Markus at Plentyoffish has written a short tutorial on how dating sites can take advantage of the Google Content Network. I’ve been getting deeper into Adwords, anything we can learn about how to take advantage of Google’s ad networks is great. Make sure to leave a comment if you have improvements or issues with his ideas.
Many advertisers don’t realize how the Google Content Network works and end up over paying, or shutting off a campaign. Here is how I would run my campaign.
1. Create a campaign for search, and uncheck the content network.
2. Create a second campaign for Content Only. You have to create the campaign first then uncheck search network, make sure you set the prices lower on the content network then on the search network.
When you create a campaign for the search network it is totally different than creating something for the content network. Do NOT use dynamic keyword insertion for the content network. The content network works by creating a theme out of your adgroup and everything is broadmatched (Your ads are shown for any term Google thinks may be related).
Let’s say you have an adgroup, and it has the following contents, and you are using Dynamic Keyword Insertion for the title of your ad.
Online dating
Online dating Seattle
Online dating New York
If these 3 ads are in the same adgroup, and you are using dynamic keyword insertion in the title, your ad could show ‘Online dating’ or ‘Online dating Seattle’ or ‘Online dating New York’ as the title.
Your position and the amount of traffic you get from the content network depends on 2 things: price and click through rate.
The following ad title: ‘Online Dating New York’ will get a fraction of the clicks of a title that just says ‘Online dating’.
On the search network the ad “Online dating New York” would only get triggered when someone typed in Online Dating New York. On the content network there is a good chance the ad could show up if the term that triggered it is even slightly related. (ie. ‘Online dating’ would trigger the above ad).
The key to the content network is getting your CTR really high. To do that you need to create adgroups containing a common theme and really good ads that seem like they fit the page.
‘Women Seeking Men’
A title like that will get 2-5 times as many clicks as an ad that has a title of “Online Dating”, the end result being that your 15 cent ad can beat out a 80 cent ad for position number 1.
I would also place no more then 20 terms in an adgroup and make SURE they are all on theme. Here is a sample adgroup that would work insanely well on the content network, but totally suck on the search network.
Ad title: ‘Women Seeking Men’
Ad text: ‘Millions of Single Women, are Looking for You!’
Keywords: free dating, free online dating, free dating service, free dating site, free dating online
Then create another adgroup for Personals etc.
Ad title: ‘Women Seeking Men’
Ad text: ‘Millions of Single Women, are Looking for You!’
Keywords: free personals, free online personals, free personal ads, free personals site, free personals online
Also don’t forget to use negative terms when creating dating ads in both the search campaigns and content campaigns. You can dramatically lower your costs and raise CTR giving you a higher position. A negative search term tells Google not to show your ad if that term pops up.
I would use negative search terms on the search network like…. software, who, what, when, why, articles, news, articles, info, tip, information, tips, cards, job, e-greetings, laime, report, for, game, on script, games , phone , software, greetings, phone lines, story, telephone, etc.
Good stuff, thanks Markus.
