While I know that the site exclusion tool works for the content network, I'm wondering if there is something similar that could be used for the search network. Whether this means contacting a rep or some other function that I'm missing in Adwords somewhere. I'd like to keep on the search network for the obvious quality sites, but those are starting to become a liability when I have to accept the other fraudulent traffic.
Does anyone have any solutions they could suggest or perhaps word on whether Google plans on making the site exclusion tool available for the search network as well.
I find that when I start a new campaign the ROI is poor. But after a week things start to even out. I have come to believe that smart pricing takes effect, and the poor quality sites that do not convert are discounted.
You can also block specific sites.
I find that when I start a new campaign the ROI is poor. But after a week things start to even out. I have come to believe that smart pricing takes effect, and the poor quality sites that do not convert are discounted.
You can also block specific sites.
I believe 'smart pricing' only effects your costs on the content network
lysglimt,
You cannot actually have a campaign that targets only the search network without including Google. You can target content only, but to get the search partners, you need to opt in to Google as well.
What you can do is set up two campaigns, one targeted to Google and search and one to Google only. If you emphasize the priority of the Google only campaign by setting higher CPCs for it's Ad Groups, it will take the majority of Google impressions while the second campaign runs primarily on the search network only. I would think this is more complication than is really necessary. Conversions on the search network should mirror Google conversions, enough so at least that separating it out is more effort than it's worth.
AWA2
What you can do is set up two campaigns, one targeted to Google and search and one to Google only. If you emphasize the priority of the Google only campaign by setting higher CPCs for it's Ad Groups, it will take the majority of Google impressions while the second campaign runs primarily on the search network only.
Thanks for confirming my theory. I tried this a few months ago, and the results were inconclusive. I couldn't tell for sure if this worked, because I was sending traffic to an affiliate program, without first redirecting through a stats package.
Conversions on the search network should mirror Google conversions, enough so at least that separating it out is more effort than it's worth.
Or so the company line goes.
THanks!
You cannot exclude search network partners the same way you exclude content sites. The only exception are the domain park partners that are included in the search network. Review your sites weblogs, or your Analytics reports if you are using it, and see if some of the traffic isn't coming in from a parked domain. If your conversion tracking program is showing that traffic to not be converting as well for you, you can exclude those parked domain sites.
Is there any plans in the works for this to change and allow people to opt out of specific search partners? It seems the functionality is already there, but for some reason the switch isn't being turned on for it to be used by advertisers.
While I can go through and look through our stats daily, I had a little more faith in the search network. Perhaps it was being naive on my part, but I was under the impression that some of these sites had to pass a more thorough screening process. When a site pops up in your search network that was recently registered and is sending me more traffic than all your other search partners combined (traffic that doesn't act much like the other traffic), it's apparent that there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of fraud protection on Google's part. Thus, it would be nice to allow the advertiser to prevent the fraudulent clicks that Google is apparently not interested in catching.
