I have about 35 keywords and a maximum bid of 0.50. As of yesterday there were about 5 keywords that were above my maximum bid and now today every single one of them is above my max bid. Some jumped from below $0.50 to $4.50!!! What happened and will they come back down so I can afford them?
what is the quaility score for those words? if it drops to low adwords will increase the bidding price. Also, check your bounce rate
The minimum to bid in order to be on the first page depends on your QS. Low QS, high bid asked by Google. Of course, also depends on what competitors are bidding. QS is highly dependent on your CTR. I assume your keyword relevancy is great. Download Adwords FAQ for all the nitty gritty details. So increase your CTR, your QS will increase and the bid you will need to be on page one will go down. I have no idea why Icecape wants you to check your bounce rate.
To add to Lucid's reply... I have never seen that kind of jump with the costs ever settling back to what they were. There may be more competitors, competitors that have a bigger budget or better performing campaign, etc. To stretch your budget, run some dayparting reports. Find out when the most searches happen and schedule your ads to only show during that time of day...if the CPC doesn't come back down, at least you can bid higher and just show at the most relevant times. Good luck!