Google content adverts

Where is my content adverts being shown?

[Candysoldier]

Is there anyway I can find out where my content ads are being shown?

[Jenstar]

There is no foolproof way of figuring out where your ads are being displayed, since Google doesn't tell you ;)

If Google was to announce exactly which sites your ads were being displayed on, you could effectively go straight to those sites you thought were giving you the best ROI, and do your advertising business direct. Which also means that Google wouldn't get paid when you do business direct.

You can try surfing through sites that you think would be your target audience and see if your ads are being displayed. And don't forget they could also be displayed on one page view, but not the next, so it is not foolproof.

[Candysoldier]

Already tried that but thanks anyway.

[Gorilla]

It's pretty easy to see what web page a clicked ad was displayed on. Find referrer log entries with a URL starting with http*//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/ads. Have a close look at the URL-argument and you can usually see what page the ad was shown on.

[Candysoldier]

Why didnt I think of that? Nice one

[loanuniverse]

Really? I thought all that adwords advertisers got was a publisher code.... can you really tell the specific content site where the visitor is coming from?

[Robsp]

Yes you can and it is quite easy. I always load my logfile in excel and say its a "; separated" file. Your content ads will be in one column then and easy to sort on.

[loanuniverse]

That is very cool, too bad my ctr on content sites is 0% or I would go hunting in my logs for a referral. I guess, paying $0.05 for a competitive term does not convert into traffic. Then again my avg 18th position in SERPS keeps me above the minimum.