adwords bids

I have one particular keyword [handbags] i use for advertising on google adwords that has me stumped.Almost all year i had bid around 18-22 cents per click. Then around nov. 7 i loged on to my account and found that my keyword was inactive due to quality and I must bid 50 cents to activate.So i improved the quaility( i think). I changed my landing page changed the ad text created new ad group and now it says min. bid is $1.00!!! Is this because the demand and bids for this keyword has dramatically increased because of Christmas time and will change soon?(or am I just not doing something right by google?) My keyword appears on the page in the ad text and offers exactly what I say in my ad.I always thought even if you wanted to bid say only 10 cents you were allowed to do so even though it would get very little traffic? Has adwords changed this much!!!??

Yes and maybe. Either way, you have to pay what Google wants or your ads won't appear for those phrases. Bid amounts required to get traffic were far higher this season than last year and have already dropped precipitously for many phrases.

I recommend locating alternate sources of traffic. Advertisers may wish to consider making their main income from January to October knowing costs will make it unwise to buy traffic during the holiday season.

Online marketers advise multiple streams of income. With what is going on in the PPC world that is advice every online seller will have to heed unless their profit margins support ad spends three to five times normal or even higher during the holiday season.

Yes, Google has changed Adwords. You can bid five cents but they're telling you your ads won't run unless you bid their minimum. Sometimes they do; mostly they don't.