Google AdWords Content Network

[Vithe]

I've been running my company's search only PPC campaign for about 6 months now and have gone a long way towards optimising it as much as I can (apart from the constant split testing and other tweaks of course).

Now that that is under control and taking up less time, I was pondering on whether to investigate posting ads on their content network. When I joined this company there were a whole bunch of ads performing terribly on there, and that put me off for a while. However, I have seen a couple of blog posts with positive comments about the content network, and I am now reconsidering.

What are your thoughts on the content network? With properly optimised ads and well structured campaigns, can it be a cost-effective source of conversions?

[advancedmerchant]

I avoid content placement like the plague. Yahoo is a major offender with unworthy affilliates, but any content placement begs the webmaster to gain extra income through non-consumer clicks. It is just TOO easy to make a few extra bucks that way.

While I trust that none of the Webmasters in this forum perform that practice, this forum represents a tiny, tiny, tiny segment of the AdSense marketers out there, and it is a very bad world.

Search this forum, or Google itself for "Click Fraud" and you will see what I mean.

If you want to toss money away, call me, I accept Checks, Credit Cards, Money Orders, Wire Transfers, as well as Gold and Silver coins.

[incrediblehelp]

Vithe why not try MSN?

[Vithe]

Heh, ok, that was the kind of reaction I was expecting really. I know I, as a internet user, would never click on the content network ads, and assumed that low CTR would be the main issue, as I was under the impression that there were better safeguards in place to prevent click fraud.

I tried running a PPC campaign on Yahoo and found it much less cost effective than that on Google - although I do admit that I spent less time on it as I got overly frustrated by the interface. Does either Yahoo or MSN have a similar tool to the AdWords editor? I haven't been able to find one as yet.

[wdillsmith]

I've used Google, Yahoo & MSN. Not surprisingly, that is the list of most effective to least effective. The problem I've had with MSN is there is so little traffic, the time you spend setting up and monitoring isn't worth it for the potential sales (if there are any, that is). And it's difficult to get access to their system via their API.

[ppcmanager]

As per my work experience, there is no problem in content ads targeting but the main thing that you must know the target URLs of your ads placement web. I've management numbers of campaign based on Geo targeting and content network and I found favorable results with that activity. There were few successful business leads through this kind of ads but you must be very careful to write your campaign. For this, I suggest to take help from any ppc experts professionals.

[deepsand]

If you've never had a Content Match PPC ad quickly turn into a giant money sucking black hole then you have been most fortunate indeed.

Even with seemingly trustworthy sites, such as ESPN, you can easily find yourself the victim of manipulative practices designed to maximize that site's revenues.