Questions on setting max CPC in Adwords

[einfohound]

I have set up several test Adwords campaigns lately that I am having a problem understanding. Can you shed any light? I have limited them to some fairly long-tail search terms that should get some traffic. If I do a search on these terms there are very few (or even NO) Adwords ads showing on the search results pages. After I set up my campaign, Google lists my max CPC for many of these keywords as being below the first page estimate. Why is this? I would think if there is only one ad showing, I should be able to bid $.05 and have my ad listed. What gives with this?

I have also noticed a similar "problem" with Yahoo. Even in low competition search terms, when I set up my campaign, Yahoo seems to be "requiring" me to bid at least $.20 CPC or they estimate I will get no traffic. Why can't I bid $.05 (or $.01) for that matter if there are no ads currently showing for that search term?

Do I need to start my bids at a higher amount and then back them down?

[dave147]

have you tried lowering your bid to $0.05c regardless of what cpc states? and then searching with your keyword phrases?

[cassidywilliams]

There is a thing called Google Quality Score which determines a great deal how much you have to pay per click and what position your ad gets.

Even if you are the only advertiser, but the quality score is low, you have to pay more.

To see your quality score for each keyword you have to go to your Ad Group, click on keywords, now click on "customize columns" and choose "show quality score".

Things to do to increase quality score:

- make sure the keyword you bid on in in the ad text (especially first line)
- keyword needs to be in the title of the landing page
- keyword needs to be in the content of the landing page
- landing page needs outgoing links and it needs to load fast

[einfohound]

Yes - that is what I set these campaigns up at initially (and they still are). But, as I stated, Google will have them listed as "below minimum for first page display".

I DO still get some impressions (for my $.05 bid), but that just makes it even more confusing.

[dburk]

Hi einfohound,

Use the Keyword Analysis Page to find out what you QS is, and if it's poor, this tool will tell you why you have a poor QS.

Are you using "exact match" and avoiding "broad match" keywords? It's very difficult to get good QS with broad match.

There are many subtle nuances to relevancy that can be difficult to master. Use the AdWords Keyword Tool to verify that the terms you are using for your landing page appears at the top of the list of relevant terms.

[einfohound]

I am direct linking (not my landing page). Can I still use the Keyword Analysis Page to check this? I was just trying to throw something out there quickly to check this out. All the keywords (there are not many) that I put out were broad match.

[dburk]

Hi einfohound,

Yes, you can still use the Keyword Analysis Page, it's part of your AdWords Account.

Broad match keywords usually get you poor quality scores. Switch to exact match and stick with terms that have at least 3 words or more to build up a little good QS history.

Try to use exact match except when you are experimenting to find new long tails, then use phrase match. You should avoid broad match except for very short limited tests.

[NZ Bryce]

Hi dburk,

Interesting guidance on when to use broad, versus phase, versus exact. will alter my approach a test it out.

Thanks