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Do you use the Google adWord automatic pricing (provide the upper limit you would like to spend), or do you manually adjust and set the the bid price = first page bid min. price?

According to Google, the automatic pricing will use the lowest bid price already, so the cost of running ads manually can only be greater than the automatic pricing, right?

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I use manual - simply because I want to be in control, especially when it's my clients money. When manual, it makes more sense to control what times, or if the advert appears over a whole day or until the money runs out. If money is not an option, go with automatic.

We (web users) click impulsively and so sometimes being position 1 is not best but why would you want to be anything but position 1 (and so is the world of SEO). In fact, I've seen many results which shows position 3 - 5 is better (in regards to ROI).

I have done AdWords for 6 years and it's very complicated. What ever you decide, monitor it closely so you don't get any nasty shocks! :)

EDIT As per "using the lowest price per bid" - this is normal. It's like the Ebay bidding system (if you use it), where if your max bid for a key term is $50 and mine for the same term is $40, you'll only pay $41 regardless of automatic or manual bidding.

Since you're asking about costs, be aware what your daily cost is (just to go into this more). What ever your daily costs is set as is not gaurenteed. Google actually calculates the max you can spend a month based upon your daily limit. This means on some days you can spend over your daily budget, other days you can't reach it.

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    I agree, and although a daily limit it is not guaranteed, there are ways to work around it with automated rules, if you really want to set a "true" daily/monthly limit.
    – milo5b
    Commented Jul 18, 2012 at 14:40
  • +1 I didn't realize this was controllable. Is this form within AdWords or third party tools?
    – Dave
    Commented Jul 18, 2012 at 14:42
  • You can set it within AdWords (and I guess from API as well, although I never tried). Using Automated rules, you can set a time when AdWords will check parameters you specify, and can suspend the campaign(s) if the parameters are satisfying the rule. Minimum is one day though, so you need to create 24 rules if you want to check every hour (although I cant understand why somebody would like to check every hour). So it's not a "true" limit, but you can have more control than just letting AdWords run on its own. (EDIT: Automated Rules is on the menu on the left when you click on Campaigns)
    – milo5b
    Commented Jul 18, 2012 at 14:45
  • I am alreay bidding using the "min 1st page price", but sometimes this price change...so I am not sure if sometime I will pay more than the automatic pricing from Google, of coz not including the time I used to manage the keywords..
    – Yoga
    Commented Jul 18, 2012 at 16:40

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