Saturday, April 3, 2010

Google Adwords More Pricing BS

Today, we’d like to revisit a common misconception, about which we receive quite a few questions. In the first part of the post, we will very briefly cover the most important facts and in the second we’ll take a more detailed look at four related questions.
The common misconception: Many advertisers believe that if they have no competitors for a keyword, their minimum cost-per-click (CPC) will automatically be lowered by the AdWords system to $0.01, the lowest possible CPC.
How it actually works: The minimum CPC for a keyword is not related to the number of competitors one has that keyword. Instead, minimum CPC is dependent on the Quality Score of the keyword, as it’s used in the advertiser’s account. This functionality was introduced in August 2005, when keyword bidding evolved to a quality-based model.
So what we have is an auction based advertising system that has nothing to do with auction based pricing! Because you have no idea what goes into quality score you have no idea if Google is ripping you off or price jacking you. In yet another stroke of brilliance check this out
If you look for your ad and see no competitors, this does not necessarily mean that there are no others advertising on that keyword. For example, many advertisers choose to show their ads only during particular times of the day, so you will not necessarily see them when your ad appears. Or, while you might be targeting the entire United States, competing advertisers may be regionally targeting and not including the area in which you are located — in which case you’ll not see their ads.
So lets see I’m in New York and running geotargeted ad only in NY and my pricing is affected someone in California running a geotargeted ad only in California? Really can you say that with a straight face? Exactly how much alcohol was flowing at that staff meeting because you really can’t expect anyone to believe that a bunch of rational people reached the conclusion that was logical anywhere except the bizzaro universe. Just because housing prices in San Jose are going up doesn’t mean they are in every market across the country.
Why don’t you just come out and say listen we’re going to charge you whatever we want to, and there’s nothing you can do except pay it. At least I’d respect you for not lying to me.
Somebody put me on adwords quality score debate panel at conference … please the voice of reason needs to be heard …

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