<ot>This may have been the idea, ages ago :) No, they tell you that you  
don't qualify and either have to improve a so called "QS" or bid at least  
the higher CPC. And only if you do the latter, they remove the "your  
keyword is inactive" message and calculate your position. See for example  
this discussion (look at the "boycotts" word, feedback is below the  
article):

-  
http://www.revenews.com/jimmydaniels/2006/07/inactive_keywords_the_google_a.html

It is often even so, that in your own region/country no ad from a  
competitor is shown (i.e. advertisers aren't interested in your location)  
but their [the competitor's] bid dictates the minimum to bid, always  
globally. For example,

- http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&q=smalltalk&gl=ST

doesn't show Google's ad but

- http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&q=smalltalk&gl=US

does.</ot>

/Klaus

On Sat, 25 Nov 2006 19:45:20 +0100, Matthias Berth wrote:

> AFAIK, if somebody elses bid is higher, your ad will be placed lower
> on the list, but still at the CPC you chose. Are you sure that you
> can't limit the CPC and still get a decent position in the ads list?
>
> Matthias
>
> On 11/24/06, Yanni Chiu <yanni at rogers.com> wrote:
>> Klaus D. Witzel wrote:
>> > I run my squeak.org campaign now for 36 hours, during which their CPC
>> > bid  was raised from pennies to bucks, between a factor of 50 and 100.
>> > My  pockets are not deep enough to compete against Google's own ads,
>> > sorry ;-)
>>
>> Yikes! IMHO, that behaviour borders (if not crosses) the line
>> on rigging the game - sort of like a casino modifying the
>> odds to ensure the players always lose. In this case,
>> they let the market find the hotspots to advertise, then
>> they outbid you, and there's no way you can compete with
>> their bid (as you found out).
>>
>>
>>
>
>