How to Slay the Adwords Content Network Beast and make a killing!

Thanks for the comment.

People are sleeping on the content network as a traffic source!

I am not surprised because too many marketers don't think outside the box to find alternatives to get things working.

Most of us just listen to what the experts say rather than testing things out for ourselves.

The experts have been telling people to stay away from the Content Network for so long that people are scared of it.

However, if you follow Perry Marshall you will see that his focus for 2010 is all about the content network.

Check this post out from his blog and you will see what I mean: Google Image Ads and the Pixel Power Principle

Yes it works on Yahoo. The only problem though is that Google is the only one of the big 3 that allow you to use images.

Images on the Content Network it the secret weapon. Works like gangbusters!

Thanks!

For demographic keyword research I mainly use Quantcast, but there are several others I can't seem to think of at the moment.

Also, here's another killer tip!

It's called Psychographics (Psychographic - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) and it is not demographics, but rather it focuses on the behaviors of like minded individuals.

For example, a U.S. beer drinker is much more likely to also like American Football.

This is huge when it comes to finding out where your target market likes to hang out online.

Why do you think Budweiser spends $3 million on a 30 second ad during the Superbowl?

This is the same thinking you need to have when trying to find out what content your target market is likely to be consuming online.

Tommie

Yeah, I have seen this from Yahoo.

It is actually run by a company called Adready.

In my opinion, it is not designed for beginners. It is also a beta program and it really sucks compared to all the other places you can buy banner traffic from.

You are right, it is not very lucrative.

Also, there could be a million reasons why Google is not approving your ads. Usually the longer it takes for them to approve you, the higher the likelyhood you will not get approved.

Google manually approves all their banner ads and they are getting very strict lately.

Yes, this is a very powerful tool!

If you know how to use it, you can do so many things with Adplanner. But that is the problem, not many people know how to use it or even that it exists.

The biggest opportunity with this tool is that when you already know who your target market is, you can easily identify where they are online and exploit that very easily using Adwords and the content network.

Tommie

I mention using keywords for two reasons.

The first is to build a campaign around keywords and then filter those campaigns and adgroups based on what domains work and the ones that don't.

Until recently, Google did not penalize you that much on the content network for quality score like they do on Search. The main things they wanted to see was high click through rates on your ads because this lets them know this audience is very interested in your offer.

If your click through rates are higher, Google is willing to show your ads instead of somebody else's ad at a lower price because you will actually receive more clicks. Even at a lower amount per click, not only would you make them more money but you would also help them deliver quality ads to that audience because higher click thrus let them know this audience is highly interested in your offer.

Google understands that content is based on what people like, but they also can fit a certain profile to like other things. For example, an American beer drinker is more likely to also like American Football. That is why Budweiser buys ads during the Superbowl at an enormous expense.

On the other hand, I think in the future Google is making relevance and quality score a bigger deal on the Content Network so I recommend having relevant landing pages for keyword only content campaigns.

The second reason for using keywords is to tell Google, I only want my ads to show up on specific pages related to this particular subject for the placements I choose.

This is why I say build a placement targeted campaign and use keywords. This is the same as a regular placement campaign, you are just being more specific about where you want your ads to show on the sites you have selected rather than run your ads on the entire website.

For example, you may have found that ezine articles work great with your ads. But articles can be about many different topics. Your keywords would filter out all the irrelevant content and only allow your ads to show up on pages about the topics you choose based on your keywords.

I hope that clarifies it a bit more.

It gets a lot more complex the more you learn, but it all makes sense.

You just have to understand that Content Network and Search Network are two totally different animals. The stuff you learned about doing Adwords for Search is almost completely useless for Content Network.

Most people try to make Content Network make sense based on what they already know about running Search campaigns and that is why many people fail on the Content Network.

Hope that helps.

Tommie

Thanks for the comments and glad to see somebody from home in here!

Can't sip the ole' moonshine anymore because of health reasons. Sipboy is short for Mississippi Boy.

To answer your questions about Gmail, yes the content network placement targeting option is exactly how you target Gmail. Can be a very effective strategy when done properly.

As for banners, I use them mostly for all my ads and profitability is based on a case by case basis.

The main reason for banners is to totally dominate ad blocks on Adsense websites. Once I can identify the winners based on optimization and running placement reports, that is when I cut out the middleman (Google).

Hope that answers your question.

Thanks for the comments and good luck on your campaigns.

Dude, $0.21 sure won't get you any impressions.

The strategy is to bid high and budget low in the beginning to get your ads showing and then make adjustments.

You gotta show Google you want to be a player. Remember, you are bidding in an auction.

There are many people who are bidding really high on the Content Network and don't know what the hell they are doing. The reason most of the time is they are not separating Search and Content campaigns which means whatever they are bidding on Search is the same on Content.

If you are using images though, there will be drastically different situations because many Adwords advertisers are not using them effectively.

Still though, you gotta bid high enough to get your ads shown.

Basically, what you initially pay for is the data that tells you what works and where.

Based on the data, you must then optimize your campaigns over time to really make it work.

If you are not willing to spend a little dough testing in the beginning to gather the data you need, then this is definitely not the strategy for you.

You simply cannot be afraid to invest and test.

I hope that makes more sense.

Tommie

If you have your ads approved already you should be getting traffic.

There is no way to know exactly why you are not getting any impressions without seeing the campaign, but I am willing to bet your bids are too low.

You have to bid high at first to get a position and then you can reduce your bids later.

Traffic usually starts for me right after my ads get approved.

There could be a hundred reasons why you are having this issue, but your bid price is the main one.

$.15 won't get you many impressions at all unless you are targeting worldwide.

You have to bid high in the beginning to get a position and let Google know you want some action. Then you optimize your campaigns and reduce your bids over time.

Hope that helps

Tommie

I don't really recommend a minimum.

It's really about how comfortable you are with using Adwords and the ability to manage your campaigns.

The more involved you get in the beginning, the more management and optimization time you will need to put into your campaigns.

It really only takes one good adgroup to get a ton of traffic.

My advice is to do as much as you can handle and gather as much data as possible because the data will tell you what to do in terms of optimization.

The main thing you need to do is just stay with it and understand that optimization is the key to really doing well.

Tommie

Hey Dayne,

One way to find out is to download your campaign into Adwords Editor.

If your search campaign was slapped, its highly likely your content campaign is in the same boat. Especially if they both point to the same domain.

There is also a Quality Score on content campaigns and they are also highly dependent on your landing page quality.

Good luck with getting answers from Google.

If I were you I would delete both campaigns, fix your landing pages or whatever issues causing the slap, and start all over.

Also, be sure to read the Google Adwords Advertising Policy to be certain you are following all the rules so that you don't get slapped again.

Tommie

For Adwords, I mainly use Google Analytics and reports that you can run inside Adwords. For example, the main the reports I run for my Display Network campaigns are Placement Performance Reports.

You must also have Google's conversion tracking setup as well in order for Google to report the information that is most critical.

I also employ other tracking solutions such as Hyper Tracker for my own internal tracking and data collection efforts.