Adwords help - can I choose the CPC???

[frndelavega]

I want to use Adwords to promote my website. According to Google's Keyword tool my main keyword has 1000 EXACT US searches per month and a CPC of $20.

I want to promote my website with Adwords, but the CPC is quite high. I have searched for my keyword in google.com, and there is no one paying for Adwords, there are no other advertisers.

I am very new to Adwords, but from what I've read, you can bid for the amount of $$ you are paying per click (you decide the CPC), and the highest bidder is displayed in the top search results (sponsored by Adwords).

Given that there are no other advertisers paying for Adwords, and that I can bid for the amount of money I want to pay per click, can I choose to pay $0.01 per click?

Why does Adwords show $20 CPC if there are currently no other advertisers using Adwords for that keyword?

[petzergling]

Googles Keyword tool numbers are generally way high, they are basically the maximum ad price if you have no optimization. Generally a good estimate is between 1/3 - 1/2 of the cost of the google keyword tool is what you'll be paying. The 20$ CPC is probably just an estimate based on related keywords and amount of searches. Look at the keywords for "insurance" and you'll see lots of extremely high CPC bids. Then look up the CPC bid for "cat insurance". Just based off of what I see on the SERPs I highly doubt that these people are paying 11$ per click for "cat insurance" ads(correct me if im wrong).

For each keyword google has a "minimum bid" for the first page. This basically means you cant just pay .01 to get the top spot of a search term 100% of the time. The minimum bid, I'm guessing, is based around the keyword. When creating a branding campaign your minimum bids are usually between .01-.05, but if you are going for a more commonly searched term then it will be higher. When your account history and CTR gets good and reputable, I believe google lowers the minimum required bid for keywords that have no competition.

Also I would take warning of absolutely 0 search results for google adwords, it probably means the keyword isn't profitable in terms of conversion. I'm way more likely to start targetting a keyword that has 4-5 poorly optimized CPC listings then a keyword with 0.

GL friend

[aygabtu]

Always lowball them and wait a few hours and see if you get any impressions. If not, raise your bid a bit, and repeat. Make sure you put your keywords in your ads also.

[tryinhere]

there are currently no other advertisers using Adwords for that keyword?

please have sombody look at this before you loose your undies, there would be a reason probably why no one is advertising, google has black listed the terms / sites that were there or people do not make money with the term.

[webworm]

I prefer you to spend some penny for it.In every field you need to invest something to gain something.As you are new marketer for your site popularity and driving traffic you need to spent some dollars on it along with the SEO stuff.