Who is behind Should I Bid, and how the score is computed.

Who

Should I Bid is designed and built by Paul Katic, its founder. The product is young: features, prices and the pages of this site change regularly, and this page is updated with them.

The comparisons and guides on this site are written and reviewed by us. When they name a competitor, prices are read on the vendor's website on the date shown under each table, with a link to the source.

Why this tool exists

On Google Ads you pay for the click before knowing what the person was looking for. A high-volume keyword can attract mostly people who are researching or comparing, not buyers. Keyword research tools give you volume and cost per click, rarely intent.

Should I Bid starts from the only evidence available before you spend: the Google results page itself. What ranks there, and who advertises there, tells you what Google thinks people want. The tool reads that page and checks it against what you sell.

How the score out of 100 is computed

For each keyword, the tool fetches the real Google results page for the chosen market (organic results and ads), reads the pages that rank there, then has four signals assessed. The final score combines these signals with fixed weights.

Intent fit (40%)

Does what people typing the query are looking for match your offer? This is the signal that weighs the most.

Buying readiness (30%)

Is the search close to a purchase decision, or still at the information and comparison stage?

Competitive signal (15%)

Are comparable advertisers already paying for this query, and how?

Commercial signal of the results page (15%)

Computed directly from the ranking pages: page types (product, comparison, article), commercial intensity, position. It is the only signal that does not go through the AI model.

When the first three signals all exceed 70, an alignment bonus is added progressively, up to 15 points, to reward an intent that is consistent on every axis.

Bid

score of 80 and above: the intent matches your offer, the query deserves budget.

Test

score from 50 to 79: mixed signals, worth trying with a limited budget and negative keywords.

Skip

score below 50: the traffic is not looking for what you sell, or not yet.

What the tool does not do

• It does not track your organic rankings, analyze your backlinks or audit your site: it is a tool to decide where to bid, not an SEO suite.
• The score is an estimate based on today's results page and your context, not a conversion prediction. It helps you prioritize; it does not replace testing in a campaign.
• Part of the assessment is done by an AI model: the verdict can be wrong on ambiguous queries. The signals behind it are visible in every analysis so they can be challenged.
• Seven markets are covered (France, United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, Italy, Canada). A results page can change from one day to the next: an analysis has a date.

Write to us

A question about the method, a mistake spotted in a comparison, a competitor price that has changed: write to us, we fix it.

Email contact@shouldibid.app