"Content Targeting".

It is all paid .. what exactly is it I am assuming adsense..

[Mark_A]

A lot of my visitors reported in Google analytics when looking at traffic sources keywords, are from "content targeting" and they are all "paid". I am assuming that they are probably all "adsense" clicks.. does anyone know if that is right?

[buckworks]

Yes, those would be from ads on the content network (AKA AdSense).

You can get more specifics about where the traffic came from within your AdWords account, under the "Networks" tab.

[netmeg]

One of the FIRST things I'd do if I were you is make sure that your Search campaigns are separate from the Content campaigns. Everything about the two networks is different, down to the delivery and the reporting, so you want to keep them separate, and use completely different strategies.

[Mark_A]

At the moment, my instinct is to switch off the content ads altogether and see if I can then improve our results with search / adwords by targetting them more closely.

[limoshawn]

you should really consider netmeg's suggestion, we started separating our content and search campaigns over the last few months, campaigns that had been running for years, and it pretty amazing the data that we've been getting.

[Mark_A]

Oh, OK, But I don't know HOW to seperate them (at the moment) :-)

[buckworks]

Select the "Settings" tab for a campaign, then scroll down until you reach the section called "Networks and devices".

The default is for ads to show anywhere and everywhere, but you can edit the settings to be more selective about where your impressions are coming from: search vs content, also computers vs iPhones/mobile.

Take your pick whether to start a new campaign or clone an existing campaign, but set one for search and one for content. Also give thought to whether you want your ads displayed on mobile devices. If you decide "yes" for that question, I'd encourage you to create segregated campaigns for mobile as well.

[Mark_A]

Thanks buckworks, that sounds like good advice.

I have to do a lot of work to refine the adwords keywords and adverts themselves and the landing pages, because at the moment we are spending quite a lot but not getting a satisfactory return.

[eWhisper]

A quick way of separating your campaigns is to use the AdWords editor. It's a free program that Google offers; which will save you a lot of time in making bulk changes to your account.

Within the editor, your standard shortcuts work (such as cntl-C for copy and cntl-V for paste).

1. Download your account.
2. Copy your current campaign.
3. Paste your current campaign.
4. Rename the new campaign 'current name - content' (or whatever you prefer).
5. Under campaign settings, change the first campaign to search only.
6. Under campaign settings, change the second campaign to content only.
7. Upload the changes.

This will take all of 1 minute to accomplish.

[Mark_A]

A quick way of separating your campaigns is to use the AdWords editor.

That was great advice eWhisper, thanks very much .. Although I have to say that it took me quite a lot longer than a minute :-)

Ok, now I have two campaigns each with two adgroups and two sets of keywords. I have pointed the first at search and the second at content. Split the overall daily budget between them, in favour of search.

Now I have to customise one against the other.

Can anyone advise me how a campaign for search should differ from one for content? In general terms I mean no need to go into too much detail!

[netmeg]

In search you use keywords - the user types "red widgets" and you have "red widgets" in your campaign and all other things aligning, your ad shows.

Content is theme based. Think about it - if you're on someone's site with AdSense, you're not usually searching for keywords, you're browsing content. So you don't need a ton of keywords in content, and you don't need to worry about match types - just stick with broad. You just set up each ad group so that Google can figure out what the "theme" is, and serve the ad accordingly. I make sure I name the ad group with the theme too (Google can use all the help it can get to target ads properly)

So, if I am selling Widgets to the content network, I might have a campaign called Widgets - Content. And then each ad group would be:

Red Widgets
Blue Widgets
Used Widgets
Widget Repair

You see - with different themes for each one. You don't *have* to even add keywords, but if you want to be more precise, it helps. And you want to make sure your ad and your landing page relate directly to the theme for that ad group as well. If it's too broad, it won't work as well.

There are some things you can do to start out. If your target market isn't hanging out on social networking sites so much, you can exclude those as negative sites. If you don't sell used widgets, or offer anything free, then make sure you add permutations of used (reconditioned, refurbished, whatever) and free to your negative keywords. That goes for search as well.

Content campaigns usually take longer to get up and running. Once you've let it go for a while (several thousand impressions, or a week or two) then go into Reports and run the Site Placement report to see where your ads are showing. If you see any obvious stinkers, add them to your negative sites. Conversely, if you see something doing particularly well, you might want to separate it off to its own campaign. I have a client who we realized was doing extremely well with GMail ads. So we made a campaign for that, and we're willing to pay more because it performs better. And we can write ads specifically to that placement.

You can use the Ad Planner to find sites that people who are interested in your products might be visiting, so you can advertise there. That's called Placement advertising - it's Content Network, but you get to specify exactly which sites you like.

Hopefully you have conversion tracking turned on as well, so you can see what's actually working.

[Mark_A]

Thanks netmeg that makes a lot of sense.

No at the moment I don't have conversion tracking on. Will look at that.