Success on the Content Network?

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mstef

mstef

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Dec 11, 2008
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Hey,

Been trying out the content network over the past two weeks with absolutely zero success so far. I am running campaigns on specified-placement only. There is something that is puzzling me, other than my lack of conversions...

I have 10 active campaigns. Each with one ad group, containing between 40-80 high traffic placements, and ~25 ads (both image and text). Now the problem is the minuscule CTR. 6 campaigns have a CTR of 0.00%. And I seem to average 0.01-0.02% CTR across the board. Today, I racked up 115,000 impressions and 13 clicks (zero conversions). I know most of you will say 'hey write better ads' - but that can't be the case. I have about 10 text ads cycling, and every single banner provided with the offer running. In mind the problem is publishers placing ads in horrible places, publishers having poor sources of traffic for ads (search engines), and just the overall ad ignorance that most browsers have. My ads are good and I'm am targeting as thinly as possible.

So how can anyone really have success on here? I know people obviously are - and most likely doing it via keyword-targeting instead. With the problems brought on by the publishers, your horrible CTR negatively impacts your campaigns and ruins them. So what the hell..?

Thanks for any input
 


Why not keyword target and then run a placement report after a week or so & then placement target the sites that have a good CTR + conversions?
 
memaily said:
Why not keyword target and then run a placement report after a week or so & then placement target the sites that have a good CTR + conversions?
Click to expand...

Keyword targeting just didn't make that much sense to me. The only benefit is that your ads would get shown on like relevant articles within sites that aren't really focused to your target audience. Choosing sites that attract an audience that is interested in your offers seemed to be the best way to get conversions - rather that just getting impressions on random pages all across the internet. It also seems to be easier to track which placements are converting well rather than which keywords because with keywords, one day your ads are on one site, and the next they are somewhere else.

Also, I couldn't figure out how to really build a keyword list for a majority of my offers. One of them is a dating offer aimed at a very tight group - Christians. What sort of keyword list could you build to target that? Choosing sites seemed to make the most sense...

Also, with 40-80 placements for each offer, I planned to narrow down the best CTR/CV placements just as you suggested..

I just will continue to not understand this business as a whole. I'm sending such targeted traffic to these offers with no conversions. Such a wide array of offers too - email submits, pin submits, cc submits, leads, etc. Just nothing seems to work at all - nothing. (goes for search too, and facebook, and whatever else)
 
mstef said:
I just will continue to not understand this business as a whole. I'm sending such targeted traffic to these offers with no conversions. Such a wide array of offers too - email submits, pin submits, cc submits, leads, etc. Just nothing seems to work at all - nothing. (goes for search too, and facebook, and whatever else)
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when you say nothing seems to work are we talking like you cant get anything profitable or you are saying you are literally getting few to zero conversions in total?
 
conv3rsion said:
when you say nothing seems to work are we talking like you cant get anything profitable or you are saying you are literally getting few to zero conversions in total?
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near-zero to zero.. (zero for the content so far but its been a short amount of time so far)...

i'll try to keep this thread on topic though and leave search out of it (and my bitching)
 
mstef said:
near-zero to zero.. (zero for the content so far but its been a short amount of time so far)...

i'll try to keep this thread on topic though and leave search out of it (and my bitching)
Click to expand...

then you're running the wrong offers to the wrong people. Its one thing if the campaign isnt profitable but you still have some conversion rate (say anywhere from 1-20%). If you can't get nearly ANY conversions then try something radically different.

I know I'm not being very specific here, so let me say this the right offers in front of the right people will convert. It might not be profitable initially, but it works.

Keep trying stuff. I've found leads (as opposed to things involving credit cards) work best for me.
 
mstef said:
Keyword targeting just didn't make that much sense to me.
Click to expand...
mstef said:
I just will continue to not understand this business as a whole.
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I don't care if it doesn't make sense to you, did you actually try it? Most of the time the stuff I don't think is going to work actually ends up working the best.

Think about someone searching for something related to christianity and ending up on a christianity-focused website running adsense. Most likely they're christian, and if they're single hopefully they respond to your ad. There's no way you would be able to placement target the best sites right off the bat. So throw up a few keywords and get your ads up THEN pick and choose the best. ctr's will be high, cpc's will be low, and conversions will be happiness.

Just guess and test, when you're telling yourself there's no chance it'll work, just spend $50-$100 and find out.
 
More content tips

Hey man,
I know it can be really frustrating, but don't give up.

First of all - for your CTR problem I think you should really take a look at the actual placements on these sites (like you also mentioned can be a factor). In fact, this will affect your CTR greatly. So take out a site report, and check out the sites where you're getting the most impressions but zero or extremely low clicks.

Chances are their ad blocks are way down low on the page, or blended too well into the page layout.

If you have a placement problem causing low CTR, running text ads is only gonna make the CTR worse.

I rarely run text ads on the content network as I personally always have more success with image ads.

And another ctr issue can be your actual image ads. Let's say your image ads are being shown in prominent placements on those sites. Well if they don't trigger any emotion or interest to the sites' readers - no one will click on them.

Are you using the default creatives for these offers or did you make your own? I've said it before here, and can say it again - always use custom creatives/banners. Make them yourself or find someone in the Sell&Buy section to whip them out for you.

In most cases, default creatives are too bland and "typical banner"-ish looking. They're usually designed in a style that people have gone blind to.

Whip out some really different looking banners. Use bright colors if you have to. Hey - you can even make them ugly. There is no rule against creating ugly looking banners in the Adwords guidelines ;)

And here's another tip: to make your image ads stand out - check to see if the placement sites have a common color theme in use. For example, you're seeing that a lot of the sites are really clean with white backgrounds and light colors. You then make some banners that are dark and have strong contrast to that.

Contrast is eye-catching so use it to full effect.

And although what you have done by starting out with specific placements isn't a bad thing, I would generally recommend starting out keyword-based. This because you can never know for sure what sites will convert or not until you're starting to gather some test data.

Actual test numbers (imps, clicks, ctr, conv.) will speak for themselves and be a much better judge at telling you what sites DO work, than you will ever be. :)

You can find more of my content network tips here.
 
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all that stuff is true, to be honest the content network and to some extent facebook have been the only places that I have made money, keep trying it works.
 
The above posters speak the truth. I found more (relative) success using negative site lists than placement lists.

Test and kick the proven bad placements instead of trying to guess whatever should be good.
 
When using keyword targeting on the content network do they use quality score? And do you need a lander?
 
mstef said:
When using keyword targeting on the content network do they use quality score? And do you need a lander?
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they have a QS but it basically comes down to CPM unless you are running a type of offer they dont like.

landers are generally better IMO for content because content usually a more casual browser than search. a good lander can get them all warmed up, hot and bothered for the offer page. but direct linking could work with the right offer of course.

there are no absolutes in the business, fyi.
 
I've been messing around with the content network -trying to move my grants campaign on search to content to see if I can make it work there.

Yesterday was the first day it ran (only text ads, no image ads yet), and I tried running a placement report today asking for specific URLs where my ads were displayed, but when I click on the report (it says complete), it's absolutely blank. I can't imagine it's still working on getting the data if it says complete. Any idea why that is or what I'm doing wrong?
 
OP, use something like adwords digger or another adsense seacrh proggy (there's all kinds) to get the most relevant sites for your niche, and then do a placement run with them. Also, do a dig for adsense sites that come up in the SERPs for your negative keywords, and put those sites on your negative list. Test one run of direct placements, and one run of content plus negatives.

If you are running good ads to the right audience and sending them to a relevant offer (and by relevant I mean what the visitor wants, not what you think they want), you'll make money.

I've noticed in your posts that you have a tencdency to dismiss things because they"don't make sense" to you, or you've assumed they won't work. Cardinal sin numbah one in affiliate marketing, being too smart and tripping over your own shoelaces. TEST your theories, don't just implement and then decide the business model doesn't work because your campaign did not pay.
 
@Nikko - You're 100% right. I was necessarily dismissing anything, I was just explaining my thoughts. I would never dismiss anything without testing, I just decided to test what I was explaining first to see if anything sticks. I've tried a million different things and I will try a million more - one of those being exactly what everyone is explaining here. I wouldn't be coming here for help if I wasn't going to take it. I know all of you are very well experienced and talented, and any information I get here I value greatly.

@Pathfinder: I've been using the placement tool and digging as far as I possibly can - keywords, categories, related sites, search, etc. I visit every single site I choose to use.
 
theprodigy101 said:
I've been messing around with the content network -trying to move my grants campaign on search to content to see if I can make it work there.

Yesterday was the first day it ran (only text ads, no image ads yet), and I tried running a placement report today asking for specific URLs where my ads were displayed, but when I click on the report (it says complete), it's absolutely blank. I can't imagine it's still working on getting the data if it says complete. Any idea why that is or what I'm doing wrong?
Click to expand...

Placement reports are ready 12 PM PST the Day after. It's a royal pain but that's the way it is.
 
theprodigy101 said:
I've been messing around with the content network -trying to move my grants campaign on search to content to see if I can make it work there.

Yesterday was the first day it ran (only text ads, no image ads yet), and I tried running a placement report today asking for specific URLs where my ads were displayed, but when I click on the report (it says complete), it's absolutely blank. I can't imagine it's still working on getting the data if it says complete. Any idea why that is or what I'm doing wrong?
Click to expand...

Yeah like oziman said, there is a delay on the reports sometimes.

But - I have also noticed this to happen when I know for a fact there is data in the report. I've sometimes wondered if there is a bug in their system, because I can create the exact same report two times in a row;

The first time, it reports nicely - and the second time (recreated as the exact same report) - it turns out blank.

It seems to help if you play around with the settings for the report. Play around with the settings for from/to-time and the various filters.
 
ImagesAndWords said:
Yeah like oziman said, there is a delay on the reports sometimes.

But - I have also noticed this to happen when I know for a fact there is data in the report. I've sometimes wondered if there is a bug in their system, because I can create the exact same report two times in a row;

The first time, it reports nicely - and the second time (recreated as the exact same report) - it turns out blank.

It seems to help if you play around with the settings for the report. Play around with the settings for from/to-time and the various filters.
Click to expand...
Considering Google's massive infrastructure, it's not really that unusual for that kinda stuff to happen. It takes time to propagate data throughout their whole system.
 
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