Google AdWords - News & Trends

AdWords Preferred Cost Bidding Analysis

You’ve probably seen this new type of bidding in your account by now – preferred cost bidding versus maximum cost per click bidding. But should you use it?

I tried the settings on my own account for a week and this is what I found. I got:

25% less clicks
16% less impressions
8% less click throughs
a 4% higher overall average cost per click
I spent 5% more overall

For me preferred cost bidding increased my costs and decreased my performance.

When would I even consider using preferred cost bidding?
If you have a product that you are selling online that is a set price and you want to have a set advertising cost to hard code in for your ROI equation, then I feel preferred cost bidding would be right for you. Would I recommend other advertisers change to preferred cost bidding. You may want to try it like I did, but Google did not make a billion dollars in profit last quarter for nothing. I just don’t think that this new option will replace the maximum Cost per Click bidding that is used more frequently. I think that in the long run to have a set average bid will cost you more and not deliver the clicks and impressions that you want when tested over time.

Nancy McCord is the President and resident blogger for McCord Web Services LLC. She has been providing global web services since 2001. She is a web designer, search engine marketing professional, and search engine and blog expert. She lives in Maryland just south of the Washington DC metro area.