Google AdWords
If you are running an AdWords account you most likely have come across a section within the campaign settings called “Networks and devices”. Within that section you are able to select where you want your ads to be displayed.
If you are looking to setup a campaign which targets the content network, you have two available options: “Relevant pages across the entire network” or “Relevant pages only on the placements I manage”.
Each option has the potential to produce good results, however understanding the differences is vital to your campaign’s success.
If you choose “Relevant pages only on the placements I manage” you are creating a campaign which does not factor in your keywords. You tell AdWords which websites you want your ads to be displayed on and you bid in order to appear on those particular websites. If you feel visitors to a particular website will be interested in your ads, this approach might be a great fit for you.
The problem that you need to keep in mind is that depending on how you bid for a particular website, you could end up having your ad displayed across every single page of that website. Are all those pages relevant to your ads? Most likely they are not.
You can bid on specific pages for a particular website, however you will need to find each relevant page. This can be somewhat time consuming.
The alternative is to choose “Relevant pages across the entire network”. This approach will display your ads across the entire content network depending on which keywords you bid on. AdWords will review your ad group’s keywords and decided where to show your ads. This can work rather well depending on your keywords. If you went with many broad keywords or your ad groups focus on too many different things, you could potentially end up with your ads being displayed on some irrelevant websites.
Whichever approach you decided to take, you need to analyze the resulting performance. Exclude websites which are not performing well and expand into new websites which you might find through data analysis. You can do this by using the AdWords report center or you can analyze your web logs.
The data is there, you just have to look.
Hello Aaron,
Thanks for sharing your knowledge! I find that with image ads the problem of getting them shown on the websites I target is even bigger. How can I find out or see what websites use Google adsense, in other words can display my image ads?
Hello Marc,
If I understand you correctly, you want to know how to find which sites to specifically target.
You can accomplish this in three ways.
1) Setup a content network only campaign and allow Google to place your ads wherever they see fit. They will basically display your ads across the content network based on the keywords which you have bid on. Once you have some data to work with (conversion data), generate a placement performance report so that you can see specifically which sites are performing the best for you. Just because a site sends you clicks does not mean it is good. You can then add those sites which you find to perform best in your Placement targeted campaign.
2) Use Google’s placement tool. Finding it within your account is easier said than done. Here are two routes: Click on the “Opportunities” tab in the new interface. Then under the “Tools” section near the left hand corner there is a link to more tools. Click on that and you should see it within the various list of tools. It is called “New Placement Tool (beta)”. Alternatively, you can access this tool from your campaign. Once inside the specific campaign and ad group where you want to add some new placements, click on the “networks” tab. Then under the section where it lists the “Managed Placements” click on the “Add placements” button. There should be a link to the placement tool. It might say something like “Want ideas? Try the placement tool”. The tool itself is rather self explanatory.
3) You can just add placements. If the site does not display AdSense, then you will see no clicks or impressions.
I hope this helps.
Hey Aaron,
G8 article and thanks so much for sharing your managed placement knowledge!
I am having a problem with managed placement.
I have generated certain kind of format (i.e. Image ads with specific size) without any keyword at my Adwords account. And I want to run this certain kind of image ad at specific website (this placement is available with same Image ad format).
I can not find my image ads shown on the targeted website. Even I target is $1.5 Max CPC.
I have few questions:
Do I select any keyword for my managed placement? If yes, how can I select the keyword for selected website which matches its content. In other words, how can I display my image ad on specific website.