Part 1
The bid is one of four inputs, not the whole thing
Google documents Ad Rank as being built from your bid, the quality of your ad and landing page, the Ad Rank thresholds, and the context of the search. A competitor can beat you without outbidding you, by making their page load faster or their ad match the search better. That is what makes this invisible: nothing changed in your account, so nothing shows up in your change history.
Do this: Open your change history for the last month. If it is empty and costs went up, the change happened outside your account.
Part 2
Raising the bid is the most expensive fix on the list
It works immediately, which is why everybody reaches for it, and it costs you on every click from then on. Improving ad relevance or page speed costs a day of work once and then keeps paying. Google states you normally pay less than your maximum bid, so the bid is a ceiling, not a price.
Do this: Before you raise a bid, spend one hour on the landing page it points at. Measure the cost per click after a fortnight.
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Part 3
Impression share tells you which problem you have
You lose impressions for two different reasons and they need opposite fixes. Lost to budget means you ran out of money and the answer is more money or fewer keywords. Lost to rank means you were beaten and more money will not help. Most accounts never separate the two and treat everything as a budget problem.
Do this: Add both impression share columns to your campaign view today. Whichever number is bigger is the problem you actually have.
Part 4
The report you are shown is not the report that helps
Impressions, clicks and click rate all go up when you buy more traffic, whether or not that traffic was any good. The number that matters is what a lead costs you, and it is the one nobody puts on the first slide.
Do this: Ask for cost per lead by campaign. If the answer takes more than a day to produce, that is your finding.
This is teaching material and our own reading of public documentation, not advice for your specific account. Check anything important with your own specialist before you act on it.