Google releases whitepaper on the content network’s effectiveness

Posted: April 21, 2009

Google released a whitepaper that highlighted the content network’s effectiveness. I wanted to make a few notes and points before linking to the paper:

Google says that the two most common features used by advertisers who see good returns from smart pricing are site exclusion (blocking your ad from being shown on certain sites) and Google’s conversion optimizer.
- Unfortunately, Google does not make mention of account organization (content only campaigns, search only, mixed, etc)
- In general, I agree that using excluded domains is key, but only after your organization is correct. However, I’m a larger fan of site targeting and a different keyword sets.
Google only mentions the CPA differences, not the bidding differences of successful advertisers.
The paper breaks spend down into three categories (per month)
- - Less than $1,138
  - Between $1,138 and $5943
  - More than $5943
- I must admit, those numbers seem confusing to me. They seem to indicate that of those advertisers in the study that 1/3rd falls into each spend level. Unfortunately, they don’t call out if that spend is only on the content network or the overall spend of the account.
- Google has found that the smaller spends do better on content network, and that there seem to be a limit to the total numbers of available conversions on content.
- I really wonder, and have absolutely no data to support this, if affiliates are throwing off those spend numbers. Many ‘make a million dollars overnight’ affiliate training classes are made up of individuals with smaller spends; but hear wonderful things about the content network (I often find that the more sophisticated the advertiser; the more likely they like content. This does not mean that the content network will work for all advertisers even if they do it right – just a general observation as more sophisticated advertiser’s often test things themselves to see the results).
Overall, the content network and search network end up with similar CPAs (a bit of variety by country).
- Again, this does not surprise me at all as it’s an aggregate number. I see many companies who do fantastic with content, and many who see the opposite. If that’s average out; seeing similar CPAs isn’t surprising.
- In addition, since the other feature that Google states is a common thread between account who do well on the content network is conversion optimizer where you set a CPA; seeing the CPAs on those accounts regardless of traffic should be similar.

Anyway, it’s a good read, just remember to optimize your accounts properly:

Google content network paper.

Very important things to keep in mind about the content network:

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Written by Brad Geddes aka eWhisper · Filed Under Blog, Contextual Advertising, Google AdWords, PPC Info

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One Response to “Google releases whitepaper on the content network’s effectiveness”

SearchCap: The Day In Search, April 21, 2009 on April 21st, 2009 4:01 pm

[...] Google releases whitepaper on the content network’s effectiveness, Brad Geddes [...]

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