Google First Page Bids

Nydia Davis - October 28, 2009

So you’ve launched your Google campaign and you see that you are getting tons of impressions for your keywords, but no clicks. When you take a look at your keywords you see that Google recommends a higher first page bid estimate than what you are currently bidding. This estimate is higher than your bids for other keywords, but a particular term is very targeted and important to your campaign. It’s time to make a decision. What do you do? Increase your bid.

On the Keyword Analysis tab within the Google Adword’s interface there is a metric labeled “Estimated bid to show on the first page”. This metric is also called the first page bid estimate and it approximates the cost-per-click (CPC) bid needed for your ad to reach the first page of Google’s search results. The estimate is based on your Google Quality Score and current advertiser competition for that particular keyword.

Meeting your first page bid is not a guarantee of placement. Ad placement will still be dependent on Quality Score, your cost-per-click (CPC) bid, your budget, account settings, and user and advertiser behavior.

A common misconception about increasing cost-per-click (CPC) bids is that it would instantaneously eat away at your budget. Although this may seem apparent, it’s not always true. Depending on your keyword’s potential to result into a conversion; the return on investment should be evaluated, therefore increasing the cost-per-click bid if needed accordingly.

Lastly, while increasing your cost-per-click bids, remember that Google sets daily spending budgets for each campaign. As long as you set a realistic budget, the increase in cost-per-click cost should not eat away at your ad budget.