How often should I check bids?
The average advertiser should check and rework bids weekly. More frequent than once a week could be a waste of time for an average keyword. However, advertisers bidding on high traffic, high competition, and high bid keywords may need to monitor and rebid more frequently. Daily bidding on a highly competitive keyword is not uncommon. But, for the average user, weekly bidding is sufficient.

Should I use automatic bidding?
Both Overture and Google offer an automatic bid feature. Autobid will bid one penny higher than the top bidder up to the specified maximum bid. By using autobid advertisers can be certain they are the top bidder for any given keyword. We would caution advertisers from depending on autobid. There are better ways than outbidding the highest bidder to perform well for chosen keywords.

How much should I expect to spend?
Calculate ahead of time how much you are willing to spend for a maximum bid. The maximum bid should not be higher than the return you could receive for a visitor clicking and possibly purchasing from the click thru.

Timesaver Tip
If you have bid low on hundreds of keywords (instead of high on a few) focus on sorting your keywords by the amount of click thrus received. This way you can spend time managing and fine-tuning the keywords that are receiving the most clicks. A penny per click can add up when a keyword is receiving a lot of traffic!

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