How does the Google Ads auction decide who shows up?
Every search triggers a fresh auction. Google weighs your bid against an estimate of how relevant and useful your ad and landing page will be to that searcher, then ranks the eligible ads. A relevant ad that leads to a fast, matching page can outrank a bigger bid and often pays less per click. That is why tight ad groups, specific ad copy and dedicated landing pages matter so much: they make Google's quality estimate work in your favour. Throwing money at bids without fixing relevance usually just raises what you pay for the same position.
