[N.B. as of September 2008, the AdWords Cheaters site no longer appears to be working.]

You need to have conversion tracking or an analytics package capable of interpreting clicks and showing whether they convert. Right now you are paying for clicks and don’t appear to have the information to be able to judge whether the money is wasted or effectively spent.

Next, you really need to read the article about editorial review. You are in the situation that the keywords that you think are important, can not be used in the advert. If the keywords are present on the landing page, then you only have to overcome the first level of automation. If you can use a high performance advert, then you improve the metric for performance based QS which will reduce the MinCPC.

I suspect that like most new advertisers, you are also sending everything to the home page. Don’t. Send store specific keywords to landing pages that mention that specific store. That improves the QS for the landing page score, helping keep the MinCPC down.

You should also consider which keywords you use. Your primary offer is a saving. Shouldn’t you be looking for keywords that help you offer a saving? For example, “{store name} discount” may be lower volume than the store, but you can put “discount: in the advert and on the landing page. That’ll reduce the MinCPC, I think (there are some words that seem to have little effect and this is probably one of them). If you have some words of the keyword in the advert, then the advert/keyword matching QS is improved. This usually results in a $2.75 or $0.22 or $0.11 MinCPC (depending on how conceptually close you are to the keyword).

I suspect that you haven’t used Google’s free AdWords Learning Center. I strongly recommend that you take that course. Then think like a consumer – that isn’t easy, but it is the key. What can you offer that a consumer wants, expressed without using a trademark in the advert? That’s what’ll get a high CTR and reduce the MinCPC.

Hi Lee – handling trademarks is complex. In the US you can use a trademarked keyword as a search term unless the company complains to you. You may be forced by Google or by the company to avoid the trademark in the advert copy. However, what is your real benefit? Simply providing yet another interface to the store probably isn’t what you offer. Does your site make price comparison easier? Availability checking? What’s the value to the consumer and what would a consumer searching for that value, be typing as a search query?