Lately, I’ve been experimenting a lot with image ad placement campaigns in the content network. I like image campaigns for a couple reasons:

• Image ads of course are more eye catching than text ads
• Using image ads with placement targeting can be very effective
• You can dominate an entire ad region with an image ad
• There is less competition for certain verticals in the content network
• They’re quick & easy to setup
• Google’s quality score works differently than search, making direct linking to the offer a much more viable solution.
• And if you’re lucky enough, the creatives have already been made by the advertiser
  * (the caveat of course is that not all ad formats are available, hence the reason I am writing this post)

Last night though, I had to shoot off an email to my main affiliate networks with a request that I think all affiliates can agree is lacking in the industry. We need compliant creatives in the networks supporting all the available Google image formats! Read the rest of this entry

Unlike search campaigns, campaigns on the content network are fundamentally different in many ways. A lot of new marketers make the fatal mistake of leaving the option in Adwords selected to run their same search campaign on the content network. This is a big no no for many reasons:

1) The adgroup structure for a successful content campaign is very different from search.
2) Keyword matching options in the content network are not used (phrase, exact match have no relevance)
3) Content ads are driven by themes vs search ads that are driven by keyword queries.
4) Keyword insertion (dynamic or static) has no relevance in content ads.
5) Your target audience on the content network is much different (and
much wider) than on search, so therefore a new psychology of ad
writing must be used. Read the rest of this entry