I turned them on to experiment since April 1st, but the CPA is dragging upwards so I am about to turn it off.
Content targetting started out useful around April 1st, but then it got bad again. Did Google re-up and backtrack a little on Smart Pricing because of all the complaints from the AdSense publishers?
generally for the company I work for (we sell a service not product) we get no conversions from content targeting (and I mean none).
We keep it on (in separate adgroups with much lower bids) simply for brand awareness.
For us it has value, just much less value than search based ads.
generally for the company I work for (we sell a service not product) we get no conversions from content targeting (and I mean none).
We keep it on (in separate adgroups with much lower bids) simply for brand awareness.
For us it has value, just much less value than search based ads.
I have a whole AdWords thread asking about why you can't bid seperately .. Nobody said you could, even AdWordsAdvisor didn't say you could:
[webmasterworld.com...]
Here was AdWordsAdvisor's post:
"Different bidding systems, and the ability to add a particular as a negative site have been on the wishlists for G upgrades for a long time."
eWhisper is quite correct, this has been on the wish list for some time. And while I am not in a postion to know the decision-making process behind the present model, I am certainly in a position to pass your feedback on. And this I will do, as always.
Also, according to Google TOS you can not have multiple ads for the same link ..
[adwords.google.com...]
You may not run multiple ads linking to the same or similar site on the same search results page. Violation of these policies may result in immediate termination of this Agreement without notice, and may subject You to state and federal penalties and other legal consequences.
Very Important: in campaign "B" make sure ALL you bids are LOWER than in campaign "A"
This will mean that on the search partners your higher bids in "A" will override the lower bids in "B".
There is sometimes a little overlap but the general result is what we want.
p.s. 'multiple ads' does not mean multiple campaigns within the same account. Only one ad will show in any given circumstance.
p.p.s.
I imagine AWA isn't supposed to mention it, but I am only guessing.
p.s. make sure to thank me when you impliment it.
[edited by: nyet at 1:18 pm (utc) on April 13, 2004]
- Search
- Conventional Web pages (true "content")
- DomainPark
- Gmail
Even better, Google could introduce an "AdSense Select" subset of the AdSense network with sites that have been vetted for quality. This would make content ads more appealing to traditional advertisers or advertisers who worry about low-quality traffic from "made for AdSense" sites, forums, etc.
The problem, of course, is that too many choices can be as bad as too few. That's probably one of the reasons why Google decided to keep things simple by introducing its variable-discount scheme: By automating the process of matching price to perceived value, Google could avoid a scenario where advertisers would say "This is too much effort" and just stick with search ads.
Those are very good suggestions. I dislike they way the engineer the system for the lowest common denominator, I like having more control over the quality of the adsense sites the ads appear on.
About 30% of the time I check a refferal link back to an adsense site it is a total 'garbage' site. They really need to do something about that.
One problem I have seen is that when I bid on a keyword twice my ad may show up twice .. This seems to be clearly against Google TOS.
Other problems I have ran into is that the wrong Ad shows up (the lower bid shows up in a lower rank).
I am of course, always willing to be proved wrong. I certainly don't post here hoping everyone will just tell me how smart I am.
[edited by: blaze at 1:23 pm (utc) on April 13, 2004]
One problem I have seen is that when I bid on a keyword twice my ad may show up twice
this should not happen unless you have 2 accounts.
If there are 2 bids for the same word in any of your adgroups or campaigns (all the same account) , it will default to the higher bid and display that ad for that search. But, it only goes to the higher bid in group "A" if the lower bid in group "B" does not get you to the top.
It works for us.
I sent an email off to Google AdWords to get their take on it.
(crossing fingers)
The important thing for anyone running AdWords is to track your results. Then you can determine whether to leave content targeting on (in many cases a bad idea, if you ask me), or, if you do leave it on, decide what to bid. I typically bid about 25% the amount on content ads as search ads, to reflect the lower conversion rate.
Nickel listings circulating in the client's content area add up to a lot of branding impressions. He figures it's a useful support for his magazine advertising.
Keep in mind that some Adsense formats don't show the URL. If you are setting up ads which will be displayed primarily via Adsense, you might want to tweak your copy to take that into account.
The good thing is to see that our ad gets 8k content site impressions per day! Just that many eyeballs seeing our name, even if the don't click is worth the little bit we pay (because of our lower bid)
But all this is very particular to your terms, target and business model.
This is all part of the truly beautiful free enterprise market system determining value. (eyes tearing up)
his adsense traffic doesn't convert well, so he'd lose impressions.
Just saw your question which I think is directed my way. If it is, I didn't simply lower my CPC for Content because that was when it appeared that every Tom, Dick and Jane figured-out that if they selected only high-priced Exacts, threw-up a one-page SE and plunked AdSense in, they?d have a swell Christmas.
Well, my Exacts are high priced and they did have a swell Christmas. . .I on the other hand did not. . .
