Knowledge is the Foundation To Success  

Google just launched the new beta version of the Display Ad Builder Tool. This very cool new tool allows you to create and customize image, animated and Flash ads for the Google AdWords Content Network.

To access this new tool, simply go to your content campaign. You do have separate campaigns for content don’t you? Then click the “Ad Variations” tab. Next to “Create new ad:” you will find the usual selections of: Text ad, Image ad, Local business ad, Mobile ad, Click-to-play video ad and the new Display Ad Builder. You really can’t miss it since it has NEW! in large red letters right next to it.

Once inside the Display Ad Builder Tool you will find dozens of unique animated templates to use as your starting point. There are several pre-designed ad formats based on different industries like; travel, finance, automotive, ecommerce, etc. These all make excellent starting points for your new display ad, and Google promises to be releasing many more as the feature moves out of beta.

After you pick your new template you will be taken to the page that allows you to customize the ad with all of your own information. There are text fields for headlines and descriptions, and you can easily change the font colors if you wish. As you proceed, there is a button labeled “update preview” located underneath the ad, and you will want to periodically click this button to see the results of your modifications.

Tip* Depending on the template, you may need to have some custom logos and product images available. If your logo’s file size is too large, you may need to reduce it to the maximum size shown. Usually this is about 50k. If this seems too daunting of a task, simply choose one of the other templates that does not display a logo. There are plenty to choose from.

So, you have customized your new display ad. The next step is to click “Continue” located at the bottom of the page.

You are now on the preview and ad variations page. As you will see, the Display Ad Builder Tool automatically generates your new ad into several of the common sizes including medium and large rectangles, leader boards, as well as the popular skyscraper formats. Different templates are automatically converted to different sizes, so depending on the template you have chosen, you may or may not see all of the formats mentioned.

If something doesn’t look correct, you will want to click back and adjust as needed. If it looks good, click “save ad” and you now have impressive new animated display ads running in your content campaign.

Many AdSense websites do not have layouts that accommodate these display ad formats, so you will always want to have text ad versions available in your campaign. I have found that in some of the AdWords accounts that I manage, display ads perform very well with higher CTRs than the text ads. In some of my accounts they simply do not see enough volume. Give the Display Ad Builder a try and see how it works for you. You may want to monitor results using Placement Performance Reports.

Creating Google AdWords Content Network Campaigns requires a unique strategy and keyword list. Contact a qualified PPC Account Manager to discuss your content campaign.

Many clients I talk to have negative feelings towards content network campaigns.  However, while they may have struggled with results in the past, we have noticed a significant increase in conversions from these campaigns.  And because the cost per click for content is significantly lower than search, these conversions tend to have a better ROI.

One reason that content network placements are improving is the availability of powerful tools to help manage these campaigns.

Google’s Placement Report

The first, most important tool to understand is the Placement Report.  This is a relatively new report and it is a huge help with content campaign management.  It tells you, for keyword-placements, which sites your ads were placed on.  You can see all the great data that you get with keyword reports, such as impressions, click thru rate, and total cost.

Most importantly, you can see conversions based on the exact placement page!  Now you can tell which placements are the most beneficial and the least beneficial.

Google’s Site Exclusion Tool

Now that you can see which placements are performing for you, you can use Google’s site exclusion tool to exclude specific pages or entire sites.  This is especially important if your ad is generating a lot of clicks (i.e., $$$) but no conversions.

In a previous article, Jack goes into more detail on using this tool, but the Site and Category Exclusion tool can be accessed from the Tools menu in your AdWords account.  Simply type the site name into the “Sites” tab and save.  It will show you which sites are being excluded in a list at the bottom.

Topic Exclusion

The topic exclusion tool – accessed by selecting the Topics tab on the Site and Category Exclusion page – allows you to exclude sites within specific “edgy” topics.

Be sure to look at the statistics for these categories before you exclude all topics.  You may find that placement on a particular topic converts very well for your business.

Page Type Exclusion

Similarly to the topic exclusion, the page type exclusion is another option in the site and category exclusion section.  You can view stats as to how well your ads are converting on network types, such as parked domains and error pages and on user-generated content sites such as forums and social networks.  You can exclude the type of sites that don’t work well with your business.

In our PPC Advertising Management, we utilize all of these tools to get the best results for our clients.  Keep in mind, though,  that you should be focusing your decisions on conversion rate and cost per conversion.  Conversion tracking is especially important with content network campaigns because you do not have the search term as a “clue” to what your visitor was thinking when they arrived at your site.

So you are trying out some Google AdWords Content Network campaigns, which is certainly a good idea especially if you are using conversion tracking, but are you analyzing where all of those content clicks are actually coming from? One of the areas you should take a look at, after a decent amount of click activity has come in, is the Site and Category Exclusion area within your AdWords account. You can find this on each individual campaign summary screen. There is an Add (or Edit) link that you can click in the upper left corner that brings you to a screen that has three tabs on it.

The first tab is the Sites tab. This is where you can exclude specific sites, or specific pages within specific sites, that are spending your advertising dollars without generating any return. You can find out which sites or pages to exclude by running the Placement Performance report. This report will actually list where your content ads are showing and give you very relevant and important conversion data. If a site, or page on a site, is just spending money and not converting, you can add it to the list of excluded sites on this tab. Your ads will then no longer show on that site, or page. The data keeps defaulting to last 7 days on this tab, so make sure you run All Time before making any hasty decisions.

The second tab is the Topics tab. This area shows 6 topic areas, ranging from crime to sexually suggestive content. You can exclude an entire topic area with a simple click in a checkbox. This will stop your ads from showing on a broad range of content sites that feature a certain topic you may want to avoid or feel uncomfortable showing your ads on. However, don’t just automatically exclude all of these because they may actually be bringing in conversions for you. As with the Sites tab, you can exclude those topics that are just spending money and not driving any sales.

The third tab is the Page Types tab. This area includes error pages, parked domains, forums and other types of user-generated content sites. The idea is similar for this tab as it is for the Topics tab. Look at the data, then exclude those page types that are not generating sales. Again, don’t be too hasty in automatically excluding everything. You might be surprised where some of those sales are actually coming from.

Ultimately, you will probably be excluding some sites, some topics and some page types. The Sites tab and Placement Performance Report are areas you will want to revisit again and again because the Google Content Network is an ever-evolving marketplace. You certainly will need to stay on top of the changes to make the Content Network a profitable arena to spend your PPC Advertising dollars.