Google Adwords Content Network Is a Gold Mine!

by Adelard Gasana

A lot of Pay per Click Gurus tell clients not use the Google’s Content Network because it is filled with Made for Adsense sites and click fraud, which is a huge issue. However, the same Gurus do not say anything about the content network not being able to generate targeted traffic, but it does.

I don’t listen to these Gurus; it’s like taking advice from the commentators at a football game. There is a reason that they are not playing and just sitting on the sidelines. These Gurus are probably touting their blogs or selling weak advice regurgitated into an e-book. I can say that because if they did actually know what they were talking about, they would be using that knowledge to make money instead of wasting time.

The problem I believe is that if you are advertising on the content network which is not monitored on a daily basis, you can see your budget literally disappear within hours. I’ve made mistakes in my career (burned through 10K in 4 hours), call it learning curves, but it gave me the knowledge to use precaution. (don’t worry, the money wasn’t lost, the amount of leads that came in made everyone forget what happened!)

I recommend creating a separate campaign that concentrates on the content network itself, because it a freaking Gold Mine!

Think about it for a second; literally millions upon millions of pages of advertising space that most lazy advertisers recommend turning off. I completely understand lazy advertisers’ main concerns however every single ad that you are going to be displaying ads is still going to be on a relevant site.

When you factor out sites with click fraud, the reason that “Made for Adsense” sites are filled with content is because of Adsense, so their content has to be relevant for your ad to be visible.

70% of leads I generate through Adwords come from the content network, but most pay per click managers still decide to turn it off. This is great for me, since it creates less competition. It’s literally like the Wild Wild West; a lot of times lawless, but you can find tons of opportunities. I guess some people don’t like getting mud on their boots.

Google actively monitors click fraud and credits accounts when it is detected. I think that “Made for Adsense” sites are legit as long as the content is relevant and there’s no click fraud activity.

Also, another great functionality is that you can eliminate sites that you don’t want to advertise on. Or you can take it a step forward and cherry pick sites you want to be on and forget the rest.

Like I’ve stated before, if you do content network advertising, I strongly suggest doing it as a separate campaign and starting at a low bid around $0.25 to $0.65 per click. The traffic you get will surprise you.

One thing that I have kept secret until now, since I am moving to a more international strategy, is that my content network usually converts leads higher than the Google search engine network results. It’s usually between 1% to 4% more and that’s more leads for me. Also, the volume will always be higher than the Google search engine network.

Make sure you are testing all your keywords, deleting keywords which have a “Poor” Quality Score so they do not drag down your overall campaign quality score. Test Ads and tracking conversions down to keywords and ads. USE NEGATIVE KEYWORDS!

If you are not comfortable with the content network, start out very low and gradually scale it. It’s a big opportunity if done correctly.