Are you struggling to understand why the minimum bid for your keywords in Google Ads seems unusually high? In our latest post, we’ll tackle some of the most commonly asked questions about minimum bids in paid search.
Note – This post explores the common concerns around the minimum bid of keywords, drawing on insights from publicly available resources provide by Google.
Refer to this tweet for more details https://twitter.com/jason_kint/status/1718830641016414657 and access the document here https://www.justice.gov/d9/2023-10/417378.pdf
Why do I suddenly see a High Minimum Bid for my New Keyword?
Historical Performance of Keyword: If the historical performance of a keyword was low (e.g., low click-through rates, low conversion rates), this could impact its Quality Score and relevance. When a keyword with a history of poor performance is unsuspended, advertisers may need to take steps to improve ad quality, relevance, and landing page experience to achieve better results and maintain a competitive CPC.
Competition: If your keyword is highly competitive and many advertisers are bidding on it, this can drive up the minimum bid required to display your ad. Popular or lucrative keywords often have higher bids.
Relevance: The relevance of your ad to the keyword plays a role. low ad text relevance score indicates that your ad might not be closely related to the keyword you’re targeting. This can result in a lower Quality Score. A lower Quality Score typically leads to a higher minimum bid requirement. Search engines like Google Ads use Quality Score to determine ad rank and minimum bid thresholds.
Seasonality or Trends: Keyword pricing can fluctuate based on seasonal trends or events. Certain times of the year or trends in consumer behavior can impact keyword costs.
Why does my Registered Trademark have a High Minimum Bid?
Competition: If your trademarked keyword is highly competitive and sought after by multiple advertisers, this can drive up the minimum bid required to display your ad. Advertisers bidding on popular or valuable trademarks may be willing to pay more to secure ad placement.
Trademark Ownership: The minimum bid for your registered trademark keyword could be influenced by who owns the trademark. If multiple parties are bidding on the same trademarked term, the bidding competition can increase the minimum bid
Low Historical Performance: If a keyword historically has low performance metrics such as low click-through rates (CTR), low conversion rates, or low engagement, it can result in a lower Quality Score. A lower Quality Score often leads to a higher minimum bid requirement to display ads for that keyword.
User Preference for Organic Results: If users frequently click on organic (non-paid) search results rather than ads when searching for a specific keyword, it can impact the performance metrics of paid ads associated with that keyword. This behavior can contribute to lower ad engagement and overall performance.
Effect on Ad Relevance and Quality Score: User behavior favoring organic results can signal to the advertising platform that paid ads for the keyword may not be as relevant or appealing to users. This can negatively impact the Quality Score of the keyword, leading to a higher minimum bid requirement.
Why don’t my Minimum Bids don’t change?
Keywords are Suspended: If your keywords are suspended, your ads are not being shown for these keywords due to policy violations, low search volume, or other reasons. When keywords are suspended, they effectively have a minimum bid of infinity (i.e., ads cannot show), which can prevent bid adjustments from taking effect.
Solution: Review the reasons for keyword suspension and take necessary actions to resolve any policy violations or issues. Consider expanding your keyword list or targeting more relevant terms if the issue is low search volume.
Quality-Based Bidding (QBB) and Minimum CPC: Quality-based bidding systems like Google Ads use factors such as Quality Score, ad relevance, and landing page experience to determine minimum bids (minimum CPC). If your keywords have low performance metrics (e.g., low CTR, poor ad relevance), the platform may require higher bids to achieve ad visibility.
Solution: Focus on improving ad relevance, keyword targeting, and landing page experience to boost Quality Score and lower minimum CPC requirements.
Keyword Performance Updates: The performance of your keywords (e.g., CTR, conversion rates) can impact minimum bids over time. If keywords have historically low performance, this can influence bidding requirements. Solution: Continuously optimize your campaigns, monitor keyword performance, and make data-driven adjustments to improve overall campaign effectiveness and reduce minimum bids.
Why do I suddenly see a High Min Bid for my Existing Keywords?
Exact Keyword CTR (Click-Through Rate) on Google is Low: Low CTR on your exact match keywords can indicate that your ads are not resonating well with users searching for those specific terms. This can lead to a lower Quality Score and a higher minimum bid requirement.
Ad Text Relevance is Low: If your ad text does not closely match the intent behind the targeted keywords, it can result in lower ad relevance. This impacts Quality Score and may lead to higher minimum bids.
LPQ (Landing Page Quality) is Bad: A poor landing page experience, characterized by slow loading times, lack of relevant content, or unclear call-to-actions, can negatively affect Quality Score. This, in turn, can increase the minimum bid needed to display your ads.
Account Performance is Low: Overall account performance, including historical CTR, conversion rates, and quality of ads, can influence the minimum bid required for keywords. If your account has a history of underperforming, it may result in higher minimum bids.
Ad Text Changes Can Cause Min Bids to Spike: Making significant changes to your ad text, such as updating headlines, descriptions, or display URLs, can impact ad relevance and Quality Score. Sudden changes can disrupt the historical performance data associated with the keywords, potentially leading to a temporary increase in minimum bids.
Related Links:
Stop the wasted ad spend. Get more conversions from the same ad budget.
Our customers save over $16 Million per year on Google and Amazon Ads.