Wouldn’t it be great if you could put your company name or logo in front of thousands, tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of people and not have to pay much for it, if anything at all? Wouldn’t it be great if you could splash your company name or company logo across dozens, hundreds, even thousands of different websites? Wouldn’t it be great if you could build brand/business awareness and announce your existence to a broad spectrum of people who might very well be interesting in learning more about your company?

I’m hoping you are answering yes.

Wouldn’t it also be great if you could put the power of Google to work for you doing just this?

Still saying yes?

Okay, then it’s time for you to implement Image Ads in your Google AdWords campaigns. Using Image Ads on Google’s vast content network, you can literally put your company’s name, your company’s logo, visual images of the products you are selling in front of hundreds of thousands of eyeballs. And the beauty of running a CPC Image Ad campaign on Google AdWords is that all these hundreds of thousands of impressions won’t cost you a dime unless someone actually clicks on your ad. Here at JumpFly, we have seen many clients experience impressive results with Google Image Ads.

Another plus is that your low click-thru rate on Google’s content network won’t negatively impact your regular search traffic quality scores, so if you do get hundreds of thousands of impressions and very few clicks it won’t work against you.

Of course, you certainly want to get some clicks and sales out of these Image Ads, too. The good news is that conversion tracking does work with Image Ads, so you can track profitability as well as use this is a powerful branding mechanism.

More about Jack

All account managers here at JumpFly have witnessed improved success rates with Content Match over the past six months. In fact, a handful of our clients actually receive 30 – 40% of their traffic and conversions from Content Match.

One particularly useful recent AdWords enhancement, Placement Targeting, enables advertisers to reach specific targeted content partners. When properly identified, successful partners can be isolated and focused on. Just yesterday I was looking at an account we manage where one specific content partner is isolated in an ad group with a high bid due to its success, and this single content partner is responsible for providing the majority of overall conversions for this particular client. Properly identifying and reaching this particular content partner for this advertiser was critical and proved to be the major factor contributing to this client’s success.

So if you have neglected to consider Content Match at Google, I suggest you reconsider. Content match advertising requires a different style setup than search engine advertising, and requires using different reports to fine tune and adjust results. However, the extra effort just might give your business the edge it needs to succeed in today’s increasingly challenging economy. Hopefully this highly coveted PPC Super Bowl victory will help give AdWords Content Match the respect it so badly deserves.

More about Brad

To access this new tool, simply go to your content campaign. You do have separate campaigns for content don’t you? Then click the “Ad Variations” tab. Next to “Create new ad:” you will find the usual selections of: Text ad, Image ad, Local business ad, Mobile ad, Click-to-play video ad and the new Display Ad Builder. You really can’t miss it since it has NEW! in large red letters right next to it.

Once inside the Display Ad Builder Tool you will find dozens of unique animated templates to use as your starting point. There are several pre-designed ad formats based on different industries like; travel, finance, automotive, ecommerce, etc. These all make excellent starting points for your new display ad, and Google promises to be releasing many more as the feature moves out of beta.

After you pick your new template you will be taken to the page that allows you to customize the ad with all of your own information. There are text fields for headlines and descriptions, and you can easily change the font colors if you wish. As you proceed, there is a button labeled “update preview” located underneath the ad, and you will want to periodically click this button to see the results of your modifications.

Tip* Depending on the template, you may need to have some custom logos and product images available. If your logo’s file size is too large, you may need to reduce it to the maximum size shown. Usually this is about 50k. If this seems too daunting of a task, simply choose one of the other templates that does not display a logo. There are plenty to choose from.

So, you have customized your new display ad. The next step is to click “Continue” located at the bottom of the page.

You are now on the preview and ad variations page. As you will see, the Display Ad Builder Tool automatically generates your new ad into several of the common sizes including medium and large rectangles, leader boards, as well as the popular skyscraper formats. Different templates are automatically converted to different sizes, so depending on the template you have chosen, you may or may not see all of the formats mentioned.

If something doesn’t look correct, you will want to click back and adjust as needed. If it looks good, click “save ad” and you now have impressive new animated display ads running in your content campaign.

Many AdSense websites do not have layouts that accommodate these display ad formats, so you will always want to have text ad versions available in your campaign. I have found that in some of the AdWords accounts that I manage, display ads perform very well with higher CTRs than the text ads. In some of my accounts they simply do not see enough volume. Give the Display Ad Builder a try and see how it works for you. You may want to monitor results using Placement Performance Reports.

Creating Google AdWords Content Network Campaigns requires a unique strategy and keyword list. Contact a qualified PPC Account Manager to discuss your content campaign.

One critical thing for PPC advertisers to know is that Content Match is launched automatically in new accounts established at Google AdWords, Yahoo Search Marketing and Microsoft adCenter. If this feature is not manually turned off, the advertiser’s ads will run on the Content Network with the same bids set for search. This can result in the majority of an advertiser’s budget unintentionally getting spent on Content Match.

For those seeking to test Content Match, there are several critical measures I would strongly suggest:

1. Create an Isolated Content Campaign
2. Run the Placement Report periodically to make sure there are not any
under-performing or inappropriate sites & make necessary adjustments.
3. Test strategies separate from search – the keywords and ad copy appropriate for a content campaign can be very different than that of a search campaign.
4. Do not use the KeyWord Insertion Tool in Content Campaign Ads.

Based on the hundreds of campaigns that I have reviewed at JumpFly, I have determined that Content Matching requires isolation and special attention for maximized results. Reduced conversion rates and lower CTRs should be expected. Therefore, decreased bids are generally required to maintain a cost per conversion similar to that achieved from search results. Finally, when used properly, Content Matching can be a powerful tool for branding, as it often provides a large number of impressions and significant exposure.

We had really stayed away from Google Content for quite some time due to lack of performance, lack of control over which sites your ads show on, which sites you could block, etc.  But now with all the new controls in place, with Google seeming to have placed a greater emphasis on bringing in some quality sites to the Google Content Network,  it’s time for you to give it a good go.

Here’s a method I’ve used that has worked surprisingly well for me.  I look historically across all my current Google ad groups for a client, copy only those ad groups and keywords that prove to be solid performers, then put them in their own separate Google Content campaign.  I usually cut the bids approximately in half, put a tight cap on the budget to start off with, then let it fly.

May sound simplistic, but I know it works because I’ve seen the results with my clients time and time again.  Give it try in your Google AdWords accounts.  You may be pleasantly surprised at the new customer base you find.

As Google starts to integrate their purchase of FeedBurner into their massive marketing system, there is now an opportunity for your business to gain more exposure through the Blogosphere.

In case you didn’t know, FeedBurner is a leading media distribution service for BLOG’s and RSS feeds. Basically, FeedBurner can convert RSS feeds into multiple formats, making the distribution of a BLOG a very easy thing to accomplish. They are also the “largest feed and BLOG advertising network”, due to the fact that so many BLOG owners use this service. At last count, they had a total of 1.9 million feeds from 1.1 million publishers. Now that is a lot of BLOG’s through FeedBurner.

Originally, these BLOG owners could subscribe to a service through FeedBurner that allowed ads to be automatically displayed inside their BLOG posts. This service was called FAN (FeedBurner Ad Network). As you can imagine, publishers would earn revenue from the clicks accrued through the ads placed in their BLOGs, much the same way website owners can use AdSense to make money from text ads on their websites. Some publishers have made enough money from FAN to do their BLOGs as a full time job.

Earlier this month, Google discontinued FAN and has instead implemented AdSense as the only means to generate revenue automatically from the FeedBurner feed service. This means that the Google Content Network will now feed the ads on FeedBurner, and this presents a great opportunity for advertising your business on these BLOG’s. You can visit Google’s blog for additional tips from Google for using their Content Network.

As always, correctly setting up and monitoring a PPC advertising content campaign is essential to its success.

What BLOG do you want your next client to come from?

Today, I reviewed one account that I am familiar with to provide a specific example of Content Match’s potential reach; I’ll refer to this as Client X. I am going to refer specifically to Google AdWords results for this example.

In the past 2 weeks, Client X received a total of more than 2 million impressions via Content Match compared to just over 100,000 search impressions. The 2 million content generated impressions resulted in 529 clicks, costing about $300 or $0.17 CPM (cost per thousand impressions). Of those 2 million+ impressions, 1.5 million were contextual and 500,000 were image ads. Client X does have conversion tracking in place and Content Match provided conversions at a cost in line or lower than the cost-per-conversion associated with search.

Though content match exposure is less targeted than search generated traffic, it certainly represents a great way to reach out to an enormous audience that can increasingly be better targeted. Google is improving this all the time. Client X will receive over 4 million page impressions this month thanks to Content Match. Numbers like that represent a substantial base of potential customers for any business. However, Content match success does not come without challenges.

Content Match requires a unique setup, lower bids to start and ongoing monitoring to check the websites carrying your ads. At this stage in the game, reviewing the content providers is still incredibly important. I was able to use Client X’s analytics data to identify a handful of websites where this client’s ads should not have been running, and then used Google’s Site Exclusion Tools to block those websites. This step is critical. There are still some questionable content partners who need to be monitored. In the end, Content Match can be quite powerful, but use caution or consider professional PPC Management.

Google is really spending some time and energy on improving content network targeting as you may have read in my post about the enhanced campaign feature they enabled a couple of weeks ago.

We are starting to see some good results with our campaigns that combine the regular keyword targeting content campaign with the ability to designate exactly which sites our ads are placed on.

Now, within AdWords Editor we are able to add site placements at the Ad Group level. I still go to AdWords Online to begin the process of site placement because they will give you a really nice list of sites to choose from based on either keywords or other URLs. However, what I find the AdWords Editor feature useful for is copying a list of site placements into multiple Ad Groups.

It is also very useful if you are entering site placements using a placement report. Run a placement report from a recent keyword targeted content campaign, export it to an XLS file, create a list of sites that are working for your campaign and copy those into the Placements tab. Very streamlined!

Additionally, if you are working with a traditional keyword targeted content campaign, you can now add negative sites at the ad group level.

Once again, anything Google adds to the AdWords Editor that streamlines our process and allows us to get more work done remotely just adds time to our day!

If you’d like more information or training on using Ad Words Editor, check out this release announcement from Google.

In one of my previous posts on Content Network Targeting, I showed you how to use the Placement report to understand where your ads are being placed on the content network and which placements are working the best for you.

In addition to using their site exclusion tool to exclude sites from showing your ads, you can also use Google’s Placement Targeting to specifically place your ads on the sites that are working for you.

And just last week Google added the ability to combine placement targeting and keyword targeting (or contextual targeting) so you can request your ads be placed on a specific site but only when their content matches your keywords.

Placement Targeting + Contextual Targeting = Highly Targeted Traffic!

For example, maybe you know that a specific travel site frequently posts articles about traveling to the Caribbean.  You would like to place your ads for your Beautiful Caribbean Resort on their site but only when it is relevant to the article they have written.  You certainly don’t need your ad showing up when they write an article on vacationing in Ireland – what a waste!

Well, now you can do both!  Bid to place your ad on that site specifically but ONLY when the content matches your keyword selections.

As Google allows us to get more and more specific as to where our ads are placed within the content network, our clients at  are now growing much more successful with their content campaigns.

One reason that content network placements are improving is the availability of powerful tools to help manage these campaigns.

Google’s Placement Report

The first, most important tool to understand is the Placement Report.  This is a relatively new report and it is a huge help with content campaign management.  It tells you, for keyword-placements, which sites your ads were placed on.  You can see all the great data that you get with keyword reports, such as impressions, click thru rate, and total cost.

Most importantly, you can see conversions based on the exact placement page!  Now you can tell which placements are the most beneficial and the least beneficial.

Google’s Site Exclusion Tool

Now that you can see which placements are performing for you, you can use Google’s site exclusion tool to exclude specific pages or entire sites.  This is especially important if your ad is generating a lot of clicks (i.e., $$$) but no conversions.

In a previous article, Jack goes into more detail on using this tool, but the Site and Category Exclusion tool can be accessed from the Tools menu in your AdWords account.  Simply type the site name into the “Sites” tab and save.  It will show you which sites are being excluded in a list at the bottom.

Topic Exclusion

The topic exclusion tool – accessed by selecting the Topics tab on the Site and Category Exclusion page – allows you to exclude sites within specific “edgy” topics.

Be sure to look at the statistics for these categories before you exclude all topics.  You may find that placement on a particular topic converts very well for your business.

Page Type Exclusion

Similarly to the topic exclusion, the page type exclusion is another option in the site and category exclusion section.  You can view stats as to how well your ads are converting on network types, such as parked domains and error pages and on user-generated content sites such as forums and social networks.  You can exclude the type of sites that don’t work well with your business.

In our PPC Advertising Management, we utilize all of these tools to get the best results for our clients.  Keep in mind, though,  that you should be focusing your decisions on conversion rate and cost per conversion.  Conversion tracking is especially important with content network campaigns because you do not have the search term as a “clue” to what your visitor was thinking when they arrived at your site.

First, we always recommend creating a separate campaign for content network advertising. This allows you the freedom of keyword selection and ad copy variations. It also keeps your analytics separate so you can manage both search and content easily.

Selecting the Right Keywords for Content Placement

Google decides which ads to place on a particular page based on the theme of the page (i.e., what is the article or site about?) and the keywords associated with the ad.

Using keywords, you are telling Google where you want your ad to appear based on the content or theme of a site.

So, the keywords you use to trigger your Ad placement need to be based on the type of content you feel would match your offer. Think about your target market and what they may be interested in at the time they would be open to your ad.  Start with the types of sites or articles you feel would be relevant and work backwards to figure out the keywords that you could use get placed on those sites.

Going back to the child-proofing example from last week, you might use keywords related to parenting, safety in the home or even expecting a baby.  Some keywords will overlap with the search campaign, but there are many keywords that would not be relevant in the search scenario that would be very useful getting you placed on a pertinent article.

Writing Ads for Content

In addition to using different keywords, you also need to write your ads differently when you are interrupting your reader as opposed to responding to a request.  Your ad needs to create a connection to what they are thinking about but also needs to have a call to action to encourage a response.  You have to convince them that they should stop what they are doing and take a detour that will benefit them instead of just sidetracking them.  Not an easy task, which is why you see such low CTRs in content network campaigns.

For example, if your ad is displayed next to an article about keeping children safe in the home, you want to use ad copy that identifies with the parents fears and guides them to visit your site to find products that will create a safe environment for their kids.  You are interrupting their line of thought and convincing them to take action but it’s all within the context of what they are thinking about at the time.

Find the Right Audience. Interrupt. Call to Action.

There are three main “take-aways” from understanding content network advertising:

1. You need to focus on your target market and the theme of target sites and articles in order to find your customer at the right time and the right place.
2. Your ad needs to meet the customer where they are mentally (i.e., thinking about the article they are reading) and be strong enough to interrupt them.
3. You need a strong call to action to convince them to take a detour from what they are doing.

Next week we’ll talk about some of the tools Google AdWords has in place to help you with your content network campaigns.

I’d like to expand on some of the differences between search advertising and content advertising so that you can maximize your results.

Your Visitor’s Intent
In all of your search marketing efforts, you need to understand your visitor’s intent. What is the current purpose or goal, in their mind, at the time and place where they are viewing your ad?

Once of the biggest differences in search vs. content advertising is the user’s intent at the time the ad is presented. In the case of search, the user is looking for something specific – information, a solution to a problem or a particular product or service. The key to understand here is that they are searching for something and when you place your ad in front of them, you want them to say to themselves: “Yes; this is exactly what I am looking for . . . Click!”

Traditional Advertising
With Content Advertising, you are embarking on the more traditional advertising method which is “Interruption Advertising”. This is what traditional media channels, such as magazines, newspapers and TV, are focused on. The concept is that if I can get in front of someone that matches the demographics of my target market, I can make them aware of what I am offering.

Content Advertising takes this concept a step further and provides you with the ability to show your ad within a context that is relevant to your product or service. For example, let’s say you sell child-proofing products for the home. If you show your ad to parents that are reading an article about how to child proof their home, you are going to be in exactly the right place at the right time when that parent is thinking about where they might find these products.

There are broader examples and applications, but the point is that you are interrupting the reader and asking them to consider your offer when their intent is to read an article and gather information. But the magic is: you are interrupting them in a context where they are more likely to consider your offer.

Understanding The Intent

As Brad mentions in his Content Matching article on May 12th, you can expect a much lower click through rate and conversion rate for content campaigns. Now that you understand your visitor’s intent, you can see why – they weren’t looking for you at the time – you are in the process of interrupting their current thought process and therefore, less people are going to allow themselves to be sidetracked and follow the new path you are offering. However, the closer you can match your offer to the intent your customer had when they started reading the article or viewing the site, you are more likely to be successful in interrupting their thought process.

Next week, we will discuss techniques for maximizing your content advertising results based on this new understanding. And we will explore some of the more advanced options Google AdWords offers in their content campaign options.

The first tab is the Sites tab. This is where you can exclude specific sites, or specific pages within specific sites, that are spending your advertising dollars without generating any return. You can find out which sites or pages to exclude by running the Placement Performance report. This report will actually list where your content ads are showing and give you very relevant and important conversion data. If a site, or page on a site, is just spending money and not converting, you can add it to the list of excluded sites on this tab. Your ads will then no longer show on that site, or page. The data keeps defaulting to last 7 days on this tab, so make sure you run All Time before making any hasty decisions.

The second tab is the Topics tab. This area shows 6 topic areas, ranging from crime to sexually suggestive content. You can exclude an entire topic area with a simple click in a checkbox. This will stop your ads from showing on a broad range of content sites that feature a certain topic you may want to avoid or feel uncomfortable showing your ads on. However, don’t just automatically exclude all of these because they may actually be bringing in conversions for you. As with the Sites tab, you can exclude those topics that are just spending money and not driving any sales.

The third tab is the Page Types tab. This area includes error pages, parked domains, forums and other types of user-generated content sites. The idea is similar for this tab as it is for the Topics tab. Look at the data, then exclude those page types that are not generating sales. Again, don’t be too hasty in automatically excluding everything. You might be surprised where some of those sales are actually coming from.

Ultimately, you will probably be excluding some sites, some topics and some page types. The Sites tab and Placement Performance Report are areas you will want to revisit again and again because the Google Content Network is an ever-evolving marketplace. You certainly will need to stay on top of the changes to make the Content Network a profitable arena to spend your PPC Advertising dollars.

Most advertisers are likely unaware that they should only be using Expanded Match terms in their isolated Content Campaigns, where using Exact Match and Phrase Match terms is a waste of valuable time and limited space. At this time, for Contextual Advertising, Google only looks at the first 50 terms in each Ad Group. This is totally different than how search advertising works. Totally different! So if you have ad groups with more than 50 terms, they are not all being considered for your contextual advertising efforts.

Content Match involves identifying themes rather than specific terms. This fact requires advertisers to think differently when creating a Content Campaign. Terms that would never be used in a search campaign can be extremely effective in a Content Campaign. For example, an online golf store may succeed with the Expanded Match terms executives, country clubs and sports in their Content Campaign. These would be illogical terms to have in their search advertising account. However, with Contextual Advertising, these themes could trigger very appropriate content partners that may have otherwise overlooked this advertiser. Ultimately, conversion tracking data, when available, will determine what is and isn’t working. I would generally suggest that beginners initially focus their efforts on developing their search campaign(s), and then explore contextual advertising if there is success with search.

Advertisers should be aware that PPC advertising has evolved a great deal and continually becomes increasingly complex. Today’s PPC environment is a far cry from the cut-and-dry bid for placement concept initially introduced by Overture, which is why my next blog will review some reasons that advertisers may want to consider professional PPC management.