PPC - Turn off Content but what about Serach Partners

[phil.wheatley]

Hi Guys

When starting out with adwords, people normally say to switch off content at first, but what about Google Partners, is it best to turn that off too?

Thanks,
Phil

[JohnMcCabe]

I'm of the mind that you should indeed separate Google proper from the Search Partner network. Since Google has less control over where and when their ads show up, you can expect to see different results.

The classic way to do this is to create two duplicate campaigns (same keyword groups, search types, etc.)

For Google proper, you simply turn off the partners and content network. This forces your ads in this campaign to show only on Google search.

For the Partner Network, turn off the content network and set your bids a few cents less than you've set on the Google-only campaign. Since big G want to maximize revenue, your higher-bid ads will show on Google, while the lower bid ads will show on the Partner network.

You always want to separate your campaigns for the content network from your campaigns for search, also. People using search are obviously looking for something, while Adsense ads are more of an interruption to the content.

[Lucid]

It can be amazing how good or bad a group can do with the search partner. There seems to be no rhyme or reason sometimes. On the whole however, SP is less profitable.

Best advice is what John suggests: test a campaign with both Google and Partners on. Groups not doing well with the partners, split them off to what I call a Google Only campaign. Unfortunately, you can't have a Search Partner Only campaign.

One problem with search partners is that they don't necessarily use the concept of broad, phrase and exact match keywords. I think this is why numbers can be so different, the SPs use the broad versions of keywords. My suggestion would be to use only longer tailed keywords if you are going to use the search partner network.

You could also do the same with Desktop and Mobile devices. Google doesn't split the stats but you could have separate campaigns for those.

[Johnson Tay]

You can run 3 campaigns; one for search, the other for search partners and the last one for content

[KirkMcD]

Search Partners are generally fine, but Parked Domains are included in them.
You can turn off Parked Domains from the Site and Category Exclusion tool under the Page Types tab.
I usually get the most useless and fraudulent clicks from Parked Domains.

[phil.wheatley]

Hi Guys

Thanks again for the great tips. John, again, thank you also, you seem to be always having to answer my questions!! Much appreciated.

I uderstand from some that once you have things running well with Main google then you can use the other two avenues to expand the campaign, especially the Content network, lots of testing needed though.

Cheers,
Phil

[dburk]

Originally Posted by KirkMcD

Search Partners are generally fine, but Parked Domains are included in them.
You can turn off Parked Domains from the Site and Category Exclusion tool under the Page Types tab.
I usually get the most useless and fraudulent clicks from Parked Domains.

Hi Kirk,

It is my understanding that Parked Domains are part of the Content Network not the Search Network. The only exception is when a Google Search is embedded on a Content Network page. In this case it's a Google keyword search result page that displays your ad while it's embedded in the host webpage.

If you have a credible source that proves otherwise, I would love to see it.