Bid

The bid is one of the inputs to Ad Rank, so it decides whether and where your ad can show. Too low, and good keywords never get clicks. Too high, and you pay more than a click is worth.

With Smart Bidding, you no longer set the bid for each keyword. Google sets it at every auction, from a target you give it.

1. On manual bidding, open Keywords or Ad groups and look at Max. CPC.
2. On automated bidding, open Settings, then Bidding, to see the strategy and target.
3. Check top of page bid estimates on the keywords report for a sense of the price of a visible position.
4. Compare bids with Avg. CPC to see what you actually paid.

A keyword has a maximum bid of €2. The next advertiser's Ad Rank only requires €1.40 for you to win the position, so you pay about €1.40, not €2.

• Raising bids to fix a problem with ads or landing pages, which bids cannot solve.
• Setting the same bid on every keyword whatever it earns.
• Changing bids every day, before the last change could show an effect.

The audit checks Oppy runs on this, each with its own page.

• Keywords Google rates well that have not spent in months
• Buying clicks on an account that needs results

• Average CPC: The average cost of one click: total cost divided by clicks.
• Bid strategy: How a campaign sets its bids: by hand, or automatically toward a goal such as clicks, conversions, conversion value, a target CPA or a target ROAS.
• Ad Rank: The score Google uses to decide whether an ad shows and in what position.