I hope this is not the case because I like Google but...I noticed in my AdWords campaign that for many of the keywords Google has said "Bid is below first page bid estimate of $1.00". In fact, for 5 out of the 5 terms, I receive that message. However, when I search for these terms, 4 out of the 5 come up either empty or with only 1 or 2 ads -- none of which are mine. Please try it for yourself and let me know what you see. Search in Google for "relief services", "poverty", "poor". How many ads come up? Is the right side full of ads? If not, then why is Google telling me that I'm not paying enough to show up on the first page?
See... Google will be saying that your bid for first page is low. However, your ads will be displayed on the other pages. If you are feeling uncomfortable then contact google adwords team, they will help you better. Thanks DJ
The same thing happens to be me as well but as my quality score increases the same estimate is reduced to almost 90%. Give some time for the campaign to run and concentrate more on quality score
shabbirbhimani: The quality score is good for 3 out of the 5 ads, so I don't know that it would be a quality score issue, but I will certainly take your advice and see if the fill rate improves as the campaign runs. Which, by the way, the campaign has been running already for a few days. Thanks.
I've seen it take anything up to 2 months for the minimum bid on higher traffic terms to come down to a reasonable level. Also remember that the quality score will not be the same for all keywords. If Google thinks that a keyword is not relevant to your website then it'll have a lower quality score compared to a keyword that it thinks is relevant. If not already done, split your keywords into relevant groups all with targeted ads and landing pages. Work on the content of the landing pages to target the same keywords for the organic results, this should in turn increase your quality score.