Know-How Exchange : SEO/SEM

It's not a direct causal relationship, but they certainly go together (i.e., strong positive correlation).

The more you're willing to bid, the more likely you'll be to get a higher ad rank. There are some modifiers though. For example, if you and a competitor have the same maximum bid, the one with a higher quality score will get the better ad rank.

Google wants to make money, but they also recognize that their whole reason for being, and the key to long-term success, is delivering relevant information ... and that includes ads. (That's why there's a quality score.)

So yes, higher max bids will get you better ad ranking -- to a point. This presumes your ad is highly relevant and that people are satisfied when they click-through.

Need more? Try Ultimate Guide to Google Adwords, by Perry Marshall and Bryan Todd: https://bit.ly/dmlZeH . I understand there's a new edition out, but I have not seen/read it yet.