Insurance Quote Cheap Insurance Quote Guaranteed! Isn't that good enough for [free life insurance quote] ? However, I only got 32 impressions for the past 3 days...
As adverts go, it's not totally great, if I'm being totally honest... Your top line is fine. But the rest of your sales pitch is just repeating it. Why should people want an insurance quote from you? Are your prices low? Are you a broker for some household names? How much money can you save? Do you offer any price guarantees? Your landing page looks fine, though a privacy policy would probably be a good thing. Your points under the title "Why ....?" are exactly the sorts of things you want in your adverts.