AdWords -Very Confused - No Ads Shown At All for Keyword

[BeckM2]

I'm learning adwords and I was hoping someone could explain to me the following situation.

For a specific keyword, let's call it "chemistry", I have an adgroup that has that keyword in it, and my ad and target page all have this keyword.

I set my max CPC for this keyword to be $0.25. In the Ad Group listing it says "bid is below first page estimate of $0.40". Ok. Fine for now.

But when I go to google and do a search for this keyword, "chemistry", no ads show up at all -- for anyone -- not just me.

Clearly "chemistry" is not my real keyword, but if nobody else has ads to show for the keyword, why isn't my ad showing up? If there's no compeition, shouldn't I be able to bid $0.01?

Unless of course google has set $0.40 as the "minimum fee to get your ad shown at all".

So any advice to explain this situation is much appreciated.
Thanks.

[keivn2]

Originally Posted by BeckM2

I'm learning adwords and I was hoping someone could explain to me the following situation.

For a specific keyword, let's call it "chemistry", I have an adgroup that has that keyword in it, and my ad and target page all have this keyword.

I set my max CPC for this keyword to be $0.25. In the Ad Group listing it says "bid is below first page estimate of $0.40". Ok. Fine for now.

But when I go to google and do a search for this keyword, "chemistry", no ads show up at all -- for anyone -- not just me.

Clearly "chemistry" is not my real keyword, but if nobody else has ads to show for the keyword, why isn't my ad showing up? If there's no compeition, shouldn't I be able to bid $0.01?

Unless of course google has set $0.40 as the "minimum fee to get your ad shown at all".

So any advice to explain this situation is much appreciated.
Thanks.

Did you put where is your ads display location like US, Canda or Australia?

[dburk]

Hi BeckM2,

Your ad position score is based on your maximum bid and your quality score. If you keyword has a poor quality score, the minimum bid for 1st page placement is what you must bid to get your ad to appear.

If your keyword is a single word like "chemistry", it will simply be too ambiguous to get a good quality score. A better choice would be longer phrases like "chemistry courses", "chemistry books" or "sexual chemistry"

[BeckM2]

Thank you both. First, for the location I've customized it as within 4 miles of my target town.

And dburk I understand the quality score and why the price is set at $0.40. My problem is that when I bid under $0.40 the ad didn't show at all. There are no other adwords ads listed for my keyword in a google search. That's why I'm wondering about the minimum first page. If my keyword is "If you name is dburk click here because you were helpful on the wf forum", I'd venture to say that I'm the only one using that keyword in an adwords campaign. So in theory, since there's no competition for that keyword, shouldn't the cost be very very low? Because I'm the only one, won't I be the only ad showing on the page.

[dburk]

Hi BeckM2,

Your quality score is made up from a number of factors, including keyword history, ad group QS history and account QS history. If you are using a long tail keyword and not using exact match only, you may be competing with broad match terms.

It sounds like your keyword may have no history yet, so I would look to establish a good history. Regardless of competition, AdWords will not display your ad on the first page of results if your bid does not meet the minimum bid required for placement on the first page. If you run your ad at higher bids and establish a good CTR rate you will see your minimum bids drop.

Your have to earn those cheap CPCs.