As for how much you pay for a click on any specific keyword, it isn't fixed and depends on two main things. I am simplifying here.
1. How related (google thinks) your page and ad copy is to the intent behind the keyword. More related = (generally) lower cpc
2. The reserve price that google sets for that keyword.
It used to be a second price auction in that you'd only ever pay 1p above the second highest bidder. It has now changed in that there is a reserve price for each keyword based on your page, ad copy and google's valuation of that keyword. This reserve price can be lowered or raised depending on how good and related Google thinks your page and ads are. It can fluctuate lots depending on your input but if google's valuation is high you'll never get it to pennies per click.
Insurance for injury claims for example will always be more than £10 per click no matter how good your page or ad copy is. Google just knows that those conversions are worth tons so people WILL pay high cpcs for them.
So in the Ford Chevy example, Ford's page is much more related to someone searching for Ford, Google knows the intent is likely to find a ford page so ford would pay FAR less than Chevy.
Chevy's page likely isn't matching the intent that google assumes the user has so their reserve price and hence final cost per click would be much higher.
Competitor bidding on google search is expensive.
Brand protection - bidding on your own brand terms - is (in my 7 years experience doing this) always incredibly cheap, 1 or 2 pence per click.
Where did you get this information? I can't find anything about ads on the internet without 300 copy paste articles popping up about 10 great ways to write ad copy so couldn't just google it.
Temporarily intrigued, don't go too far out of your way for my curiosity.
I've put some links below that might explain it a bit better than I did. My info above is a mix of from google's docs as well as experience, talking to others in the industry etc.
Ad Rank[0] - this is the algorithm that determines essentially how much you pay like I mentioned. It's far more complex than my simplified explanation as it also takes into account context around the user. The device they're on, their previous searches etc. So a user who is on their 5th search for shoes and is now searching from their desktop may be more interested in a product page than an article since google may assume they're ready to buy now and they always buy from their desktop etc.
Ad Rank thresholds[1] - This is the friendly term for the reserve price I mentioned. It's the reserve price for a keyword based on all your inputs. Can go up and down depending on how relevant google thinks your stuff is at that moment for the user but generally google will set a floor for it.
Just more info[2] - more info from Google about how this stuff is worked out and what it means in practice.
If you google around "ad rank effect on cpc" you'll get more relevant stuff if you're interested.
When you think about what google is trying to do with ads it does make sense. If they let anyone serve rubbish for any search, people will stop clicking ads and advertisers will stop using it. Google loses out.
It's in the users (arguably, depending on how you view ads), the advertisers and Google's best interest to incentivise advertisers to make their stuff relevant and good.
> $0.02 per click is not cheap for your own name, and this protection is more like protection in the mafia sense of the term.
This is something you have to pay only if someone else is bidding on your own brand. Otherwise you’re already the first result and you don’t need any ad. This occurs only if you’re already a big player, and so $0.02 is nothing for you compared to what your competitors are spending. There’s nothing mafia-like here, it would be exactly the same (but much more expensive) in the physical world.
For Ford, $0.02 per click is millions, which is all I said.
> This occurs only if you’re already a big
I see this for a tiny local food truck and accidentally click their ad instead of first result many times when ordering lunch, when I'm trying to not cost them by going through Google's "protection."
> For Ford, $0.02 per click is millions, which is all I said.
Yes, and that’s peanuts compared to the money they make from these clicks.
> I see this for a tiny local food truck and accidentally click their ad instead of first result many times when ordering lunch, when I'm trying to not cost them by going through Google's "protection."
I don’t see what’s wrong in having to pay to get back the first place when someone else is already giving money to overcome you.
https://twitter.com/jasonfried/status/1168986962704982016
I'm making an assumption we're all talking about the ads above the results, as afaik you can't pay to shuffle the real results