Hi, Any help with this matter will be very much appreciated. I've just cancelled my Pounds Sterling account and opened a US Dollar account, the reason being that, given the weak state of the Dollar, I hoped to start paying less for Adwords. My theory was that I could get clicks for half the price as before as a consequence of the Pound Sterling being almost twice the strength of the US Dollar. I have read many threads in which UK forum members have spoken of doing such a thing. However, after swapping currencies, I spoke to a UK Adwords representative on the phone who promptly told me that I will now have to up my bids to retain the same positions as I had before. She didn't sound very sure about her claim, which is why I thought I'd ask in the forum. Have I made the right move by swapping currencies? Will I have to up my bids? If so, swapping currencies was a waste of time. A response will be appreciated.
I have thought about doing this, but was unsure as to how much benefit you would receive. I am sure all bids have to be adjusted for local currencies, to make it fair. I am sure you will not get the best exchange rate through Google but it should still be relative to the market rate.
Masterful, theoretically there's absolutely no benefit in doing this. When working out the ad rank Google uses what it calls a 'micro-currency' and converts all the bidding ad CPCs to a common currency using Citibank exchange rates. If your ads used to cost you £1 (say) then in dollars they'll probably cost you $2. There's more info here: http://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=57789 Jon http://www.cobnut.net/
Cobnut, thanks for the helpful resource. I have to say, however, that, despite the micro-currency scheme, it seems that swapping currencies has been beneficial for me. I have had to up my bids a little to get the same ad positions and numbers of clicks, but I have not had to increase my bids twice-fold. This means that I am paying less per day as I hoped. Also, note that, as the US Dollar is approximately half the strength of Pounds Sterling, if I manage to lower my CPC to $0.01, I will in effect only be paying half a pence. Had I been paying in Pounds Sterling, the lowest I could go is one pence. Nonetheless, I thank you, and everyone else, for your feedback.
Very interesting, although I would say it may be a little early to make any firm conclusions on the subject. If it truly is cheaper to pay in dollars then that's something a Google rep should answer... Jon