Adwords confusion

[FrozenCanuck]

Hi all,

I'm playing around with adwords just to get comfortable with it, using affiliate links for now.

Here is where I am confused. I'll type a keyword into google and notice that there are either NO sponsored links, or only 2-3. To me that says there is very little competition for the keyword.

I next proceed to setup a campaign that uses this keyword. Once the ad copy is written (and it is RELEVANT to the keyword), I try to bid a reasonable amount (5c or so) and I am told that I have to increase my bid. Often I have to go as high as 12c to get it to be "active" and recently as high as 35c !! What gives? Shouldn't google accept whatever they can get if they have ZERO sponsored links showing up for that keyword?

[Marcie]

Um, yeah, they have some logarithm that determines relevance and likes so shut off your keywords. It may have more to do with the fact that you are pointing to an affiliate site, because the logarithm cares just as much (or more) about the relevance of the site as it does the ad.

[Ibanez]

ad relevancy with the site is a big one. Read about quality score.

[Mike Rhodes]

Hi Frozen!

Ibanez is right, Quality Score is the thing that you need to focus on. Google changed their rules a while ago to make this pretty much the most important aspect of 'where' & 'how much' for all of your Ads

The great news is that you can now see the Quality Score (QS) for every single one of your keywords. Once you're in an AdGroup & looking at your list of keywords, look for the link that says "customize columns" in the bar across the top (just under the date range) and choose 'show Quality Score'
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1099/1410117598_a2f5dee2ac.jpg


There are 3 main ratings: great, ok & poor
But (& this is the bit that most people miss) you get even more detail by looking at the minimum bid needed to show that keyword.
For instance it might be 'ok' with a min cpc of 13c, or 'ok' with a min cpc (cost per click) of 45c. One is way better than the other.

If you create an Adgroup of closely related keywords, write a great Ad that contains these keywords & then (once someone clicks the Ad), take your visitor to a page that closely related to both the Ad & the keyword - then you'll get a Great QS

This is where the big money is made online - you can now show you Ad for as little as 1c per click. Even if there are other advertisers bidding on the same keyword.
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1067/1409271691_46a7ff9a31.jpg


I hope this short explaination helps. If you want over an hour of free video content to help you get started using AdWords, please feel free to visit my site & grab the Free 5-day AdWords Video Course.
(hope this is ok to link to ??)

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1234/1410161282_1c5fce01b4.jpg
(http://websavvy.com.au/free-video-course/)
WebSavvy.com.au/free-video-course/ (http://websavvy.com.au/free-video-course/)

Good luck,
Mike

WebSavvy.com.au (http://websavvy.com.au)