PPV - Keywords or URLs for Targets

I've been reading up on PPV a little recently and have signed up for MediaTraffic as well as AdOnNetwork. I've run a few campaigns and have only had one conversion so far. So I'm still trying to get a handle on how to make money with PPV. I'm not sure, but I think the key probably lies with how you identify your targets.

I've seen some people say to only use keywords for targets and then I've seen others say to only use URLs for targets. Both sides claim that they are having phenomenal success with their method. I've mainly been targeting URLs and have been trying a couple of different strategies with it.

The first is to just go after the URLs that are obvious and relate to the offer. I do the URL scraping using Laser URL (which is great by the way and completely free) and rotate several offers but nothing converts. I tried this in several niches that are supposed to perform well with PPV, but no success to speak of. I've also tried to target high traffic URLs and then matching an offer to them, kind of like a backwards approach, but nothing there either.

The other day I decided that I needed to get a handle on the way that MediaTraffic's "Precision Match" targeting works, so I called up my account manager and asked him to explain it to me. To his credit, he did a pretty good job, but some of the things he said just didn't make sense which leads me to believe that maybe he doesn't fully understand how their system works either.

So, here are the four match types that you can do with MediaTraffic:


target = Complete URL
Enter your target without any Precision Match syntax if you want to trigger a destination view when your target is found anywhere in the Internet address visited by a user. Ex: Your target could be matched anywhere in this address:
domain.c0m/page.html?query_argument=data


"target" = URL without query string
Enter your target within quotes to signify that you want your target
to be matched only in the bold part of this example Internet address:
domain.c0m/page.html?query_argument=data


[target] = Query string only
Enter your target within brackets to signify that you want your target
to be matched only in the bold part of this example Internet address:
domain.c0m/page.html?query_argument=data


*target* = Search engine
Enter your target within asterisks if you want it to be matched only
to search engine queries. Ex:
searchengine.c0m/results.html?search_query=search string

*Note- I had to remove the "www" and use a "0" in the "com" part of the addresses above because the system wouldn't let me post my message with "links" in it. Even if I removed the links, it kept putting them back.

So the first thing he said was to not use keywords without any specific targeting as that would only result in very broad traffic. The type of targeting that he recommended is [target] when going after keywords. That option will match the keyword in any kind of query on any website, including queries that are done on the major search engines. This all sounds good, but I don't know if it's true because I haven't tested it yet.

Then for targeting URLs, he recommended that I use Complete URL. I asked him why you wouldn't just use "target" instead and he said that some people type the URL into the search box and then you wouldn't lose out on that traffic if you're using Complete URL. Well my thought is, if they're going to end up on the website anyway, why not just use "target" since that is a lot more targeted?

Sorry this is so long for my first post. I just wanted to see if anyone else was having the same problems figuring out what type of targets to use (keywords or URLs) and how to use MT's "Precision Match".:confused:

Please let me know if you have any insights.

Thanks,

Todd