Google's Bid & Traffic Estimator

[windjc]

I haven't used Google in over 8 months - about the time they banned me. lol.

But I'm back on the Goog now and was wondering how accurate their bid estimator is. They are saying the highest click bid is $12 which seems ridiculous. I can't imagine anyone is paying that much for a bid for the keywords I am bidding on, unless there has been serious Google inflation.

Should I just ignore this estimator?

Thanks for feedback.

 

[defelice]

why dont you set an appropriate bid you are comfortable with and see what happens....

 

[windjc]

why dont you set an appropriate bid you are comfortable with and see what happens....

I will. I'll do what I always did. Way over bid, get a high CTR and work it down from there. Google has got some good tools, so it surprised me that I was getting back this data.

Plus, if I have to bid $12 to get #1 it will readjust my strategy a bit.

 

[conv3rsion]

set a max lower bid in that thing and see if you stay in position 1-3, its amazing how much #1 is paying vs #2 sometimes (ive seen it be 4x as much)

 

[windjc]

set a max lower bid in that thing and see if you stay in position 1-3, its amazing how much #1 is paying vs #2 sometimes (ive seen it be 4x as much)

Thanks.

On a related note, what is the best tool(s) for quickly finding out what your competition is running, spending and receiving on Adwords?

I know a year ago there were dozens of this "game-changing" tools. I've used SpyFu on occasion.

Any that you guys recommend that has decently accurate info?

Cheers

 

[prince]

which estimator tool are you talking about? there are 2 different tools that will show the bid price

one is the normal keyword tool
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal?defaultView=2

^^ this is very inaccurate

there's another one which is the traffic estimator sandbox
https://adwords.google.com/select/TrafficEstimatorSandbox

^^ this is better

anyway, they both still suck, the only reliable way to find out the real cpc is to bid on the keywords and try it

 

[DKPMO]

set a max lower bid in that thing and see if you stay in position 1-3, its amazing how much #1 is paying vs #2 sometimes (ive seen it be 4x as much)

You can also set a higher bid but combine it with position preference to avoid paying for high / expensive positions.

If you are bidding for a position range (for example 3-10+) you won't pay more than you need to maintain the highest position.

Interestingly enough with position preferences enabled the Estimator refuses to make any predictions.