AdWords - Different CPC in Different Places

[BeckM2]

I'm new to AdWords and I was hoping someone could explain this situation. I have a different CPC on different parts of AdWords for the same keyword.

For the sake of discussion, I'm going to change the actual keywords and location, but the concept is the same:

I am a hypothetical chemistry tutor in Boston, MA. On my keyword list I have the following in order to cover my local area:

chemistry tutor boston ma
chemistry tutor somerville ma
chemistry tutor medford ma

chemistry tutor in boston ma
chemistry tutor in somerville ma
chemistry tutor in medford ma

And so on. I have about 10 variations on the keyword phrase "chemistry tutor [town]" and I've got about 10 towns, for a total of 100 keywords.

If I go to Campaign Management > Account Snapshot > Ad Group: Chemistry Group 1 and then click on the Keywords tab, I get a list of all the keywords in my campaign. And when I scroll down to Chemistry tutor in Danvers ma it says "Bid is Below first bid estimate of $3.50".

But then if I go to the AdWords tools in (Tools > Keyword Tools) and I type in the phrase Chemistry tutor in Danvers ma -- the same keyword, it tells me that the estimate Avg. CPC is 0.05 for a 1-3 Estimated Ad Position.

Why is there such a large discrepancy for the price for the CPC on the Keyword Tools page, vs on my AdGroup page?

Any help is much appreciated. Thanks.

[jamesviago]

oh, the mysteries of adwords cpc.
in simple terms, if the keyword tool says it's woth 0.05 and your "live" keyword min bid sucks, then it's probably because your quality score is not high enough.

QS = a function of relevance: landing page vs advariant vs keyword.
min bid is massively influenced by QS - hence the differences you are seeing.

if you tightly target your landing pages to the geographies, the QS will go up and CPC will go down.

[Josh T.]

The Keyword Tool and The Adwords Estimator are
different tools which use different sets of data to
produce their statistics. The keyword tool is more
of an average from trends over time, whereas, the
adwords estimator is a bit more realistic and current.

My advice? Consider upping your bid if it says below
first page estimate, but don't accept that as cold hard
truth. You can still get on the first page with a lower bid.

Remember, these are the suggested bids that Google is
recommending to keep their engine well greased and
churning out cash. Bid what you are comfortable with and
make them deal with it. If you can't afford their suggested
bid, then you probably can't afford the risk anyway.

Side note: I have a similar campaign locally targeted. It
gets very little traffic, but my opt in rate is very decent. And
my risk exposure on that campaign is almost non-existent.
It's a very safe way to break into adwords and test the waters.

Good luck, my friend.

[BeckM2]

Thank you both for taking the time to answer my question.

Based on what you've said, I think I've found the problem:

In my campaign I have all 100 keywords (including the variations for all of the local towns). But my ads are generic -- and don't include the "town" in the ad. So while I may have had Chem Tutor, Free Consult, URL and varied it with Chemistry Tutor Available, Free Consult, URL I never went and made ads with the specific town location in them like Chem Tutor Medford, Free Consult, URL.

1) Could this be the reason that my QS is poor? -- because my ads didn't reflect the keywords?

2) Would the following help:

A. In the campaign, create Ad Groups for each town with the keyword variations. e.g:

Group1: Chemistry Tutor Boston ma
Chemistry Tutor in Boston ma
Chem Tutor Boston ma
Chem Tutor in Boston ma

Group2: Chemistry Tutor Medford ma
Chemistry Tutor in Medford ma
Chem Tutor Medford ma
Chem Tutor in Medford ma

So I'd have 10 Ad Groups, each with the town keywords.

B. And then I'd rework the ads to make sure that each ad group has ads that have the specific town keywords from the group?


Thanks again.

[jamesviago]

that is exactly what i would do.
and if i really wanted more conversions, i'd create a landing page for each town too.

[BeckM2]

I actually created a separate thread about that. If you could take a look I'd appreciate it.

post602397

[I'd post it as a link but they won't let me yet]

(BTW: One of the things I hate the most about any forums is the fact that a) people don't use descriptive titles when they post , and b) they add other good information that's a side topic and doesn't really apply to the original discussion so it can't be found by search -- pet peeves of mine. That's why I "broke it off" this thread".)

[NZ Bryce]

Sounds like you might benefit from creating two campaigns with geographic targetting for your cities. Yes, do put in the city name in your ads and split test.

I often find I've accidientially included the same keywords in mulitple AdGroups / campaigns and often these two instances have different min bids.