Launching a campaign on the Google Content Network gives you opportunity to reach another very targeted audience; often in a very different consideration phase than users on the search network. In competitive verticals like insurance, travel or finance, CPCs on the search network are high and it’s difficult or costly to remain visible.  The Content Network is a great tool to build brand awareness targeting users with both Image and Text ads, extending your business’ message in a manner not possible through the search network. More impressions on the ever expanding content network, means competition and cost are often lower than other online channels. Using the Google Content Network to compliment other online marketing efforts can help lower overall costs and maximise business exposure.

Introducing the Contextual Targeting Tool

The Contextual Targeting Tool, can help build tightly themed keyword lists for campaigns to run on the Google Content Network. When you enter words or phrases in the Contextual Targeting Tool, the tool suggests a set of keywords related to your terms, and groups them into themed ad groups. Currently the tool is only available to a limited number of advertisers and agencies, however, data can be accessed though your Google account manager. Hopefully we will see this available to all in early 2011.

Content Campaign – Planning and Setup

Content Network campaigns should always be kept separate from Search Network campaigns. Here are some things to consider when setting up your new Google Content campaign:

- Set a daily budget. Make sure this is set conservatively in the beginning, then increase over time. There are a huge number of impressions available daily on the content network, so it’s easy to spend a lot in a very short time.

- Try different ad formats to see what works best for your business. Depending on your business’ objectives and available budget, there is a lot of choice. See all ad formats: https://www.google.com/intl/en_uk/adwords/select/afc/ads.html

- Make ads catchy and interesting. Remember, users are not searching for your products as with Search. So your ads need to stand out. Compelling, attractive and well-written ads will capture a users interest and provide a valuable experience.

- For local products, offerings or location specific services, consider geo-targeting. It’s applied in the same way as it is on the Google Search Network.

Content Network – Keyword Themes

Start by creating keyword themes.  Identify keyword themes you would like to target; this will be the basis of your content ad group. Here’s an example of how a theme of keywords for a content ad group could be set-up

Content Ad Group Theme: Travel Insurance

Keywords: cheap travel insurance Australia, vacation insurance, compare travel insurance Australia, travel cover, travel insurance, travel insurance Australia, travelinsurance, annual travel insurance, holiday, Australia

Identify keywords that are likely to be mentioned on a website when a user is reading about “Travel Insurance.” Google recommends that each ad group use 10 to 20 keywords in any given Ad Group. Don’t try fit too keywords into each group, just create another ad group, even if it seems too similar. To help discover and build keyword themes, use the contextual targeting tool, if this is not available to you within AdWords, other great resources including: Google’s Wonder Wheel and other search engine that use clustered search results.

Displaying the Right Ads

The quality of advertisers ads is extremely important on the Content Network. The objective when advertising on the content network is to effectively capture and engage users who are not actively searching for your product. Therefore, the message must be clear and should help pre-qualify users. An ambiguous or misleading message will result in a poor brand experience and will waste your money.

Setting Bids

There are a number options when bidding on the Google content network. The two most common are CPC and CPM but CPA bidding is also available. This can be set under campaign settings tab > Bidding & Budget. CPA bidding will only be available once your new campaign has history including a significant number of conversions recorded.

As a general rule, start conservatively with your CPC and CPM bids. You can increase them over time if you are not getting enough clicks / impressions. For CPA bidding, be generous in the beginning. Take the CPA from Search Campaigns and add 25% to it. This will be a good starting point. As the system achieves your goals, you can lower the CPA target to increase profitability

Optimising your Content Campaigns

Excluding / Managing Sites

A Placement Performance Report will give insight into all performance metrics of websites where ads were displayed in a Content Campaign. Usually ads wont appear on a site for long if no clicks are recorded, so the best way to measure the success of a campaign is through conversions. When viewing placements select the sites to manage. Exclude by checking the radio button next to the URL then click “Manage Placement and Bid” or “Exclude Placements”.

Negative Keywords
These work in the same way in a Content Campaign as in a Search Campaign. They help disqualify any sites mentioning those words to make sure your ads are highly relevant to the sites they appear on.

Content Success

In anticipation of Google releasing the The Contextual Targeting Tool, any of these tips can be applied to improve existing campaigns or used as a guide when setting up a new content network campaign.  As with setting up a Search Campaign, the AdWords user interface will guide users through the basic campaign setup process. Google tools mentioned above give more insight and better understanding of the performance of Text and Image based ads across the Google Content Network. AdWords advertisers continue make the mistake of assuming that Google’s Search Network is the same as Google’s content network. Separate content and search campaigns and enjoy the results of a successful content campaign.

Often, little thought is put into the initial structure of an SEM campaign. Needless to say, we don’t build a house without the help of plans and an architect. The same should apply for Paid Search Accounts. Google and Yahoo! are here to make money. They aren’t going to come knocking like the local building inspector when you haven’t planned.

A strong, well planned account structure is key to the success of any paid search campaign. A solid account structure will make it easy to expand and identify new trends within your industry, to apply budgets appropriately and assist you to take full advantage of search engine tools that reward well structured accounts.

5 Must Do’s for Paid Search Account Structure

1. Utilise match types

Google: Broad | Phrase | Exact

Yahoo: Standard | Advanced

Broad match (aka:Advanced match at Yahoo!) is generally over-used, and other match types generally over-looked. Best practice would suggest to use: phrase and exact (standard) match for words you know work and utilise broad match to discover new ones.

2. Start small

Starting out? Don’t feel like you need to think of every possible keyword variation, campaign or the best ad. This will happen over time. It’s best to start small, evaluate performance and build from there.

For established Search Accounts; don’t be afraid to pause / delete. If something is under-performing, pause it and use that money to test some other keywords variations or maybe increase the budget and visibility of other campaigns that have performed well.

3. Create themes.

Themes should be focused around your text ad. if the keywords in an ad group don’t directly relate to an ad. Create another ad group. Themes can be categorised many ways – brand, type of product, size, high / low volume words. Always remember that the purpose of creating these themes is to maximise performance. The main focus of creating themes is so the best performing campaigns always have budget available to them. Other groups are for discovery, used to continually optimise and improve your SEM performance.

4. Keep ads & keyword groups relevant.

Generally speaking, more ad groups with fewer keywords are easier to manage. It also makes the task of removing poorly performing keywords a cinch. Ads should always be clear and relate directly to the search query. Highly relevant ads will increase the chances of a higher CTR% and better quality score. Use tools like dynamic keyword insertion and negative match to eliminate any irrelevant matches and make your ads highly relevant to visitors who search using long-tail keyword phrases.

5. Keep brand related keywords separate

Always have a separate campaign for brand related words. Brand words should be visible 100% of the time. Visibility is often limited budget and if brand words are competing with other more expensive terms. Always separate brand words from broader, more generic terms.

Why these SEM tips really work.

We all know search engines reward relevancy, in the form of lower CPCs and higher ad rank. A good SEM account structure ensures you tick all the boxes and if done right will mean everything is rightly relevant. A clear structure will allow you to measure apples to apples and help identify whats working. Invest the time in a good SEM account structure, this will keep you ahead of your competition, have you paying less and hopefully growing your profits!

I’m no lawyer, but has Google’s venture into the mobile handset space finally gone a bridge too far? It’s a question worth pondering with Google’s release of the Nexus One cell phone as the search giant now has the ability to develop a mobile phone primed to take advantage of its software innovations and its globally dominant search platform – a huge advantage on other handset makers.

The argument could (and likely will) be made that Google built up its business and the Nexus One is simply an extension of those efforts. But that’s where I get the sense government regulators could disagree…

Google – Extending its Dominance Into Hardware

Google’s search dominance is overwhelming. In most developed countries it is the search platform of choice. In Australia, we’re talking a 90% market share. It is so dominant, the number one keyword query on Yahoo 7 Australia (now Bing Australia) is ‘Google’ (or at least it was according to Bill Tancer from Hitwise in 2009 SMX Sydney presentation). Clearly we’re dealing wih juggernaut that has embedded itself into people’s everyday lives and modified behaviours to become the overwhelming ‘default search platform’. It’s a phenomenal success and the good folks at Google should be commended for it.

Google’s Smartphone – A Competition Killer?

Where this gets tricky is when Google starts creating hardware. Suddenly you could have a phone that auto-updates to the latest Google software innovations. Imagine a phone that not only works seamlessly with the world’s preferred search engine, but has first mover advantage whenever Google rolls out a new update? Heck, why stop at phones? Imagine a TV, computer, fridge, or car that is fully integrated.

What is the competition to do? Develop a new search engine and try to beat Google at its own game? Yeah right. We’re talking ingrained behaviour here and one heck of a technological mountain to climb. That’s easier said than done. Just as the good folks at Microsoft’s Bing.

Antitrust Lessons from Days Gone By

Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for innovation, competition and reaping the rewards of your hard work. But there comes a point where customers like you and me are ill served when a monopoly uses its strength in one area to dominate in other sectors. Recall how back in the day (1934 to be precise), the US government broke up United Aircraft (now United Technologies) – a holding company comprising among other things, a collection of airlines known as United Airline, an engine maker, Pratt & Whitney and a little aircraft manufacturer… known as Boeing. United Aircraft was deemed anti-competitive, because you simply couldn’t have an airline getting sweet deals from its own aircraft manufacturer and engine maker.

Now view Google’s foray into cell phones in this light, add the new ‘regulatory environment’ we find ourselves in, sprinkle a few competitors with an axe to grind (and with a penchant for litigation) and maybe… just maybe, Google’s finally pushed its luck into antitrust territory.

Is there a lawyer in the room?