I'm learning about AdWords myself (I just started reading Brad Geddes' book Advanced Google Adwords). Is part of the problem that his max bid per click too high? If you can suggest a site/resources to learn more on what constitute good/bad Adword metrics, that would be most helpful to me (and hopefully the parent poster as well).
"Is part of the problem that his max bid per click too high?"
That's not my guess. My thinking is that he's using broad match keywords and they are getting auto-expanded by google into search terms that he doesn't realize he's bidding on.
Let's say, for example, that you bid $5 per click on "condos new york" as a broad match. Google might show your ad for "apartments manhattan" because they are, in Google's algorithm, "close enough". That will lead to two things:
1) A super low CTR (of course people who are searching for apartments in Manhattan aren't clicking ads for New York Condos)
2) The yahoos that do actually click the ad are just more of the "Hmmm... let me tire kick" variety.
