Excluding Spammy Sites on Google Content Network

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COOLEREXPRESS

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So one of the things I hate most about the Google Content Network when keyword targeting the entire network is the fact that you inevitably end up getting a bunch of low quality clicks from a lot of spammy sites like mywebsearch.com, abcsearch.com, perfspot.com etc.

Does anyone have a list of these types of sites that they'd be willing to share? It seems like there's no limit to these shitty sites and everytime you start a new campaign with different keywords you always accumulate more. It would be great to have an updated list in order to exclude as many of these sites as possible.
 


I dont have a list but you could always go the other route.

Start site targetted ads and only include the good ones with high traffic and conversions.
 
Use quantcast.com to get websites with good traffic also when you get info for a website it will show similar websites.
 
Running placement reports is key. I usually block about.com and myspace.com from my keyword based content campaigns. They will generally give you way too many impressions, lowering your overall ctr. For site campaigns though, certain pages on About or Myspace can be worth running.

I also go in to the Topics section and block "Sexually suggestive content". Under Site Types I block "Error pages", "Parked Pages", and "Image sharing sites". Not saying you should always block all these - of course use common sense and leave them on if you think your ads would be relevant there.
 
Yeah I totally agree with you guys that placement reports are the key, I just hate whenever I start a new keyword targeted content campaign because if I'm not watching it like a hawk, I can easily rack up a couple hundred clicks from these low quality sites in a very short amount of time without yet being able to see exactly what sites are serving impressions. I really wish placement reports/stats on keyword targeted campaigns were available closer to real-time, as is the case if you're running a placement targeted campaign.

I do use placement targeting mostly right now because of this, but sometimes I feel like I'm missing out on a lot of volume if I'm not running a keyword only campaign in addition. It can be incredibly difficult/tedious to find a large number of relevant sites on the content network even using Google's tools (which actually are not very accurate in a lot of cases).
 
Export report, CURL script to figure out where in the HTML the adsense block appears. If it appears in the top half of the code, chances are the ads are above the fold and you'll get a nice CTR on it.
Filtering for quality(epc) would be more difficult. But like all problems that can't be solved with duct tape, I firmly believe it can be solved with curl.
 
i would not be quick to block parked pages, i have had some great luck targeting parked pages depending on the niche.
 
@Shady; Good call, and it's the type of script I have wanted to code. Just gotta learn some basic curl first. :D

There is also a free Windows app out there called Adwords Digger. You have to opt-in in order to download it, but you can just unsubscribe their list right away. It's decent for at least finding ideas for placements, but doesn't tell you where on those pages the ad blocks would be.

There is another tool called Site Sniper Pro that also tells you the best sites for placement and page real estate - but I think it's $197.
 
The thing I don't like about manually blocking sites is that you may be blocking the higher quality spam sites for the lower quality ones -which you can probably never fully all block because there are millions. Plus you put yourself on the radar of the spam artists who will figure out away to click fraud your ass to the moon.
 
Question for you content gurus out there. On average, how long does it take you to fully optimize a campaign from zero experience with the niche?

For example, if you wanted to get into the weight loss niche, and you started a campaign fresh how long does it take you to weed out all the shit before you start getting some quality impressions?
 
COOLEREXPRESS said:
It can be incredibly difficult/tedious to find a large number of relevant sites on the content network
Click to expand...

So any serious comments about site sniper pro anyone...? (I'm seriously considering buying it)

COOLEREXPRESS said:
...even using Google's tools (which actually are not very accurate in a lot of cases).
Click to expand...

Yeh, tell me about it....
(and forget about realtime tracking for a sec) I run a placement report for a specific day - 7 days backwards! specific campaign- specific adgroup, and compared it with the exact day/campaign/adgroup on my adwords statistics themselves. Here's what I got:

Adword statistics:
25,000 impressions
500 clicks
placement report: (for that same day-which again-occurred 7 days back!)
3,000 impressions
127 clicks

go figure............................ :xmas-smiley-010:

The most annoying part was that I spoke with 3 different "google noogles"
(ya know- those chat "specialists") and they all gave the same ludicrous copy-paste answer REPEATEDLY: "Note that complete statistics for the current day aren't available until the next day at 3:00 p.m. PT.".
I think one of them even repeated saying that at least 7-10 times...
WTF...???!
​

(I tell ya guys, such adword discrepencies followed by multiple deaf/dumb/blind google chats, is a sure recepie for getting a F*** bi-polar disorder or something...)

Btw, I'm a new guy in your wicked town, and I'm LOVING IT!
Great brains! Great people!
...and great furts too! :updown:

Cheers!
 
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