SEM Tools: Risks, Limitations & Best Practices – Part II: Content Targeting

In the second post of the series, I will focus on another popular search engine marketing tool: content targeting. This post mainly covers various setting options in content targeting to be aware of and ways to avoid common mistakes.

Part II: Content Targeting

Content targeting implies the use of the SEM platform to place bids and advertise on websites which are part of the search engine’s content network. There are few points to keep in mind while using content targeting for SEM campaigns.

1. Do not turn on search and content for the same campaigns

Search engines provide the option to have the same campaign targeted to both, the search and the content network. Creating a single search+content targeted campaign seems like an easy choice, but in order to be more effective, it is better to create two separate campaigns, one search targeted and the other content targeted.

Content advertising is quite different from search advertising. Through content targeting your ads show up when someone is browsing a web page/website which contains keywords related to your campaign. In search advertising your ads only show up when a user enters a keyword in the search box that you have placed a bid on. The intent of the searcher is much stronger than the intent of the user browsing a website, where they may already be viewing the content they were searching for. Thus, content advertising has much lower click through rates and lower CPCs, but can give your campaign broader exposure outside of search.

In order to show ads relevant to a web page, the search engine algorithm needs to match the keyword with web page content. Since it is not possible to find relevant web pages simply by looking at one keyword, the search engines look at all the keywords in an ad group and identify the dominant theme represented by that ad group. Once they have identified the theme, they find relevant web pages and place ads on them. In search advertising the algorithm just looks at the keyword to show the ads.

Therefore, it’s a good practice to have separate campaigns targeted only to the content network. Within these content campaigns group similar keywords together in ad groups so that each ad group has its own theme.

2. Be careful what you bid

As mentioned above, content CPCs are much lower than search CPCs, because of less competition and lower conversion rates. There is no reason you should bid same amount for search and content placements, especially when search engines provide options for separate bidding. As recommended earlier, always try to have separate campaigns for search and content but in case you have the same campaigns targeted to both the search and the content network, you should separate bids for search and content clicks. For example, to separate bids in Google AdWords you can check the box "Content bids" during campaign set up.

3. Understand Billing Options

You should understand and if required, use the various billing options available for content targeting. For example, Google currently offers several billing methods such as CPC (Cost per click), CPM (Cost per 1000 impressions) and PPA (Pay per action).

In CPM you pay for 1000 impressions whether or not anyone clicks on your ad. CPM is applicable to the advertisers who want to reach customers early in the advertising cycle, with ads designed to increase awareness but not necessarily generate clicks or traffic.

In PPA, you don’t pay for the clicks but pay only when certain action (for example, subscription or lead capture) is completed by the users on your website. You can set this action and the price you are willing to pay for it. PPA billing is useful when click-to-conversion rate is extremely poor and when the advertisers know exactly how much each conversion is worth to be able to set its value.

In conclusion, for a campaign to be effective on content network ensure that similar keywords are grouped together (as discussed in my post on campaign organization) for the search engines to identify the dominant theme, campaigns are set up for the most efficient bidding and you are using the billing method most appropriate for your business.

 

Comments

[Evgeny]

What would a good CPC be for a content tergeting compaign? It seems that in Google AdWords the CPC can be as low as 0.01 and still generate clicks. Does CPC even matter for a content targeting compaign?

[Vividh Chaudhary]

Cost/Click can vary significantly type of business and the marketplace, as LeeAnn wrote about in this post (http://blog.efrontier.com/insights/2008/01/content-spendin.html). If the clicks are effectively bringing in conversions (revenue, leads etc.), you can afford a higher CPC. And, even if you are able to generate clicks for $0.01, sometimes you don’t want those if they don’t bring in any revenue.

[Vividh Chaudhary]

Cost/Click can vary significantly by type of business and the marketplace, as LeeAnn wrote about in this post (http://blog.efrontier.com/insights/2008/01/content-spendin.html). If the clicks are effectively bringing in conversions (revenue, leads etc.), you can afford a higher CPC. And, even if you are able to generate clicks for $0.01, sometimes you don’t want those if they don’t bring in any revenue.