Tag: Google AdWords

This is the most pressing question most new Google AdWords clients want to know before they put money down for our services, or for that matter input their credit card with Google. There is a good tool that AdWords has online that will shed light on what you may pay. But the figures in this tool should be considered a guideline and not the real verifiable price you will pay when your account is rolling.

Here is one of the online tools you can use to check the anticipated cost per click:

Google AdWords Traffic Estimator

To use the estimator, enter your keyword phrase, then select (on the right in the sorted by section) columns, and then select in the drop down to show CPC (cost per click). The information that is displayed shows you searches on a global basis and the estimated cost per click. This is great for identifying, before you start with AdWords, the range of pricing you may pay.

It is crucial to understand that in my experience I have rarely seen a client pay what is shown in this tool as the typical cost per click. In reality the cost per click when the account is running will be higher – sometimes 20% higher or more. So, use the information found in this tool as a guide and not a rule.

Why would the cost per click in an actual running account be different?

There are several reasons: quality score, market competition, targeting settings, and real-time auction competition. Remember, AdWords is an auction and the auction prices are decided in real-time at the moment the search query is entered. The keywords tool certainly cannot take into account all of the above listed factors when it shows your estimated pricing.

You may say this never happens, but as I review all AdWords accounts that are running when a new prospect comes to me looking for a new account manager, this happens fairly frequently. Personally, I do not recommend this action.

What I am speaking of is when an AdWords account is in trouble and an account manager cannot get clicks for the client. The account manager sometimes gets desperate and tries to force clicks. Here is the common scenario. The actual client wants to spend $1,000 in clicks a month. They typically will be in a business that has a high click cost auction. The acting account manager has decided not to set the cost per click in the account to a level that Google will consider the account in the AdWords auction and so as a result AdWords serves the ads infrequently. The client may be then spending only $200 or so of a $1,000 click budget.

The account manager panics as the client is pressing for click performance and so the account manager sets the 30 day budget to $7,800 or $260 per day instead of $33.33 per day. The account manager is banking on the fact that the client’ cost per click is really too low to be in the auction and that AdWords won’t deliver the $7,800 in clicks in a 30 day period.

This is an actual scenario that I have seen just last week and not infrequently. I consider it is a very dangerous one. Google could, if something changed in the auction, actually deliver the $7,800 for the month in clicks and legitimately bill the client’s credit card for this activity. The client would have absolutely no recourse in regards to getting a refund.

Scary, isn’t that scenario? But, I have seen it twice in the last three weeks and many times over the last eight years I have been managing AdWords accounts. I do not believe in putting any of my clients in this type of possible jeopardy.

A better scenario is to bid to be in the auction or drop some of the ad groups and just run ad groups that have the possibility of performing within the client’s “true” budget. In each case that I have seen this scary set up used, the actual client had no idea of what the acting account manager was doing with their account and that they had taken this tactic. I personally will never manage an account in this fashion.

How can you see if your AdWords account manager is playing this dangerous game with your money and credit card? Go into your account and review on the campaign summary page your daily budget. It will be just below the campaign names. If the number there times 30 does not match the dollar figure you told your account manager you have authorized them to spend on your behalf with AdWords, you need to make a quick phone call to them to challenge their tactics. Remember, if Google could deliver the clicks to this inflated budget – and there may be a possibility they could – you would be billed and you would have to pay.

If you are looking for a honest and savvy Google AdWords account manager, I invite you to check out our AdWords services. My firm, McCord Web Services, is a Google AdWords Certified Partner and I am personally also a Google AdWords Certified Individual.