google display network

6 replies
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I have never ran ads on the display network but there is a forum in particular i want to target.

So i specified that forum, set my bid to about $1.45 and within an hour had about 2 impressions. I realize this probably isnt smart, and when i looked if ads were showing it said no due to the ad being irrelevant to the topics.. which im not sure how that is possible because i just left it completely broad and said i just want it to target xyzforum .com

I mean i dont think there are specific topics on a forum that be better for me to market with.. i know just marekting to an entire forum isnt smart because its not targeted but cant seem to think of any good ideas... Will my CPC just be extremely high because im competing for every keyword not just specific ones?

I could be wrong but im assuming the only solution is to raise the CPC substantially or pick keywords for the forum and then bid individually on them?

Again the only thing i think is strange how it says my ad is not relevant to any topics, yet i did not select any keywords or topics. thank you.
#display #google #network
  • Profile picture of the author Andyhenry
    Originally Posted by marketingg View Post

    Again the only thing i think is strange how it says my ad is not relevant to any topics, yet i did not select any keywords or topics. thank you.
    You are answering your own question.

    Your ads are supposed to be targeted - they're not. You know they're not relevant but you are confused that they're being stopped for not being relevant?

    Google is trying to protect you - they can tell you don't know what you're doing and would burn all your money unless they help you by stopping your ads.
    Signature

    nothing to see here.

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    • Profile picture of the author marketingg
      Thanks Andy,

      I figured that and was waiting to update the landing page so just left the account pending before I made it targeted. Here is my question then, how can you really target on forums even if you target by interest or keywords....

      A landscaping company advertising on a landscape forum.
      What could you target, it's too broad in conversation to make a smart bid, as hard as I think I can't really come up with ideas.

      I understand if I write the word "hosting" and an image ad for host gator may show up... And that makes sense but again another difficult scenario below:

      A contractor on a construction forum....how would you target that...
      A web developer on this forum.... How would you target that...

      It's just seems difficult to make smart bids in some situations.
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      • Profile picture of the author marketingg
        Just an update: It said

        "This publisher does not accept contextual advertising"

        What do you do in this situation then.... its just broad advertising and i have no choice whether to make the campaign more targeted or not.
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        • Profile picture of the author paulgl
          I would not target any forums, period.

          Paul
          Signature

          If you were disappointed in your results today, lower your standards tomorrow.

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  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    I don't think targeting niche forum traffic is a bad idea, but you'll probably come out ahead money wise If you simply advertised directly on the forum instead of dealing with a middle man (Google/Adwords), & can usually have more options for your Ad to be displayed on the forum page.

    As an example a niche forum I belong to has an Ad position that sells for $500 per month, If a person went with Adwords (the forum also runs Adsense) at even something as low as $0.50 CPC, your looking at 1,000 traffic via Adwords, where that same $500 could return unlimited traffic for 30 days for the same $500 budget.

    Most forums I've seen will let you advertise directly with the forum. You might even end up needing a smaller budget & getting more of the same traffic that you would get via Adwords.

    I'm an Adsense guy & all for people spending money on Adwords, but sometimes you can get better deals simply by asking the webmaster of the site you want to advertise on.
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    • Profile picture of the author marketingg
      Hey guys thank you for feedback. Yeah im surprised with the display network since im new to it. I targeted a forum as i said above, example is today i had 200 impressions so far on the forum with 1 click (its not targeted at all, forum owner does not accept contextual advertising).. i mean its just not doing it for me, i thought it would be so smart to make ads individually for what i THOUGHT would be big traffic sources...

      for example if i wanted to advertise on this site with adwords it seems only logical that you would want to include the word "warrior" somewhere in the ad. But it turns on you need massive impressions to get some sort of response.... and it might not make sense.

      i have a campaign with 20 keywords which brought about 540 impressions (0 clicks) maybe im not bidding high enough... or the keywords just are not bringing in enough traffic not even sure how to figure out which is the problem.

      That forum campaign today i had 200 impressions with 1 click but i have had about 500 impressions with 0 clicks too so not enough data to know what is really going on since campaigns are only a few days old.

      I need more impressions.... should i just be targeting "topics" and/or "interests" and set to all of US? Is that too broad and a disaster waiting? Thank you.
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