AdWords first page bid is determined by your Quality Score. If you have a low Quality Score, your bid to be on the first page of search results will be high.
AdWords makes every effort to force you into good account management techniques. One of its most important measures of account health is the Click Through Rate (CTR) which is Google’s measure of account health. Couple that together with Quality Score (of which CTR is one important factor) and Google determines how much your personal account will pay to show ads on the first page of search results by keyword.
Want your ads to appear above the organic results on the first page? Be prepared to may sometimes as much as 1/3 to 1/2 more of your fist page bid to get above the organic results. And then you can get there, only if your bid and Quality Score are high enough – by Google’s standards.
AdWords will show you in your account the first page bid, bid to appear at the top of the first page and top position bid. This will allow you to identify just where you want your ad to be placed and gives you metrics for improvement of your Quality Score and relevance over time.
More often than you would think, clients will think that they can pay their way to the top of the search results page. Think again! The AdWords Quality Score of each keywords in an account is a unique dollar figure to appear in these important positions. and changes at each and every keyword auction when your ad has the availability to appear.
It is very hard for new accounts to appear at the top of the page in part as their Quality Score starts out by default at a 5 out of 10. This pushes the top of page and above organic results bids high. Typically a keywords with a Quality Score of 10 or 9 will see lower bids for these positions, but the Quality Score is established from account history over time, tied to ad relevance, and the keyword’s CTR.
For new accounts I recommend bidding to page one and then developing account history and make sure to use conversion tracking. Over time, I will start to boost to above the organic results, when financially possible, keywords that convert for an account.
AdWords first page bids are all about account history and Quality Score. If you need an experienced AdWords Manager on your side to position your program for visibility, I encourage you to check out our AdWords Management Services.