Content vs Search

and their relation to Keywords CTR

[dougl]

First of all as a newcomer to this forum,

Hi to all you folks
and many kind thanks for all of your informative posts...

Here's my first question to you and perhaps AWA can comment:

For many of my adgroups content provides a healthy 10 to 30% of the clicks, and judging from the returns, in many though not all cases, mostly legitimate quality click$; one of my adgroups in particular generates over 90% of clicks from content. It has had very low "search CTR", but somewhat decent "content CTR".

This scenario raises a lot of questions to me:

1) is the showing of my ads on the content network based on my choice of keywords only, or on the wording of my ads, or a combination. Ie. identical for content and search networks?

2) if keywords are performing well on content, but not search will google keep them running at full tilt? I have my suspicions that ads generating content revenue factor into the speed at which keywords get put into trial/hold/disabled.

3) if I don't know which keywords are generating content clicks, I'm afraid to delete keywords performing poorly on search as content ads triggered by those keywords would take a hit.

4) if search network is disabled and only content is enabled I'm assuming that ads are still shown on Google and their CTR determines the fate of keywords, but what if again those keywords are only doing well with the content network?

5) does the amount spent on content figure into the equation? Ie. if in the aforementioned case thousands of dollars worth of content clicks are generated but nothing through search would Google slow down showing the ads on Google but keep them going full steam on content, all the while keeping the keywords alive in the adgroup?

6) if in that case keywords are thrown into the hold bucket, does that really mean they were fruitless only for search or also for content?

I'll stop here and let the rest of my questions about splitting content & search into seperate campaigns simmer for the time being...

thanks in advance for all your insights ... AWA?

BTW kindly inform me if I'm flogging a dead horse (ie. has been well addressed in a previous post which I missed).

Doug

[kgilbert]

I can answer #2 (from Adwords campaign, near the bottom):

"Lower CTRs for content ads will not adversely affect your campaign. [ more info [adwords.google.com] ]"

[dougl]

That's fine, and I understand why Google might say that to encourage us advertisers to not shy away from their content network...

now what about the reverse; ie. where content ctr exceeds search ctr? Am I the only one who has encountered this situation? If such ads are making Google money I wonder if they have a positive impact on keeping those keywords alive... hmmm

As an aside, can anyone explain why AOL and Netscape Netcenter are listed as search sites in the Google Network? When I checked them I couldn't find my ads anywhere, and they looked more like Overture ads when I compared them to Yahoo. How can I get my ads in AOL through Google? Am I simply not bidding enough, in that ads from other non-Google sources are outbidding me?

[FromRocky]

1) is the showing of my ads on the content network based on my choice of keywords only, or on the wording of my ads, or a combination. Ie. identical for content and search networks?

Search -----> individual keyword
Content -----> an overview of all keywords in an Ad Group
Read [webmasterworld.com] & learn [webmasterworld.com]

2) if keywords are performing well on content, but not search will google keep them running at full tilt? I have my suspicions that ads generating content revenue factor into the speed at which keywords get put into trial/hold/disabled.

To keep the keywords running or not running is depending on the keyword status. Keyword status is based on the CTR from Google search only. Therefore, the keyword performance from the content and search partners doesn't count in the consideration of keyword status.

3) if I don't know which keywords are generating content clicks, I'm afraid to delete keywords performing poorly on search as content ads triggered by those keywords would take a hit.

You can't avoid it.

4) if search network is disabled and only content is enabled I'm assuming that ads are still shown on Google and their CTR determines the fate of keywords, but what if again those keywords are only doing well with the content network?

See Answer # 2.

5) does the amount spent on content figure into the equation? Ie. if in the aforementioned case thousands of dollars worth of content clicks are generated but nothing through search would Google slow down showing the ads on Google but keep them going full steam on content, all the while keeping the keywords alive in the adgroup?

I dont think so.

6) if in that case keywords are thrown into the hold bucket, does that really mean they were fruitless only for search or also for content?

See Answer #1

[dougl]

Thanks for the links FromRocky...

To quote AWA... "Ads placed on the content network are not placed there on a keyword-by-keyword basis. Rather, the system takes an overview of all of the keywords in the Ad Group, regardless of match type. Then the ad is placed on a page the content of which is aligned with the topic of the Ad Group, based on the overview of the keywords."

Any more details (or speculation) on the algo for this?

Also, what then is the CPC based on for an ad shown on content - on some average of the keyword CPCs?

[mike_ppc]

Good question, Doug!

I would like to add: On what criteria is established Ad Ranking and CPC on Content? The same combination of CTR and MaxBid? Or only on maxbid? And how?

[AdWordsAdvisor]

Also, what then is the CPC based on for an ad shown on content - on some average of the keyword CPCs?

I would like to add: On what criteria is established Ad Ranking and CPC on Content? The same combination of CTR and MaxBid? Or only on maxbid? And how?

Since content advertising uses the same group of keywords that the ads do for search, the system uses the default maximum CPC that you have selected when determining the ranking of your ads.

Then, when determining the exact CPC you pay for clicks in the content network, the system looks at the content of a page and selects the keyword from your Ad Group that is most relevant to the concepts presented on the content page. When a user clicks on your ad, you'll be charged for a click on the single keyword that our system determined most relevant to the content of the page.

As an aside this info is paraphrased from the AdWords Support email one would receive if the same questions were asked of the AdWords support team. I say this as a subtle plug, since, IMO, AdWords Support is also a pretty good place to ask your AdWords questions. ;)

AWA

[james_allot]

Apart from that, one can have a look at below link to get some basic answers pertaining to the Contextual advertising.

[adwords.google.com...]

Just copy paste the above link in your browser:)