If you've ever wondered what the performance of your paid search campaigns would be like with a different maximum CPC bid, then you're in luck. Google AdWords has launched bid simulator to help you do just that.

The bid simulator uses data from the previous 7 days to re-calculate the number of impressions you would have gotten if you'd had a higher bid.

SEW forum member kg84 tried out the bid simulator and had some concerns:

In theory, this is a cool tool. However, I have seen this tool recommend for many keywords, that rank very well and with optimal campaign budgets, that I should increase my bids by huge amounts (i.e. current bid $2.87 increase to $6.18 = 10 more impressions!! wow) Almost all keywords I check have suggested huge increases like that.

So, I reached out to Google and here's what a spokesperson had to say:

Shown bids are not recommendations but are simulations for various bids to give insight to the advertiser. The feature aims to show 'missed opportunity.' In this particular case, what the tool is telling the advertiser is that they only missed out on 10 impressions. Even bidding as high as $6 won't increase the number of impressions they got at their current bid.

It's an important point you'll want to keep in mind when you use the bid simulator. The simulated bids are to show what would happen if you did bid higher. In other words, they're not recommendations, just projection models. I suspect many search marketers will find the bid simulator will show that they really don't want to pay any more than they already are.

What do you think of the Bid Simulator? Let us know your impressions (pun fully intended) in the comments.

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