I've been trying for several days to figure out why my AdWords keywords are all $5 or $10 minimum bids, and all inactive for search when they used to be fine. The landing page is fine, the ad is fine, everything is fine. Some of my keywords are really obscure, yet none of this makes any difference. And the thing is, I just come across hordes of posts on various sites by people who are frustrated and confused by AdWords, and trying to change this and that and (in many cases) actually agreeing to the $10 bids (!), thinking that that will impress Google and their bids will be lowered out of kindness. It's insane. Nobody knows how anything is determined or calculated, everyone complains that they don't get responses from Google when they email, etc. Why do people stay there? Everyone says "because it's the best", but if the service is that awful, why would anyone in their right mind stick with them?? If everyone did the natural thing, and just left AdWords for other systems, Google would finally get the message. I am trying to give Google money, in increasing amounts as the months and years wear on. I'll give them another few days to get their shit straight, but I have a very low tolerance for getting jerked around by people I'm trying to help. So this rant is to inspire others to leave AdWords, or any company, that is not playing right. You have the power! Don't give your power to Google! You can cancel your ads right now and Google will get nothing. Don't forget it!
Your problem is that $10 bids means that: there is a quality problem with your site and... ...you are thinking that your site has a good quality but probably you are evaluating it wrongly.
I do have some sympathy with your view - I find myself thinking often "I just want to buy a bit of advertising, I don't have time for all this rigmarole" - but then again I want to buy my bit of advertising for the cheapest price, so I go through the rigmarole. I did actually cancel my account with Yahoo because in the middle of a 'dialogue' about them disallowing an ad because they didn't think searchers would understand it, I found myself typing "you're wasting my time and my money", and realised they were doing exactly that. I haven't reached that point with google, yet.
As mentioned above, it sounds like you've just got a quality score problem. Work out what the problem is and have those bids lowered without your having to pay such a ridiculously high minimum CPC. However, I do agree with you: Adwords can be a pain in the butt!
That's exactly what I mean. My site IS good quality, and if it wasn't I'd want to change it so people would find it useful. But I don't want to change it because Google, for some undisclosed reason, thinks it's no good. The site isn't for Google, it's for people interested in a certain thing. But everyone says "well you better change your site so Google likes it!" as if Google is some big daddy we all have to please. If everyone did what they said to "improve their quality score", the web would get reallly boring because all pages would be the exact same and all sorts of unnatural wording and layouts would be thrown in. So, I think it's good to consider that maybe your website isn't as good as you think. But if you know it's ok, it's up to Google to agree with that and give you fair keyword bid prices. If they don't, feel free to abandon them and find someone else. Saying "but Google is the best, I only want to be with them" is kind of pathetic and lazy. YOU have the power over your websites and your money. Google has to earn your trust and business! Anyway I emailed them just now explaining this (in a slightly more friendly manner ) so we'll see if I actually have to abandon them. Either way I'm excited, I'll get what I want with them or with another lucky company!
Google just about OWNS the net these days! If we want to be in thier network wesza gosta jump thru dem hoops! It stinks. it seems arbitrary it is and idf we all left people would be happy to jump in and take our niches! "it is what it is and dats all it tis" gee it sure would be nice if they were a bit more forthcoming in what htey want! mark
I just had a campaign disabled last week because they said it was Non-Family friendly. It's simply a site about understanding the credit cards, credit scoring, and credit repair. That site made me $1k last month, this month about half that before getting disabled. I'm still confused. Luckily yahoo and msn thinks it's fine. But they get 10% of the traffic for this site. Oh well.
I was selling something smoking related (nothing to do with drugs), and they stopped my campaign coz of "drug paraphernalia" reasons. I didn't bother appealing it. I got other campaigns to worry bout.
Adwards IS a pain in the butt, i agree ! What I can't believe is what kind of problem can cause such a big raise ?