After having tested this new function on selected accounts, Google has announced the launch of their new bid simulator tool within the AdWords management interface. The tool can be used by advertisers to view the potential impact of a different bid level within the advertising results for each term. Although Google is quick to point out that it can't predict the future, the bid simulator does allow users to explore what could have happened if they had set different keyword-level bids.

Using data from the past 7 days, the bid simulator re-calculates the number of impressions for which an advert could have shown had the advertiser chosen a different maximum CPC, how many clicks the ad could have received for those impressions and how much those clicks could have cost. Although the figures are, of course, estimates based on expected behaviour and recent trends, the tool does provide some increased transparency into the AdWords auction and gives users some more data to help make more informed bidding decisions.