I find its best to start with the minimum CPC unless you know that a certain keyword has a high conversion rate. Obviously you need to consider how much profit you stand to make if the keyword does convert also but you really need to be more careful!
That is only true if nobody else is bidding a lot to appear high in the search results - there are still plenty of businesses out there that get directives from the top brass to appear first in the search results. It's still an auction, and whilst a good Quality Score will help, if you set a high bid, then there is always the potential for you to pay anything up to that bid, depending on the bids and Quality Scores of your competitors. I would never bid more than I could afford to pay for a click (almost never; there are certain situations where you might for a short period) there's no benefit in it.
That is crazy, you have to be a lot more careful and set your daily spending limits and really monitor things. Don't be careless or think that you have to have the number one slot, a huge mistake that people make with adwords.
That's nothing. I paid £45.64 (~$90.00) for a single click once. I got a refund though. You should have done the same thing. Just call Adwords and show them what happened, explaining how it was a mistake, and they might refund you.
I once paid $120 for a click. It was my fault, I was pissed and wanted the first spot, so I tested to see how high I'd have to go to get it. I got it.
I am so tight with my adwords its untrue. Start really low and push the limits up, I mean start so low you are talking $0.10 bids and see how it develops.
I would discourage taking offers like this willing to click ads for you. You'll get thrown in the box and ALL of your revenue taken away...
This is why I always start my keywords with a very low CPC and slowly bump it up until I am in the position I want for the most effective price. Takes it a bit longer but I am one of those measure twice (or a million times) and cut once...yea that makes sense ha. -Andy
Just an update i recouped my losses and made a tidy profit after the whole experience. . The niche was directories.
at least you were not the only one to have made this blunder...glad to hear you recouped your losses! Did those clickthroughs eventually turn into leads or sales?