Pricing Update

Pricing Update: – Minimum bids are no longer fixed at $0.10 for Sponsored Search. Content Match minimum bids currently remain at $0.10. View more details about the update with best practices and FAQs, or view our archived Pricing Update webinar.

• Frequently Asked Questions
• What Is the Sponsored Search Pricing Update?
• How Minimum Bids Are Set for Sponsored Search
• How Minimum Bids Work


• What Will I See in My Account?
• Dashboard and E-mail Alerts
• Account-level view of Ad Groups and Keywords
• Viewing Ad Group and Keyword Status
• Setting Ad Group and Keyword Bids


• What Are Some Scenarios I May Encounter In My Account?
• My keywords are inactive/appear offline
• I received an alert that my keywords are pending inactive
• I received an alert that my new minimum bid has caused my keywords to become active
• I want to view my ad groups and keywords based on their active/inactive status
• I want to set my inactive keyword bids to the minimum so they can become active
• I want to set all my keyword bids to their minimums
• I have keywords in my ad group with higher minimum bids than my ad group default bid
• I would like to change my Content Match bids for several of my ad groups
• I raised my bid to the minimum, but I don’t see my keyword listed as Active
• I want to use the bulk export spreadsheet to download my ad groups and keywords to make changes.

• Best Practices - What You Can Do
• Managing Your Keywords
• Managing Your Quality
• Learn about the New Tools and Features in Your Account

Frequently Asked Questions

What Is the Sponsored Search Pricing Update?

We have changed the way we set the minimum bid required to participate in a Sponsored Search keyword market. Previously, the minimum bid for any keyword in our system was $0.10. With this update, your minimum bid required to participate in a keyword market can be higher or lower than $0.10. The amount set as your minimum bid on a keyword can vary depending on multiple factors, such as the relevance of your keywords (as measured by the quality of the ads associated with them in an ad group), and the number of bidders and their bid amounts in the particular keyword market. It will not be based on advertiser conversions. At this time, the minimum bid for Content Match ad groups remains at $0.10.

Learn more about the update with best practices and FAQs, or view our Pricing Update webinar.

Background:

Last year we launched several initiatives that have directly impacted the way we price the leads we provide you, including:

• A new ranking model, based on both the ad’s quality—or relevance—and the bid amount.
• Pricing discounts, which can discount your cost-per-click on clicks on our partners’ sites based on our assessment of the quality of traffic delivered by those sites.

Our Goal:
To improve search users’ experience, while also improving the value of traffic to you.

How Minimum Bids Are Set for Sponsored Search
Keyword minimum bids can vary depending on multiple factors, such as:

• How much the keyword is worth, or its value, which we may determined by looking at, among other things, the number of bidders and bid amounts in the keyword marketplace.
• Ad and keyword quality – The relevance of your keywords and your ads, determined by multiple factors, such as how frequently your ads are clicked relative to their competitors.
• Minimum bids are not be based upon conversion data.

How Minimum Bids Work

• Your keyword is active when your bid is greater than or equal to your required minimum bid for the keyword.
• If your minimum bid is set to increase, you are given a warning with a grace period of up to several days to review and adjust your bid before your keyword becomes inactive.
• Your keyword becomes inactive when your bid does not meet your required minimum bid.
• Minimum bids may be updated from time to time: During these updates, inactive ads may become active again, and active ads may become inactive.

What Will I See in My Account?

Features and tools in your account display allow you to manage your ad groups and keywords and their minimum bids.

• Dashboard and E-mail Alerts keep you informed of changes in your keyword status
• Alerts display on your account Dashboard to help you manage changes to your Sponsored Search keyword minimum bids. These alerts relate to two system conditions
1. If Your Minimum Bid Increases. You receive an alert that your current bid is now below your new minimum bid and keyword(s) are pending inactive. Keywords with minimum bids below your new minimum bids will become inactive after a grace period if you do not take action to set (i.e., raise) the current bid to the new minimum.
2. If Your Minimum Bid Decreases. You receive an alert that your current bid is now above your new minimum bid and keyword(s) will immediately become active.

NOTE:

You do not receive another alert when your keywords become inactive after the grace period expires. You can find your current keyword status by clicking on the Keywords sub-link.



• When you click on an alert, you are transferred to the Set Keyword Bids page where you can set bids manually for one or more keywords, set one or more bids to the ad group default bid, or you can set all bids to your minimum(s).
• By default, the option to receive alerts is set to ‘on’. If you have set your notification preferences to ‘off’’ you will not receive notification that your minimum bids have changed. Learn more about setting your alert and e-mail notification preferences.
• Use the Top and Watched Campaigns, Keywords and Ad Groups Lists on the Dashboard view to quickly view the status of your campaigns, ad groups and keywords from the ‘Status’ column.

• Account-level view of Ad Groups and Keywords. Three new sub-links have been added to the Campaigns tab: Campaigns, Ad Groups, and Keywords so you can quickly view and make changes based on changes to your minimum bids:





1. Campaigns sub-link (previously ‘Summary’) allows you to view a summary of all campaigns in your account and related information. The Status column displays the status for each campaign. Your campaign status is based on your manual settings, such as 'pausing' or 'unpausing' campaigns in your account. the displayed camapign status is not a condition of the raising and/or lowering of your minimum bids. You may view a complete list of campaign statuses here
2. Ad Groups sub-link displays account-level information for all ad groups in your account. The Status column displays the status of individual Content Match ad groups and the minimum bid required to keep the ad group active for Content Match.
3. Keywords sub-link displays account-level information for all keywords in your account. The keyword level Status column displays the status of individual Sponsored Search keywords and your minimum bid required to keep the keyword active for Sponsored Search.

Tip:

Use the Keywords sub-link below the Campaigns tab to monitor the status of your Sponsored Search campaigns at the keyword level as the status column in the account-level Ad Groups page does not necessarily reflect your Sponsored Search ad group status. You can manage your Sponsored Search ad group status using Ad Group Settings.

• Viewing your ad groups and keywords at the account-level allows you to view your ad groups with their associated campaigns and keywords for all ad groups in your account. Similarly, you can view all ad groups and campaigns associated with all keywords in your account.
• The ad group and keyword account-level screens provide you with the account management tools needed to view the status of your ad groups and keywords and set your ad group and keyword bids to your new minimum bids.

• Viewing Campaign, Ad Group and Keyword Status
• Campaign, Ad Group and Keyword Details Screens Navigation Components and Status displays in red if the camapign, ad group, or keyword is offline due to its status. Account components that are online display in blue or black.





• Status columns on the Campaign Details, Ad Group Details, Keyword Details, Dashboard and account-level screens allow you to view the status of your Content Match ad groups and Sponsored Search keywords.





• Using Advanced Search from the Campaigns, Ad Group and Keyword sub-links allows you to view Campaigns, Sponsored Search keywords and Content Match ad groups by status.





• If you only want to view Sponsored Search keywords that are pending inactive in order to make changes to your keyword bids, you can use the Advanced Search feature to view only those keywords.

The table below shows the possible statuses for Sponsored Search keywords and what they mean:

If your keyword status is...	This means...
Pending Inactive, Bid Too Low	The current minimum bid for the keyword is below the minimum bid required for the keyword to remain active. The keyword will continue to be active at the current bid until the grace period expires or you can increase your bid to meet or exceed the new minimum bid to remain active.
Inactive, Bid Too Low	The allowed grace period has expired, the keyword is inactive, or the bid entered was lower than the Min Bid. The keyword will not become active until you update the bid or the minimum bid falls below the current bid.
Active, New Min Bid	A previously inactive keyword has become active due to a decrease in the minimum bid. Your keyword becomes active immediately, since its bid is now greater than the minimum bid.
Active	Your keyword bid is at or above the minimum bid requirement. No action is required on your part.
Paused	The keyword is not running because you have manually paused it. You can ‘unpause’ a keyword by selecting the keyword and then clicking the Unpause button.

NOTE:

Additional statuses, Pending Inactive, CM Bid Too Low; and Inactive, CM Bid Too Low apply to Content Match ad groups; however, the required minimum bid for Content Match currently remains at $0.10.



• Select more than one status from the Advanced Search menu by pressing the CTRL key while clicking to select a status.



Tip:

Select the Active status, as well as the Active, New Min Bid status if you would like to view all active keywords in your account, If you do not select the Active, New Min Bid status, keywords recently activated by the lowering of your minimum bid will not display in your filtered search results.








• The status menu items you select for your search criteria ‘stick’ though you may navigate away and return to your account-level screens.



Tip:

Click Clear Search to clear your search criteria if you are not seeing ad group and keyword statuses you expect or to see all ad groups and keywords for your account.

• Setting Ad Group and Keyword Bids
• Set your bids to your minimum for one or multiple ad groups and keywords from the screens available using the Ad Groups and Keywords sub-links below the Campaign tab. You can view all ad groups and keywords in your account and make changes to your bids:
• Click the ad group or keyword link to display the ad group or keyword record. the Update Bid button next to the status display heading for your ad group and keywords displays a popup allowing you to enter a new ad group or keyword bid.
• Modify your ad group bids – Set ad group bids for Pending Inactive, CM Bid Too Low or Inactive, CM Bid Too Low status Content Match ad groups:
1. Click on the bid links in the SS Bids or CM Bids columns, then enter a new Sponsored Search or Content Match bid in the Ad Group Bid box which will show your minimum bid requirement for your ad group, or
2. Set one bid for multiple ad groups by checking the boxes next to the ad groups you want to modify, and then select the Bids button to enter a Content Match and/or Sponsored Search ad group bid in the pop-up window.
3. Set Content Match bids for one or more ad groups by clicking on the Set CM Bids button, and then
1. Enter your new bid for each ad group in the associated boxes under the New Bid column, or
2. Fill your new bid in the first box under the New Bid column, and then click the arrow next to the box to fill your bid into the boxes for all displayed ad groups, or
3. Set selected Content Match ad group bids to the minimum by checking the boxes next to the ad groups you want to set to the minimum and clicking the Set CM Bids to Minimum button
• Modify your keyword bids – Set keyword bids for Pending Inactive, Bid Too Low or Inactive, Bid Too Low Sponsored Search keywords:
1. Click on the actual status message in the status column for the keyword you wish to modify, and then enter a new Sponsored Search keyword bid in the New Keyword Bid box which will show your minimum bid for the keyword in the pop-up window, or
2. Click on the bid link in the Bid column, and then select to Use a Custom Keyword Bid or Use the Ad Group Default Bid for your keyword. Your minimum bid for the keyword is displayed above your selection options, or
3. Set bids for multiple keywords by checking the boxes next to the keywords you want to modify, and then select the Set Keyword Bids button to enter a Sponsored Search bid for the selected keywords:





1. Enter your new bid for each ad group in the associated boxes under the Keyword Bid column, or
2. Fill your new bid in the first box under the New Bid column, and then click the arrow next to the box to fill your bid into the boxes for all displayed ad groups, or
3. Select the ad group default bid by clicking the radio button for the associated keyword from the Ad Group Bid column, or
4. Set selected Sponsored Search keyword bids to your minimum bid by checking the boxes next to the keywords you want to set to the minimum and clicking the Set bids to minimum button

What Are Some of the Scenarios I May Encounter In My Account?

• My keywords are inactive/offline
• Click on the Keywords sub-link from the Campaigns tab to view all keywords in your account.
• Use Advanced Search to view all Pending Inactive, Bid Too Low and Inactive, Bid Too Low status keywords (press the CTRL key while selecting options from the status menu to select more than one status)
• Set keyword bids above your displayed minimum bids by entering the new bid manually or select the keyword bids you want to modify and click the Set keyword bids to minimum from the account-level keywords view from the Keywords sub-link.

• I received an alert that my keywords are pending inactive because my keyword bids are below the required minimum
• Click on the alert to be transferred to the Set Keyword Bids page
• Use Advanced Search to view all Pending Inactive, Bid Too Low and Inactive, Bid Too Low status keywords
• Set keyword bids above your displayed minimum bids by entering the new bid manually or select the keyword bids you want to modify and click the Set keyword bids to minimum from the account-level keywords view from the Keywords sub-link.

• I received an alert that my new minimum bid has caused my keywords to become active
• There is no action required on your part. A change in your minimum bid has reactivated your keyword.
• You can click the Keywords sub-link below the Campaigns tab and use Advanced Search to select Active, New Min Bid from the dropdown menu if you would like to view which keywords were recently made active.

• I want to view my keywords based on their active/inactive status
• The account-level ad groups and keywords views may be accessed from the sub-links below the Campaigns tab. Use Advanced Search to view status menu options from the dropdown. Remember, to view all active keywords you must select the Active and Active, New Min Bid status items.
• The resulting account-level view of your keywords allows you to view all keyword statuses and set keyword minimum bids for your inactive keywords.

• I want to set my inactive keyword bids to the minimum so they can become active
• Use Advanced Search to view all Pending Inactive, Bid Too Low and Inactive, Bid Too Low status keywords
• Set keyword bids above your displayed minimum bids by entering the new bid manually or select multiple keyword bids you want to modify and click the Set keyword bids to minimum from the Set Keyword Bids page.

• I want to set all my keyword bids to their minimums
• Click the checkboxes next to the keyword bids you want to modify from the Set Keyword Bids page and click the Set keyword bids to minimum button

• I have keywords in my Sponsored Search ad group with higher minimum bids than my Sponsored Search ad group default bid
• Click the Keywords sub-link below the Campaigns tab.
• Use Advanced Search to view all Pending Inactive, Bid Too Low and Inactive, Bid Too Low status keywords
• Set keyword bids above your displayed minimum bids by entering the new bid manually or select the keyword bids you want to modify and click the Set keyword bids to minimum from the Set Keyword Bids page

Tip:

Use the Keywords sub-link below the Campaigns tab to monitor the status of your Sponsored Search campaigns at the keyword level as the status column in the account-level Ad Groups page does not necessarily reflect your Sponsored Search ad group status. You can manage your Sponsored Search ad group status using Ad Group Settings.

• I would like to change my Content Match bids for several of my ad groups
• Click the Ad Groups sub-link below the Campaigns tab to view all ad groups in your account.
• Check the boxes next to one or more ad groups, click the Bids button and then:
1. Enter your new bid for each ad group in the associated boxes under the New Bid column, or
2. Fill your new bid in the first box under the New Bid column, and then click the arrow next to the box to fill your bid into the boxes for all displayed ad groups, or
3. Set selected Content Match ad group bids to the minimum by checking the boxes next to the ad groups you want to set to the minimum and clicking the Set CM Bids to minimum button

• I raised my bid to the minimum, but I don’t see my keyword listed as Active
• Multiple issues can affect whether or not your keyword is active. For example, if a keyword is inactive because your current bid is below your minimum bid for the keyword, you could set a new bid that is at or higher than the minimum bid. However, the keyword will remain inactive if it has also been manually paused. You must manually ‘unpause’ the keyword to make it active:
1. Click the Keywords sub-link below the Campaigns tab
2. Use Advanced Search to view all Paused status keywords
3. Select the keyword(s) you want to ‘unpause’
4. Click the Unpause button

• I want to use the bulk spreadsheet to download my ad groups and keywords to make changes
• Three new columns have ben added to the bulk spreadsheet to account for your minimum bids and status
1. Column E - Display Status - Lists the Component Type display status
2. Column K - Sponsored Search Min Bid (USD) - Displays the Sponsored Search minimum bid for the keyword.
3. Column P - Content Match Min Bid (USD) - Displays the Content Match Minimum bid for the ad group.
• You can also click on the Download Ad Groups and Download Keywords buttons to export data into the bulk spreadsheet

Best Practices - What You Can Do

Many of the best practices that are valuable in search marketing are now especially important in managing your bids. By embracing the principles we've provided related to keyword management and ad quality, you may benefit from this change.

Managing Your Keywords

• Learn which keywords work best for your business.
• Identify your most important keywords and track them via the "watched keywords" feature.
• Monitor click-through rates, volume, assist metrics and performance metrics regularly so that you know how your keywords are performing.
• Invest in keywords that are doing well, and get rid of poorly-performing keywords.
• Diversify your keywords: If costs go up on some of your keywords, find lower-cost keywords and make them more prominent.
• Set bids at the keyword level when appropriate.


• Set your bids at a level that works for you, then monitor them regularly.
• Understand what you can spend so you can decide if you should raise bids or increase budgets.
• When setting bids, make sure that they fit your ad budget and acquisition targets.
• Use the Advanced match type to get broader exposure in search results
• Use excluded words to help get more relevant clicks.
• Log in to your account frequently so you know what’s happening in it.

Managing Your Quality

• Quality plays an important role in how you get charged.
• It can affect your minimum bid.
• It affects the price you pay per click and your ads’ position in search results.


• Track your quality to find out how your ads are performing.
• The quality index is displayed for both ad groups and their associated ads on the Ad Group details page in your account.
• Use the Ad Performance Report, available in the reports tab.


• Write better ads, highlighting the strengths of your products, services and offers.
• Use a landing page that is specific and relevant to users' search queries.
• Use vivid product descriptions that explain the virtues and benefits of your product or service.
• Use titles and descriptions that contain the relevant keyword and tell users what they can expect from your site.
• Update your ads regularly.


• Group relevant keywords together in your ad groups.
• The quality index takes click-through rate into account for all keywords in an ad group. Because high-volume keywords are displayed more often, they can affect your quality index more than low-volume keywords.


• Use Ad Testing with Optimization.
• Since your minimum bid is based on individual keyword and ad combinations, test different ads to see which perform best. This can potentially increase your quality.
• Use ad optimization, which you can set to automatically display the ads that users click on more often.

Learn About the New Tools and Features in Your Account
New tools in the account interface will alert you to changes in status and help you manage your bids.

• Dashboard alerts and emails will notify you when the minimum bid for your keywords has dropped and keywords are active again.
• Keyword and ad group pages will show all keyword statuses.
• Watched and Top keywords and ad groups will include keyword status.
• Bulk bidding tool will let you raise all keyword bids in an ad group to a level that will meet all minimum bid requirements in the group.
• Advanced search will let you filter keywords and ad groups by keyword status.