PPC professionals who can do really well with Search Targeting campaigns on Adwords are not necessarily able to also do well on Content Targeting campaigns. Google’s content network is an entirely different marketplace (or channel) to its search network.

Besides Google Adwords Content Network Strategies which I previously posted, always remember the 3 principles when you are managing your content targeting campaigns.

Principle #1: CTR (click-through-rate) in Content Targeting is usually much lower than CTR in Search Targeting

First of all it is important to understand the differences between your audiences in Search Network and Content Network. The Content Network audiences have entirely different intent to Search Network audiences. In the Search Network your potential customers look for you with their search queries, while in the Content Network your potential customers happen to see your ads when they are engaged with the content of the Content Network site owners.

This will cause your Content Targeting to suffer from low CTR, but in truth it is the nature of the Content Network, and you should not worry too much about it.

Principle #2: Focus on CPA (cost-per-acquisition) or ROI (return-on-investment)

The bottom line is that you should focus on CPA or ROI, when you can hardly control the campaign CTR. Unless your campaign is purely for improving brand awareness, there is no reason you should not care about CPA or ROI. Which one of the two metrics to be used will really depend on which can truly reflect the profitability of your campaign.

Principle #3: CPC (cost-per-click) in Content Targeting should be set much lower than CPC in Search Targeting

This is obvious simply because of the first two principles. There are 3 methods to set up the pricing of your Content Targeting campaigns:

1. Set identical bids for search network and content network campaigns
2. Set different bids for search network and content network campaigns
3. Completely separate search network and content network campaigns and allow them to have different bids

The first method is a really bad one and your campaign will usually perform badly in terms of ROI. What you did is usually and unnecessarily paying excessively per click for your content targeting campaign.

The second method has been a standard going forward. Due to the differences in audience intents in both search and content networks, it is absolutely necessary to at least separate bids.

The third method requires more work besides replicating one of your search targeting campaign into content targeting campaign, but will allow better control and ease of expansion of your campaign in the future.

Andy Huang

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