Oct

Google Adwords Content Network – Get the Most Out of It!

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Google Adwords Content Network – Get the Most Out of It!

Google’s Content Network can be a very powerful tool in your gig bag of PPC Management success. By selecting a simple setting inside your campaign settings, you can literally reach millions of readers / potential customers that Google.com and Google’s Search Network simply doesn’t reach. Read on for PPC Optimization tips and potential hazards when it comes to the Content Network.

Campaign Organization: When setting up your campaigns there are a couple of ways to effectively organize them. One way is to have a single campaign that is enabled for both Google.com (and their search network if you so choose) and Google’s Content Network. When chosing this feature, make sure you select the option that give you control over the bids across both networks. My preferred method is to set up separate campaigns … one is for Google’s Search Network (AOL, Earthlink, Dogpile) and one is for Google’s Content Network. This will allow you to better control the daily / monthly spend since you can only set budget caps at the Campaign Level.

Ad Groups Inside Your Content Network Campaigns. Don’t worry about duplicate keyword issues with the keywords inside your Content Network Ad Groups. Google decides where to show your ads across their Content Network based on the Ad Group relevancy as a whole. This includes both keywords and ad copy. So, remember it this way … Google’s Content Network is NOT keyword driven – it’s relevancy driven. After all, when you see ads on another site that are Sponsored Listings from Google Adsense, you didn’t have to type in a keyword to display those ads.

Laser Target Your Content Network Ad Groups. When adding keywords in your Content Network ad groups, keep the list short and Laser Focused! Remember, Google decides where to show your ads based on the Ad Group relevancy … not based on each keyword. For example, if your business is generating leads for colleges and schools providing nursing degrees, then it makes sense to have an Ad Group in your Search Network campaigns targeting keywords such as “nursing jobs” or “nurse salary”. But, for the Content Network, those keywords should not be in your Ad Group because this give Google the option to show your ads on medical job boards, resume writing sites and other non relevant sites. For the Content Network Ad Groups it’s best to keep your keywords laser focused – in Exact Match format – targeting your specific niche … like [nursing degree] [nursing degrees] [nursing school] [nursing schools] [cna degree] etc.

Placement Reports. Closely monitor your Content Network performance by pulling Placement Reports from Google’s Reporting tool. When you receive enough data to start crunching useful stats, find the Domains that are driving quality / converting traffic to your site.

Site Match Campaigns. Set up Site Match campaigns targeting the converting Domains you identified in your Reports and allocate your budgets accordingly. (Don’t forget to add these domains to your Excluded Domain list for your Content Network Campaigns). Here’s a tip – when analyzing your reports to determine which sites you want to add to your Site Match campaign, calculate your Avg. Cost p/ Impression for that site to start off your Site Match CPM Bid. After you start receiving conversion / sales data from each domain you can then dial in your CPM Bids to achieve your CPA (Cost Per Acquisition) target.