I think the Google Adwords content network has gotten a bad wrap from a lot of advertisers. Most people find that the content network is “undefined”, and it’s a money hog that’s designed to bleed additional revenue from Adwords advertisers.
In my view, the Google Adwords content network provides amazing opportunities to connect to new clients and leads. However, you have to know how to optimize the content network for maximum effectiveness.
Google has just released a new Google Adwords Content Network Optimization video that highlights some of the basics in creating an effective content network campaign (see video below).
Here are 2 things to remember with the Google Adwords Content Network:
1) Build One Campaign For The Content Network
With Google Adwords, it’s all about measuring results. If you build an Adwords campaign that is running both on the content network and on the search network, it will be very difficult for you – if not impossible – to effectively measure the results of what’s working in your campaign.
That’s why I highly recommend you build a separate campaign for each!
So build one Adwords campaign for your content network ads, and one Adwords campaign for your search network ads. Now you’ll be able to track more efficiently what’s working, and more importantly, what’s not working, in order to maximize your budget.
2) Use Geographic Targeting Effectively
The content network is going to show your ads across a wide range of authoritative websites that have content related to your ads. So you want your ads to be as targeted as possible.
If you’re a bike shop owner in Atlanta, Georgia, it would not make any sense to run your Adwords campaign throughout the United States.
So when creating your Adwords content network campaign, make sure you effectively target your campaign to your specific geographic location.
Here’s the new content network video from Google Adwords: