Beware AMS 'Suggested Bids'

[NathanBurrows]

I've just set up a while load of new AMS ads, and (perhaps foolishly) I checked the 'apply all' button to the suggested bid. When I went back in to look at the keywords, I realised that a lot of the bids were very high - out of 1000 keywords, over 200 were above $1.50, and the most (an exact match for another author) was $5 per click.

There's no 'maximum' setting for the suggested bids. It's the same system for AMS UK ads as well - I have suggested bids for £5 on that platform.

I'm just glad I caught it before someone clicked on one of the $5/£5 keywords!

[guest14]

I've been caught exactly like that, but on a different site (etsy.com) for exactly the same circumstances.

I 'believe' that the CPC/CPM model is designed to escalate bids regardless of 'competition', in other words, you're competing with an algorithm, not another bidder. I'm of the strong opinion that these bidding systems are inherently fraudulent and designed to hoover vast sums from advertisers. You get just enough response to make it viable, occasionally slipping into a profitable loop which eventually gets caught up and drops you out. Sure, you get clicks, and sales so there's nothing wrong with the principle, just the algorithm. It's like a slot machine, you'll always end up putting more in than you take out. #justmyopinion

[NathanBurrows]

I've been caught exactly like that, but on a different site (etsy.com) for exactly the same circumstances.

I 'believe' that the CPC/CPM model is designed to escalate bids regardless of 'competition', in other words, you're competing with an algorithm, not another bidder. I'm of the strong opinion that these bidding systems are inherently fraudulent and designed to hoover vast sums from advertisers. You get just enough response to make it viable, occasionally slipping into a profitable loop which eventually gets caught up and drops you out. Sure, you get clicks, and sales so there's nothing wrong with the principle, just the algorithm. It's like a slot machine, you'll always end up putting more in than you take out. #justmyopinion

Totally agree Tobias - I was quite shocked when I realised. Like most of us, I've got an upper price point that I'm happy to pay for a click - and it's not $5 / £5! Especially not when that's more than my books are on sale for. In an ideal world, there'd be a 'maximum bid' amount that you could set, but there isn't. I won't make that mistake again. I ended up terminating the campaigns, and creating new ones with the same keywords but setting my own bids. Going through each campaign and setting the bids individually would take way too much time, so I just started from scratch with new default bids. I'll tweak them according to performance, but at least I know the maximum amount per click now!