Google Bid Simulator

26.05.2009 Posted in Search

When launching a new campaign in a new market place we can use various methods to predict click volumes and how high bids need to be to get ads placed in top positions.

To help us in our quest for predictions, Google is currently beta testing a bid simulator feature on established AdWords accounts. The bid simulator looks at active campaigns and aims to calculate potential ad positions from different CPC bids and estimates how many clicks should be expected. It does this by taking into account the campaign’s history, competitors’ bid levels, the amount of traffic received in the previous week and the probability of a click on an ad in each position.

This tool seeks to offer us a greater insight into the likely behaviour and spend of a PPC campaign. This feature was released on May 20th so it is still has much to prove, but if it works well it is an exciting addition to the AdWords interface.