End of minimum bid

[ceetee]

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Can anyone tell me the date the minimum bid model ended. I'm curious to know if I'm being charged more as a result.

[fizzbird]

Can anyone tell me the date the minimum bid model ended. I'm curious to know if I'm being charged more as a result.

What do you mean?

[Shane]

Think (s)he means the end of minimum bid to show and introduction of the "first page bid"

Recent changes mean the minimum bid to appear on google ended and is being replaced by the minimum bid to appear on front page but if you don't bid what they ask they'll only show your ads once in a blue moon so in effect it's still the minimum bid but with a different name and a probably a higher cost per click demand .. if history carries on as it has done lol

not that I'm a cynic but essentially thats it

it's a fine addition to the "quality score" suite where "blue monkeys" keyword for a site with 10 pages about blue monkeys could be £1.50 per click and have a poor quality score but the misspell "blew munkeys" which appears nowhere on site could be £0.20p per click and have a Great quality score

like I said.. I'm not a cynic..

the "end" of minimum bids is been phased into accounts currently .. I've some where it's active and some where it isn't yet

[fizzbird]

the "end" of minimum bids is been phased into accounts currently .. I've some where it's active and some where it isn't yet

OK, thanks I've not seen this happen yet. I noticed recently a mark out of 10 for quality score so there must be a few changes going on?

[ceetee]

Yes that's what I was referring to. I just happened to notice the change today. Bit too early to be sure if there's any connection but the prices are a tad up on a few days ago.

The good news is that my OK ads are all 7/10 and Great are 8/10. I've always been worried my OK ads were just one small step from oblivion/slapdom.

[tijan]

Think it ended after the upgrade on saturday.

[fizzbird]

The good news is that my OK ads are all 7/10 and Great are 8/10. I've always been worried my OK ads were just one small step from oblivion/slapdom.

I'll have to look out for that oblivion/slapdom?

I ran a campaign today that got a 10/10 on the first attempt - maybe I just got lucky?

[grobinso]

How's everyone making out now with this new 'minimum bid' ?

---- Start of rant ----

From my perspective, i'm dead in the water again. Its just the same as being Google slapped and i really dont know what to do now except maybe give up (at least on Google)

I put 1 new campaign up in the last few days (new site) and immediately got 'Great' and 'OK' quality scores. Not surprising really, sending visitors looking for 'blue widgets' to a page splattered with blue widgets from an Ad which mentions blue Widgets at least twice (plus once more in the display URL). 24 hours later every single keyword is 'Poor' and not displaying, its just beyond a joke a now.

Now i may be just the lucky one , maybe its pesonal now on this particular account.

Recently i got a complaint from a Large Retailer (via Google) saying one of their Trademarks was triggering my ads and lo & behold Google within 24 hours dissaproved every single campaign (even ones which were'nt triggered by their keyword).

The reason they gave : Landing page quality or affiliate link' but i'm sure we all realise whats happened here.

Well Ok, it was an affiliate site as thats what i am - an affiliate and i'm using affiliate scripts & product feeds. So does that mean i can't be an affiliate any more on Google ? as i'm pretty sure that if i put up another site with afiliate links on it it's going to go the same way. Its one step forward and 2 steps back now working with Google.

When i use product feeds, they provide me with all the product information the customer needs to make a purchase decision. I display this information clearly and i make sure that the page the customer lands on after clicking contains the product they searched for so what more can i do?

It seems to me the only crime i commited is i'm an affiliate. ( or trying to be!!)

Surely i can't be the only one experiencing this now?

Yes i know i could spend several hundred hours building a multi page diverse content rich site based around something i'm really interested in but you know what ? I'm actually really interested in what i'm doing now, I also dont know if doing that would actually make any difference as soon as they spot the affiliate links & and i dont really want to spend several hundred hours just to find out.

If anyone has found a way to handle this new system please share it.before i tear all my hair out.

----- end of rant ----

Thanks for listening

Graham







l

[fizzbird]

If anyone has found a way to handle this new system please share it.before i tear all my hair out.
l

I haven't had a problem tbh. Not yet anyway?

From what I've read to date I believe the best way to deal with a campaign which has gone bad is just to delete it and start again with another domain?

[Andrew Starr]

The good news is that my OK ads are all 7/10 and Great are 8/10. I've always been worried my OK ads were just one small step from oblivion/slapdom.

How are you seeing 7/10 8/10 ?

I only see Great, OK, Poor etc.. I feel like I am missing out

so it looks like Great is 8+ and OK is 7 or less
at what score out of 10 does it become Poor?

[Silver]

Haven't actually got any poor ads - so I wouldn't know yet...but I imagine it is 5 or less

If you are still seeing the poor, ok, great then your account just hasn't upgraded yet, it probably will over the next few days.

I am keen to hear where people are seeing the large increases in bids? How do they differ by sector? How do they differ by head or long tail?

[grobinso]

How are you seeing 7/10 8/10 ?

I only see Great, OK, Poor etc.. I feel like I am missing out

so it looks like Great is 8+ and OK is 7 or less
at what score out of 10 does it become Poor?

Pop your cursor over the magnifying glass next to your keyword. it gives you your 'score'

As to at what point it becomes poor i dont know, i went from 'Great ' you dont need to make any changes to 'Poor' your site is zapped' within 24 hours. Don't feel you're missing out - you're not missing anything , honest.

Fizzbird, this was a new site, brand new domain.

Graham

[tbp]

I`ve been hit by this while I was away, and my quality score is now 3 / 10 so it won't show ad's on the front page without a ridiculous bid.

Not quite sure why the score is so bad, its entirely down to the content according to google, however the main phrase the site is based on is getting 3 / 10, whereas a phrase which is only used once has got a much higher score which doesn't seem to make much sense. I also can't see why when the site is at number 1 for the keyword (based on content) that its so bad for adwords on the same search phrase.

As a result, i`m not exactly sure what they are now looking for, it complies with all their guidelines. Going to set up a number of different landing pages to test with and try and work out what the new criteria is, as all the obvious boxes are ticked.

Only good thing is that the quality score is now supposed to update in real time, so changes as soon as you make a change, rather than having to wait for it to be reassessed at some point in the future. Haven't tested this though so not sure if its actually happening now, or whether its still to be introduced.

[grobinso]

As a result, i`m not exactly sure what they are now looking for, it complies with all their guidelines. Going to set up a number of different landing pages to test with and try and work out what the new criteria is, as all the obvious boxes are ticked.

I have no idea what they are looking for but i'm going to put up a page for blue widgets without a single affiliate link on it anywhere and see what quality score it gets :tup

Graham

[fizzbird]

Not quite sure why the score is so bad, its entirely down to the content according to google, however the main phrase the site is based on is getting 3 / 10, whereas a phrase which is only used once has got a much higher score which doesn't seem to make much sense. I also can't see why when the site is at number 1 for the keyword (based on content) that its so bad for adwords on the same search phrase.

I have a colleague who is having a similar problem with a certain keyword. Looking into it I can only guess that it's because the keyword he's targeted has a relative low search volume and there is hardly any historical data.
No matter what he does, he can not get an ad to show for this word, even though no one else is targeting it? His quality score is 7/10 though