Google has set minimum bids for AdWords starting today
 

at least this results from the email I skimmed that I just got from them

IMO bad for advertisers, good for website owners using AdSense or domain owners

some bids don't make much sense though

"gay" -minimum bid $1.00
"gay dating" - min. $0.20

lol, should be the opposite

The more vague terms will always have higher prices, I generally don't like the new system. Some of these keywords are nearly 3-4X my intended Max CPC.
WG

but what's the reasoning behind it?

the more general the term, the less targetted... = worth less

It's always been like this, Overture, Google, Findwhat, etc. etc.. As to why, there's many reasons that are possible, my guess is that not many companies take the time to dig down to find refined keywords and just try to capture as much market share as possible by bidding on the general keywords and letting advanced matches pickup the smaller ones.

WG

I dont like it at all, but I'm tracking which exact terms are being clicked and making sales, so I'll quickly dump keywords that generate clicks but no sales.

hmm thats not good, just about to release my campaign :(

Damn, I ain't paying $0.10 for ********* :(

that sucks, good for google more money for them. They really want to shrink people profit margins

I have a stake in Adsense and Adwords and I'm not seeing any positives from this. Honestly, what is going to happen is advertisers are going to have to start using shady business tactics to pull a profit.

Interesting, here is what a Google Adwords rep posted in a mainstream board:

"In overview, the system is designed to give advertisers more control over what keywords they choose to show their ads - by providing a very real financial incentive to advertise using very targeted keywords and ads, while also allowing them to decide for themselves exactly how valuable their less relevant keywords are."

I have a strong feeling minimum CPC is based heavily on clickthrough rate...

not good, I was just about to start using adwords for real..... :Oh crap

Can you post a link to that news release please?

There's no way this is good.

Google AdWords is becoming a pain in the ass. Their broad/phrase/exact matching is faulty, their "automated" bid management tool (to get you the max. clicks for your money) is faulty and even though their customer service replies are excellent, they take 5 days to respond.

Not impressed.

I will be busy baby sitting this heap of shit system for the next few weeks.

That's not set in stone that's based on YOUR campaigns. This isn't like Overture where it's a set amount for everyone. My minimum for "gay" maybe 20¢ depedning on how it's done in the past for me.

Some words are higher. Some MUCH higher. I've seen where I can now set some keywords at 3¢. Supposedly there are 1¢ keywords out there.

I wonder if this has anything to do with a large increase in clicks ive been getting om the last few days. getting nearly twice as many as usual.

This just started TODAY.

Anyway I just checked and for me "gay" is 40¢ not $1 and "gay dating" is 2¢ not 20¢ so as I said the minimum bid is going to be different for everyone. Shit if one can find enough 2¢ keywords there isn't any way you can't make money.

woohoo for my soon to come adsense network!

$.02 ? They let it go below $.05 now?

Looks shitty for adwords users. Can understand the logic, but really it just makes life a lot harder to turn a profit on there.

Yep as low as 1¢

Ok if I was paying 5¢ for a keyword and now I'm paying 1¢ how am I losing profit?

I can point out 100 keywords now charging more the 5cents, can you show me 1 that is going to list me for 1cent? Not saying it is going to be all bad, just alot more work and targetting in order to get as much traffic as before for the same cost. Example, I used to bid on teen porn (general keyword) and get a good amount of traffic per day at 5 cents per click, now my campaigns are deactivated unless I up it to 10 cents a click minimum. Like I said, I can understand the logic, just makes life harder for the advertiser.

You got good traffic for teen porn at $0.05? I find that hard to believe. I never find general stuff that low. Especially not something that crowded.

Well since MY minimum bid for a keyword is going to be different that yours that would be impossible. Like someone said "gay dating" is a minimum of 20¢ for them and 2¢ for me.

Besides you don't have to bid 5¢ to make a profit.

Hello from the Google AdWords Team:

We're happy to let you know that we've implemented our new keyword status system. We've simplified our keyword states and introduced quality-based minimum bids, giving you more control to run on keywords that you find important. With these improvements, your keywords will now either be active or inactive, depending on their quality and maximum cost-per-click (CPC).

We suggest you log in to your account to view these changes. Any keywords that were previously normal, in trial, or on hold are now labeled as either active (triggering ads) or inactive (not triggering ads). Any keywords that were disabled before implementation will remain labeled as disabled in your account for several weeks. This gives you the opportunity to review and activate any disabled keywords you'd like to run on before we delete them. However, we will no longer disable any new keywords you enter into your account.

Here are some resources that will help you get better acquainted with the new keyword status system:

The new performance monitor
What's changed FAQ
New keyword states
We believe these system changes will give you more control to run on keywords you find important and result in higher quality ads, enabling you to reach your potential customers more effectively.

Sincerely,
The Google AdWords Team

i like it, i'm all for making the system more complicated and costly, it weeds out competition easier than me having to do it.

That's gay :2 cents:

:upsidedow

Yes because "ACTIVE" and "INACTIVE" is more complicated than "NORMAL", "IN TRIAL", "ON HOLD", "DISABLED".

this sucks - just checked and on 1 of my campaigns, 178 of 179 keywords are disabled!!!

At the same time i have seen an increase in my adsense income...but still preferred it the previous way...

ok, didn't know that...

that makes things even more confusing...

Good point I guess. I will think of this as I continue to optimize all my campaigns. It would be nice to know a large percentage of advertisers won't take the time to do this and give up.

Shitty news to say the least....wtf

im gonna use adsense on adwords :thumbsup :error

I know a lot of you are panicking, but It's going to be a positive, contact me next week I'll explain

Disabled is no longer an option. It's either active or inactive. If you have disabled keywords, they already were disabled before this system got into effect. You can then enable those keywords by removing them from your ad group and adding them again.

I myself think it has some positive and negative sides. I saw that my overall ctr has increased by 1% (which for most people is a lot). I also found that of my 25k active keywords I had yesterday 12k are now inactive because they need a higher bid.

What's so confusing? If your keywords aren't peforming well then Google is going to charge you more for you to use those keywords. Before if your keywords weren't doing so well they still might be showing but only sometimes. That's was more comfusing to me having your ad show all the time, sometimes, every once in a great while or not at all. This way it is either showing or not. Simple.

If you are having to pay more for a keyword then learn how to get a better performance out of that word and the cost will go down. As I said if you can find enough 1¢, 2¢ and 3¢ keywords you should do well.

I can pretty much assure most Google stockholders that this quarter will be very profitable for Google. They effectively suspended a large chunk of keywords until I bid an extra 50% more. Bastards.
WG