Adwords initial bid question

[Aveligand]

I understand that the gist of using Adwords is to start off bidding high, getting your CTR high, and then slowly lowering your bid bit by bit.

So what's the general rule of thumb for the initial bid? Assuming we're talking about a moderately competitive niche, all the keyword qualities scores are "great" with a minimum bid of $0.06. How much would you bid?

 

[productionhead]

get to top 3 positions to get high ctr

 

[aff_tim]

Between $0.50 and $5.00, depends on a lot of factors... sometimes $5.00 won't even get you in the top 3, so you have to look closely at your niche.

I aim for an initial ctr of 15-20%.

 

[arz]

I understand that the gist of using Adwords is to start off bidding high, getting your CTR high, and then slowly lowering your bid bit by bit.

Doesn't the "slowly lowering your bid bit by bit" strategy work only if your CTR is better than Google expects it to be for the avg position where your ad is displayed? If your CTR is avg or worse, then lowering your bid would just lower your position (and lower your traffic as a result).

 

[amjonathan]

Re:

Doesn't the "slowly lowering your bid bit by bit" strategy work only if your CTR is better than Google expects it to be for the avg position where your ad is displayed? If your CTR is avg or worse, then lowering your bid would just lower your position (and lower your traffic as a result).

Right. You can try to lower your bids SLOWLY and use your good CTR as an advantage... but as soon as that sucker starts to drop i would revise it a tad... but it all depends, are you getting a good ROI on that bid?

 

[kjb1891]

I was told over at the DP Adwords forum that CTR is "normalized" per position. So, your CTR in any position only counts towards that particular position.