my ppc bids fluctuate greatly when ads are being shown suppose on US google and austria google. what is the reason behind it?
I do not see how the bids could fluctuate so assume you mean the cost, i.e. what you are charged per click. In that case, as #2 says above, competitor bidding and activity is the most likely cause; they may have their campaigns set to run only at certain times or their bids may be set to vary during the day.
might want to separate US and Austria traffic into separate campaigns and manage bids accordingly. ~L
Do you need to keep revising your average bid? Or just set a rate? My understanding is that Google charge you 1c (or 1p in the UK) over the second highest bidder. Or have I got this all wrong?
Not sure what Nitin SEO is trying to say; there is no 'average' bid that I know of. What you need to do is adjust your maximum bid to a level you are comfortable with based on the average position you are getting and the CTR, i.e. your ROI. As a result of competitor activity you will usually find that position and CPC will vary during the course of a day and even from day to day, or weekend v. weekday. If you are not in the position of "money no object" and just outbidding everyone else then it is all about finding the balance. You can try constantly monitoring and changing your bids (if you have nothing better to do with your life!) but it is easier to watch what is happening for a few days then adjust your bidding (times and % of your set bid - it is in the campaign settings page) to get the balance you are looking for. Yes, that is basically correct but it is not a direct bidding auction, i.e. you are not placed ahead of your competitor just on bid value - it is based on bid x quality score. The product is your "ad-rank" that determines your ad's position. If you get a click Google charge you the bid required to out-rank your competitor, e.g. You bid 0.25 on QS 9 keyword = ad-rank 225 Next bidder is bidding 0.20 on QS 8 =ad-rank 160 You are charged 0.18 per click (0.18 x 9 = 162) Of course, if your original post was simply about the difference between US and Austria CPC then it is probably due to varying market conditions, e.g. Austria is likely to be less competitive with fewer bidders than the US and therefore cheaper. If that is causing problems in your account then you can, as suggested above, create separate geo-targeted campaigns for each country.
Thanks Bjewelled. That explanation is far clearer (to me) than Google's own. And yes, I do have much better things to do than continually alter my bid amounts. I've not understood (yet) precisely how Google arrive at the QS, but of my eight or nine keyword search phrases, all score either 8 or 9. Happy Hogmanay to you!