Budget Forecasting Continued - Tackling Overture - Overture's Bid Tool
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The bid tool is easy to use. Simply enter a keyword and you'll get a list of Overture advertisers bidding for that term, how much the current maximum bid is for the respective position of the advertiser and of course what position any given advertiser is in. Here is a sample of the results for a random term which I will keep confidential to protect the identity of the advertisers.
1. AnySite.com
Anysite's ad copy is here
Anysite's URL is here
(Advertiser's Max Bid: $0.51)
2. Anothersite.com
Anothersite's ad copy is here
Anothersite's URL is here
(Advertiser's Max Bid: $0.33)
Note that this tool does not show actual bid amounts. For example advertiser #1 has a maximum bid of $.51 per click and advertiser #2 has a maximum bid of $.33 per click, so it is natural to assume that advertiser #1 has to pay $.51 every time you click on their ad. However, the actual amount they are paying is $.34 - just one penny above whoever is below them. Thus, you can set your bid to $.50 so that you appear in position #2 and you'll only be paying $.34 for the #2 position. You will, however, have forced advertiser in the position above you to pay the full $.51 per click by raising the bid amount. This can be tricky since you can easily get into a bidding war this way. My advice is to stay somewhere in the middle (e.g., bid $.40 for the #2 position).
Although the bid tool is available to anyone, it is really reserved as an advertiser tool so I will not link to it from this article. I will, however, tell you where to find it once you are in the Overture's ad management console. If you click on "Manage Precision Match" at the top of the screen, the bid tool is available as a link next to each of your search listings.
Choosing Keywords 
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