The Google AdWords Content Network is the largest advertising network on the planet. Many people still turn it off on their campaigns (ok initially) and then never use it (which is a mistake). The fact that you can advertise on websites like the NYTimes.com shows the huge potential. You can use not only text ads but also image ads, which get more attention and can produce a higher CTR.

I personally often get a better ROI (Return On Investment) on the content network than on the search network.

The whole field of advertising on the content network is still much more nebulous than the advertising on search. It is very hard to get definitive and test-proven answers regarding the content network, especially if it gets more advanced than just putting a text-CPC campaign with keywords on automatic placements.

Placement targeting means selecting the websites you want to advertise on. These pages are pages that you know convert or that proven themselves in Automatic placements already. You can get very granular here, selecting single pages. Of course you can also select the whole URL. The power is in selecting the placements that are:

• Most relevant
• Have a reasonable volume of impressions
• Produce a decent or better great CTR
• And first and foremost produce conversions, i.e. sales or signups (You use the built-in AdWords conversion tracking, right?!)

The whole process of optimizing a campaign on the content network to higher and higher ROI results in placement targeting. That means take the best converting websites and put them into a new campaign/adgroup and try to get as much out of it as you can.

You can see the process in this short video:

The perfect Content Network campaign

Usually the time-line of a content campaign looks like this:

1. Create a CPC content campaign with a theme of keywords and automatic managed placements (means Google selects the sites using your keywords as a guide). Maybe use data from a search campaign to begin with (keywords, ads).
2. Over time select the websites with the best ROI (they make you money) and also decent CTR (high CTR means lower costs, regardless of CPC or CPM payment) and put them into Managed placements,
   while excluding those placements that does not convert or have a very low CTR.
3. If you have managed placements that produce a high ROI, i.e. good conversions you may consider opening a CPM campaign instead and try to really take over the whole placement for your benefit.

Especially the 3. point is like the ultimate goal of a content network campaign. If you use CPM placements you can take over the whole ad on the site, whether you use an image ad or a text ad and kick out all other advertisers (Google may blow your text ad up so it takes the whole adspace on the website). The idea is if you have found a great page that converts well for you, scale it up and try to get all adspace there is. If it is a website with large volume, this can be extremely lucrative.

That’s the exciting theory.

Solving Problems to get to the perfect Content Network campaign

The most common problem you see today in internet marketing forums is that the content campaign is not getting enough impressions. Initially your content campaign will be send out to many placements and it will be tested by Google. How is the CTR and how is it competing with other campaigns? Which placements work for it?

Many campaign run dry on impressions after this initial testing phase, especially in niches with high competition, where there are a lot of other already optimized campaigns running. One of the best things you can do is create great adcopy that users click on in the content network. CTR is the most important factor if it comes to being better than the competition and to get low bidprices.

There may also other issues that prevent you from scaling a campaign up and we will look into those in the next postings about the content network …

Related posts:

1. Tips for Success on the Google Content Network
2. Low Impressions on the Content Network ?