Google You Dirty, Rotten, No Good, Yellow Bellied, @#$%%!!!!!

[W.P. Allen]

Someone explain this to me. I have an Adwords campaign going right now and for one of the keywords I just got charged $4.00 for one click. That's the Max for that keyword. I looked at the Quality score and it's a 5/10.

Now, what's weird is that my site is OPTIMIZED for this keyword. AND AND AND AND it ranks NUMBER 1 for that keyword! WTF??

How do I have a low quality score for a keyword when Google itself has deemed my site the most relevant site in the WORLD for that keyword?

Poopy?

[Hamza]

Originally Posted by W.P. Allen

Someone explain this to me. I have an Adwords campaign going right now and for one of the keywords I just got charged $4.00 for one click. That's the Max for that keyword. I looked at the Quality score and it's a 5/10.

Now, what's weird is that my site is OPTIMIZED for this keyword. AND AND AND AND it ranks NUMBER 1 for that keyword! WTF??

How do I have a low quality score for a keyword when Google itself has deemed my site the most relevant site in the WORLD for that keyword?

Poopy?

4$ a click ?? lol, i think that Google should develop a system to recognize individuals from big time corporations with massive advertising budget ...

I have no PPC experience but I've been monitoring the industry for a while and i think that this is really not a good time for PPC advertising and especially Adwords ...

Maybe other forms of paid advertising would work a lot faster, cheaper, and more effectively .

[Lucid]

You have to understand how the QS system works. From your post, you don't. You are confusing SEO and PPC.

First, it doesn't matter if you are ranked #1 in the SERPs for a keyword. It has not bearing on what you do in Adwords.

How does QS work? I explain in more details in my Adwords FAQ. But to make it short, most of QS is your click rate. It's compared to what other advertisers have done with this keyword. If the mean CTR is 4% and your CTR is 4%, you get an average QS (about 5). The higher your CTR against that mean, the higher your QS gets. The higher your QS, the lower your costs as a factor in cost is QS (see formula in the FAQ).

So, if your QS is 5, you have average ads. If you had a QS of 10, you might pay more in the neighborhood of $2 or even less. Note that QS is position independent as well as bid independent. In other words, you may have a 2% CTR in 6th position and a 5% CTR in first, your QS will remain the same. Increasing the bid will have no effect. What you have to do is create better ads that get higher click rates for whatever position you are in. This is the only way, as long as you don't violate Adwords rules (and get a QS of 1) and that your keywords are relevant to your page.

[tryinhere]

Originally Posted by W.P. Allen

Someone explain this to me. I have an Adwords campaign going right now and for one of the keywords I just got charged $4.00 for one click. That's the Max for that keyword. I looked at the Quality score and it's a 5/10.

Now, what's weird is that my site is OPTIMIZED for this keyword. AND AND AND AND it ranks NUMBER 1 for that keyword! WTF??

How do I have a low quality score for a keyword when Google itself has deemed my site the most relevant site in the WORLD for that keyword?

Poopy?

you can never pay more than the max cpc you yourself set to bid.

[Craig McPherson]

Hope it converted for you

[paulgl]

If what you say is true, then why are you using adwords?

You are competing with yourself.

The more displays without a click lowers your score.

Do you want people to click on the ad or your site?

You are confusing adwords with SERPs.

Your ad copy must be for what people are searching for, and leading
to a page that satisfies what you promise.

Not the same for SERPs.

Google makes it quite clear what QS is and how to raise it.

Paul

[Jacob Martus]

Originally Posted by paulgl

If what you say is true, then why are you using adwords?

You are competing with yourself.

The more displays without a click lowers your score.

Do you want people to click on the ad or your site?

You are confusing adwords with SERPs.

Your ad copy must be for what people are searching for, and leading
to a page that satisfies what you promise.

Not the same for SERPs.

Google makes it quite clear what QS is and how to raise it.

Paul

That's the same thing I thought. Why pay for adwords when you're #1 organically??

[theseoguys]

Or don't list the term you rank #1 for organically, as a word you where want your AdWords to display. Why aren't you targetting your AdWords toward words you don't rank high on yet?

[W.P. Allen]

If what I say is true? What would be the point of making up a post like this? Sheesh...

And I don't think I'm "competing with myself." There are people who have more than one spot in the organic top 10 for profitable keywords. The keyword I rank number one for is for a local mortgage keyword. I have a partnership with a mortgage lender and I get rather large commissions on any loans they get from my site so I want to cover as much ground as I can.

And maybe I don't understand QS as well as "professor" Lucid up there but I still don't see why the one click would be so high. My CTR, ads, site optimization, content and everything else is good so that's why I thought it was strange.

And no, it didn't convert.

[TheRetiredBuilder]

Originally Posted by paulgl

If what you say is true, then why are you using adwords?

You are competing with yourself.

The more displays without a click lowers your score.

Do you want people to click on the ad or your site?

You are confusing adwords with SERPs.

Your ad copy must be for what people are searching for, and leading
to a page that satisfies what you promise.

Not the same for SERPs.

Google makes it quite clear what QS is and how to raise it.

Paul

To get more real estate on the first page obviously, I would have thought this was obvious

While it's not something I do myself, it's common for companies that are on the first page naturally to also use adwords for commercial terms that are getting thousands of searches daily

[XToni]

It's obvious that if you bid max CPC to 4$ you should expect to be charged 4$ for a click, don't blame google for every mistake that you make.

[W.P. Allen]

It's obvious that if you bid max CPC to 4$ you should expect to be charged 4$ for a click, don't blame google for every mistake that you make.

Ha ha! Nice.

Well, buddy I shouldn't "expect" to pay $4 when my CTR is good, my ads are relevant, my landing page is relevant, my site is optimized for the keyword, etc.

But thanks anyway.

[W.P. Allen]

To get more real estate on the first page obviously, I would have thought this was obvious

Exactly brother. Ubiquity is the key to more clicks and more cash.

[IM Ash]

The parameters they use to rate quality is highly flawed. I actually received a warning for promoting a "low quality" site using adwords.

[Lucid]

Professor Lucid here.

I agree you are not competing with yourself. It's a good idea to use PPC, even if you rank high for a keyword. You cover both bases and taking a bigger percentage of the result page's real estate.

The reason you're paying that much is simply that's the going rate for that niche. That's the kind of range others are bidding. Not surprising since you say it's the mortgage industry. It's competitive and getting one client is worth $1,000s. Read my FAQ where I explain it.

>> My CTR, ads, site optimization, content and everything else is good so that's why I thought it was strange.

Your CTR. Whatever it is means little. You have to look at QS. If your QS says 5, I don't care if your CTR is 15%, your ads just are not as good as the average. That's the whole point of QS.

Site optimization has little to do with QS. This is not SEO. Of course you want to use keywords that are related to the page but that's pretty much where it ends. The keyword relevancy portion of QS is about 25%. You either have it or you don't, no in-between. So if you don't, you lose 2.5 points off your QS.

Improve QS. With the same bid, you'll move up in ranking and your actual cost will go down.

[paulgl]

Originally Posted by TheRetiredBuilder

To get more real estate on the first page obviously, I would have thought this was obvious

While it's not something I do myself, it's common for companies that are on the first page naturally to also use adwords for commercial terms that are getting thousands of searches daily

Yes, but they would never complain about a $4 click.

They don't care about QS anymore. Their rep is in million dollar concrete.

Their budgets are bottomless buckets.

And I guarantee google has given them price breaks for volume.

Hmmmmm. Look at those 4 statements. They actually make a good
adwords primer if tweaked a little.

Bid high, strive for QS, spend money, your cost goes down.

Paul

[Jacob Martus]

Originally Posted by W.P. Allen

If what I say is true? What would be the point of making up a post like this? Sheesh...

And I don't think I'm "competing with myself." There are people who have more than one spot in the organic top 10 for profitable keywords. The keyword I rank number one for is for a local mortgage keyword. I have a partnership with a mortgage lender and I get rather large commissions on any loans they get from my site so I want to cover as much ground as I can.

And maybe I don't understand QS as well as "professor" Lucid up there but I still don't see why the one click would be so high. My CTR, ads, site optimization, content and everything else is good so that's why I thought it was strange.

And no, it didn't convert.

Well, why not just create a second property, web 2.0 or self hosted and rank it right below your first organic spot. That way you're taking up just as much 'real-estate' without spending $4 on clicks.

If you got one site to rank well, it shouldn't be hard to do it again.

That's all I'm thinking. I wouldn't ever buy Adwords for a term that I was ranking #1 for. Maybe if I was operating a million dollar company, but not before then.

[W.P. Allen]

The reason I thought it was strange was that I have been bidding on that keyword for a while and was only paying around $1.00 - $1.25 per click. Then all of the sudden it shot up to $4.00 (actual click cost was $3.95). I had a QS of 7/10 for the longest time then it dropped to 5/10.

[XToni]

Originally Posted by W.P. Allen

Ha ha! Nice.

Well, buddy I shouldn't "expect" to pay $4 when my CTR is good, my ads are relevant, my landing page is relevant, my site is optimized for the keyword, etc.

But thanks anyway.

Well you should, there are also other marketers with god QS that are biding for those keywords, maybe with a bigger budget.

[W.P. Allen]

Well, why not just create a second property, web 2.0 or self hosted and rank it right below your first organic spot

Actually working on that right now. I paused that keyword and now I'm working on trying to rank a few more sites in the top 10.

[thebitbotdotcom]

Google rewards the advertisers and Adwords clicks ultimately go to the advertisers that can write ads that steal clicks away fro the organic results. Organic results do not make money for Google like paid result do. If your ads do not steal clicks away from other advertisers and most importantly the organic results, then you are punished with a low quality score and high CPC's. This system is set up to automatically make paid listings more and more competitive. I am sure that Google would dump organic results if they didn't have to list them.

[Domenic Carlson]

If you don't want to pay that much for a click, then don't bid that much for a click. It must have meant that someone right behind you was willing to pay 3.99 for the same click and didn't get it - or else had a higher quality score than you. 5/10 is not very high. 7/10 or higher is where you want to be. I've paid as high as $8 for a click but for that client it was worth it.

[Lucid]

Originally Posted by W.P. Allen

The reason I thought it was strange was that I have been bidding on that keyword for a while and was only paying around $1.00 - $1.25 per click. Then all of the sudden it shot up to $4.00 (actual click cost was $3.95). I had a QS of 7/10 for the longest time then it dropped to 5/10.

There you go. You just proved what I've been saying. You used to bid $4 but paying $1.25 with a QS of 7. Now it's 5 and you're paying $4.

What's happened is that you stayed put while others have passed by. And as Domenic said, and the formula shows, you pay based on what the guy below you is bidding and your QS.

[W.P. Allen]

There you go. You just proved what I've been saying. You used to bid $4 but paying $1.25 with a QS of 7. Now it's 5 and you're paying $4.

What's happened is that you stayed put while others have passed by. And as Domenic said, and the formula shows, you pay based on what the guy below you is bidding and your QS.

Correct me if I'm wrong (and I very well might be) but I though QS was determined by the relevancy of the ads, keywords, adgroups, landing page quality and overall site quality. What does it have to do with others "passing me by?" How would their actions calculate into how relevant MY site is for a keyword? I understand that the cpc will rise and fall based on how people are bidding but why would my QS drop? I don't get it.

[Lucid]

The quality of your ad is mostly determined by your click rate (CTR is about 65% of QS). If your CTR is less than a competitor, Google figures you are not as relevant. Your QS therefore calculates to a lesser value.

Your QS does not exist in a vacuum. It can go up or down because CTR goes up or down. I can come in and have a great ad getting much better CTR and pass you by. By doing so, I'm actually contributing in decreasing your QS. If my ad is near yours and mine is so much better, naturally less and less people will click on yours compared to mine. Again, more can be found in my Adwords FAQ. Reading it might help.