Demystifying Google’s Content Network

Jon Lisbin – Principal

Frank Coyle – VP of Sales

May 20, 2009

Webinar Logistics

• Being recorded

• Email with link will be sent out later this week

• Ask question throughout via chatbox

Presentation Agenda About Point It

• Launched in April 2002

• PPC & SEO

• Seattle’s largest independent search marketing firm

• 12 team members, 40+ yrs of SEM experience

• Servicing clients across all verticals and revenue models

Content Network – Old View

• Cheap CPC

• Poor lead quality and conversion

• Suspect clicks

• Runaway costs

• Avoided by many

• So what’s it like today

Content Network - Today

• World’s largest online advertising network

• Millions of web pages displaying ads

– Google AdSense, Pulse 360, etc.

• News, Forums, YouTube, About.com, etc.

CNN.COM

Forums

Best Practices

• Campaign structure

• Keywords

• Ads copy

• Bid strategy

• Performance measurement

Creating a Content Network Campaign

• Create separate Content campaign from Search

Keywords in the Content Network

• Google places your ads based on KW themes

• The more themes, the more placements

• Create Ad Group keywords themes

– Example: Fitness

• Abs

• Muscle building

• Aerobics

• As few as you need for a theme

– 5-10 is OK, 25-50 KWs max

• Broad match only

Eye Catching Ad Copy

Display Advertising

Replacing These Three Ads With This Single One

• Need to bid 3x, BUT will not pay 3x.

• Only pay what it takes to beat the highest single ad

• And if CTR is better, then CPC will be lower than single text ads

• Only do this when you know you get traffic from a site

Ad Quirks

• All ads approved by humans

• May take 24 hrs, but usually just a few

– Weekends can be slow

• Impressions will be low initially then gradually build

• Do not pause! Starts back at the beginning again.

– Lower bid or ad schedule

Bidding

• Bid to get in the top 4

• CPC acts like PPC on Search

– Only pay for clicks

• CPM just impressions

– Can go through impressions very fast

– Need to monitor carefully

– Branding

• Let Google choose for you

• Select placement:

– Topic

– URL

– Demographics

– Google categories

– By site or by page

Placement Strategies

Best Practices Summary

• Separate Content from Search

• Theme your keywords into different ad groups

• Make your copy standout

• Bid high enough to get shown

• Track and measure performance

New Google Adwords UI Network Tab

` Sample Placement

Placement Performance Report

Site & Category Exclusion

• Membership Club goal to increase conversions

• Ad Group had over 1,500 keywords

• Broke down into 29 ad group, because Google only looks at 50 keywords per ad group in the content network

• In one week, the conversions increased 391%

• Subsequently we have doubled that using “keyword Grouper” tool.

Case Study

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

Apr 22 - 27 83.56 276 33

Apr 29 - May 4 314.89 1010 127

Cost Clicks Conversions

Summary

• Content network well worth testing

• Start with small budget

• Track where ads are being placed

• Measure carefully

Q & A

• Jon – jonl@pointit.com

• Frank – frankc@pointit.com