Forum Moderators: martinibuster
Among the enticements cited to opt back into the content network:
Placement Performance Reports
Presents the advertiser with site by site performance metrics at the URL level.
ROI management
Discusses how to manage ROI on the content network
Content Newtwork Case Study
Site Exclusion Tool
Shows the advertiser how to exclude their ads from sites they dislike
Site Targeting
Shows advertisers how to target specific sites
The email ends with instructions on how to enable the content network.
Sadly many content network sites inhale large quantities of clicks that do nothing more then eat up advertiser budgets for 0 roi and make them turn off the content network forever leaving a horrible taste in there mouth which judging by the email you just posted clearly has happened many millions of times.
As one advertiser told me, "your site converts 5x better then search at half the price".
Hopefully with the recent crackdowns of
MFA
Arbitrage
Low quality traffic
Ad placement
Clickable area
Traffic Sources
things will start turning around for the Adsense program in public perception. Google has obviously been aware of these problems for at least the last 12 months.
I am glad that Google is selling the content network, however I don't want direct advertiser growth to stop or slow down.
[edited by: Edge at 7:27 pm (utc) on Mar. 10, 2008]
I think there's a knee jerk impulse to opt out of the content network but that there are lot of good opportunities for branding and sales in the content network if people would stop following what others were doing and started thinking critically for themselves.
started thinking critically for themselves
Dang MB are you having an epiphany or something?
I am starting to click my heels together and saying" There's no place like AdSense, there's no place like AdSense" !-!-!
It would be nice to see some of these bones thrown to publishers as well. I could go on at length here but it's already been done.
Anybody feel the content network has not been vigorously promoted to advertisers?
Well, since I didn't get that email, and since it sorta seems like I would be in the target demographic (AdWords user who usually opts out of the content network), I guess I will take the term "vigorously" with a grain of salt until I find out the vast majority of AdWords accounts got such an email and I was just unlucky.
It's encouraging that they (finally? eventually? at long last?) decided to try to counter the nearly set in concrete AdWords conventional wisdom that the content network should always be avoided. Hopefully, they have a new department working on that problem every day, not just a single email...
I belong to a trade group of small businesses that make extensive use of AdWords but virtually never use the content network (interestingly, they never use Google CheckOut either despite being prime candidates, since a few bad initial experiences completely poisoned the well). I'll know Google made some progress as soon as I see a single post there relating a positive experience with the content network.
Fixing the content network perception problem is completely outside of Google's core skillset, IMHO, and I doubt they have a snowball's chance in hell of making a dent in it unless they give it a high priority (money/prestige) and hire some outsiders with non-Google mindsets to run it. When you build your business model on letting your machines handle customer interaction, you're just not going to be in a position to handle problems that require extensive customer persuasion.
As I said in the thread about the new exclusion tool: "it may bring some advertisers into the content network who have avoided it because they had little control over where their ads appeared."
And here is Google pushing for that.
It would be nice to see some of these bones thrown to publishers as well. I could go on at length here but it's already been done.
As I stated in another thread, publishers will be allowed to block placement targeted (site targeted) ads in the new Ad Review section of publishers accounts.
The problem is Google does next to nothing to guide publishers into placing ads on their sites in a way that advertisers can really benefit.
The heat map, as good as that sounds, obviously isn't good enough; otherwise so many advertisers would still be in the Content Network.
Banning sites that are over the top is only the start. There's a big gap between sites that adhere to the Adsense rules and sites that actually are great for advertisers.
Google has a long way to go in showing Joe Publisher how to design his pages and add ads in a way that will be win-win-win (Publisher, Advertiser, Google).
Unless, for some reason, most websites, no matter what formatting is used (ad size, colors, placement, etc.) inherently can't convert well for advertisers.
And the site-targeting, well that's a two-way deal. Google is only half way there. It still has to convince the publishers we won't get stupid ads on our sites.
p/g
Parked domains are part of the search network, not the content network.
WiseWebDude, if by "parked pages" you mean parked domains, that's one of the things you now CAN opt out of.
Oh good! I haven't seen that as I rarely change my ads, LOL. I will look for that for sure! I've been waiting for that for a long time...I ONLY allow my ads to run on Google Search and nothing else due to that crap. Now, I might look into it again, thanks for letting me know.
[edited by: WiseWebDude at 9:14 pm (utc) on Mar. 11, 2008]
Anybody feel the content network has not been vigorously promoted to advertisers?
Have to differ, our Google reps have always pushed the content network almost everytime we speak to them. Its become an ongoing joke in the office to see who can count the most mentions of "content" in a call.
:)
The problem is Google does next to nothing to guide publishers into placing ads on their sites in a way that advertisers can really benefit.
Not quite, those of us that have an AdSense Account Strategist are recieving lots of coaching on ad placment. So far they are pushing the 300 x 250 realy hard.
I'll let the rest of you speculate on what this means..
[edited by: Edge at 3:01 pm (utc) on Mar. 12, 2008]
What did you say your domains were? ;) :) i) !) ¦)
To clarify, parked domain sites are classified as either search sites or content sites depending on their design. This means advertisers' ads may show on parked domain sites if their campaign is opted-in to the search or content networks.
If an advertiser excludes parked domains (under the Page Types tab), this prevents their ads from appearing on all parked domain sites, on both the content and the search networks. Advertisers can also use the Site and Category Exclusion tool to prevent their ads from appearing on individual parked domain sites on the content network and the search network.
ASA
;)
Now I can feel more secure about the partner search as well on that issue.
Most advertisers we're pretty incredulous though. We know how Content rolls.
