CPC doubled overnight on Google Ads, no changes made - anyone else?

My campaign was stable for months, paying $18-22 per lead. Then on Monday, the cost per click suddenly doubled - I did not change any bids, budget, or targeting. I checked and found 2 new competitors bidding on the same keywords now. Quality Score also dropped on a few keywords.

Has this happened to anyone else recently? Not sure if it is just more competition or something else going on.

you said it new competitors = google will squeeze more money out of everyone ^^ quality score can play a big role check the search terms that matches the keywords if they changed

sometimes costs jump even without you changing anything, usually from new competitors or quality/ads not matching as well anymore. check search terms and ad relevance/qs for the affected kws, it often points to the real cause.

Start with Auction Insights, Quality Score, and search term reports. Find the reason behind the CPC jump first, then make changes. Random bid changes can make it worse.