Getting the Most From Google’s Placement Targeting
When marketers begin to use Google’s Placement Targeting, the number of available choices can be nearly overwhelming. How can you choose the Adsense publishers that will drive traffic to your site from among the thousands and thousands that are available? And how do you do it for the best possible price?
Google’s Placement Targeting is a part of Google Adwords. With Keyword Targeting you choose what search results you want your ads to appear in by selecting specific keyword sets, with Placement Targeting you can choose to have your Adwords ads displayed either in the search results or in the content of web pages (as Adsense ads). The advantage of Placement Targeting is that you can decide exactly where you want your ads to appear. You could choose to have your ads appear on a website, a subset of a site (like a section of a site devoted to your specific topic), or an ad position on another product. This way you can handpick web sites, and even specific pages of web sites, that you think will help to sell your product.
Anyone using AdWords Standard Edition can use placements. You can even add placements to an existing Adwords campaign; simply click on the ‘Placements’ tab on the main page of the ad group. There are four ways to identify placements: “list URLs”, “describe topics”, “browse topics” and “select demographics”.
You can use all 4 options when deciding the best locations for your placements. With each search, up to 100 available placements will be listed, with the approximate number of impressions per day listed. You can also refine your search by the type of ad you want to run by clicking on “Choose Formats”. Select the formats and sizes that you want to use, and Google will refine the list to show only the sites with the selected formats available.
Google, however, does not provide the absolute best information for selecting where you want your ads to be shown. Wouldn’t you prefer to find sites that are showing up in the top 10 rankings of Google for specific “high traffic” keywords? This would assure you that your ads are being shown to targeted prospects who are visiting sites that you know get tons of traffic.
This is where the free tool AdWordsDigger comes into play!
This extremely powerful free tool allows you to enter as many keywords as you want. It will go to Google and find the top ranking sites for each keyword that are displaying AdSense ads. All you have to do is take the info they provide, pop it into your AdWords campaign and enjoy low cost and extremely targeted ads. You can download AdWordsDigger 100% free by Clicking Here.
Another option offered by Google’s Placement Targeting is whether to pay for the campaign using CPC (cost-per-click) or CPM (cost-per-thousand [ad views]; the “M” stands for the Roman numeral meaning “1000″). While CPC campaigns have become more popular because you only pay for actual clicks on your ads, the price of CPC ads has skyrocketed in the recent years, especially for the more popular keywords. A CPM campaign, where you pay a price per thousand displays of your ad, when used in conjunction with careful placement targeting, can be a cost-effective option.
The idea is that if you’ve carefully targeted the websites where your ads will appear, your click-through rates will be much higher than average, making the CPM option (with lower costs because there are no guaranteed click-throughs) better for your campaign. It is important to remember that you must constantly monitor and analyze the progress of your campaign to ensure that your CPM costs are, in fact, saving you money versus CPC. If a site is not performing within the parameters you’ve set for your campaign, remove it. If a particular site is giving you a great click-through-rate, invest more impressions in that site.
Google’s Placement Targeting is a great resource if you want to make the most out of your Adwords campaign. It is a valuable tool for anyone running an online business who wants to drive a high volume of traffic to their site for the lowest possible price. The Placement Targeting system also allows you to run a CPM campaign to get click-throughs at an even lower rate than you’d pay for a CPC campaign.
Remember to download your free copy of AdWordsDigger to get the very best return on investment from Google’s Placement Targeting. Did I mention it’s free?
0 comments March 05 2009 2:30 am | Editor | Internet Marketing Tools
