If you’re still not too sure about paid advertising and want to get into Online marketing the easy way is content. When it comes to pay-per-click advertising, the vast majority of advertisers will go with the search network. The search network provides targeted, keyword-specific traffic that you can directly control. The quality score is easier to manage and the overall conversion rates tend to be higher. That’s not to say that the content network is not an effective means of advertising–you just need to develop a successful strategy for generating interest and targeting only the right leads.

When You Might Use Content Match

There are some instances when you would never consider content match. If you’re testing for specific keywords in a new niche, the data you need is only going to come from a search. Additionally, you would never want to go with a content match if you had a massive budget in a highly searched niche. But, if you are posting image ads, videos, or general interest ads that you’d like to get as many impressions from as possible, the content match can be a great choice for your campaign.

Optimizing a Content Match Campaign

To start with, you’ll need to change a few things about how your content match campaign operates. Not only is the quality-scoring system different for content match ads, but the way your readers will see those ads is also different. You’re not placing ads in front of people with active questions. You’re posting ads that people are already consuming. Because of this, click-through rates tend to be lower, targeting tends to be looser, and the need for careful ad writing is even more important. Here are some things to consider:

• Campaign Structure- You need to keep your ad groups organized and separated depending on where they are being posted. I see many marketers using the same ad groups for search and content. It’s a bad idea.
• Ads – Write up multiple ads and split-test them. Remember that content ads are general matches, so they should have solid hooks in them and be designed to optimize clicks rather than conversions.
• Keywords – Get the right keywords and make sure they are related. Tightly related, closely matched keywords in your ad groups will make sure you spend less on wasted advertising.
• Content Bidding – Content bids need to be separated from your search bids. Set a different minimum and watch it to make sure it works. Your quality score is different, so have a different bid to go with it.
• Negative Keywords – Remove as many negative keywords as you can and use as many exact matches as possible in your keyword lists. With so many potential sites to match on, you want to be as exact as possible.
• Site/Category Exclusion – Exclusion is vital to success in this aspect of Ad Words. If you know for a fact that you’re appearing on sites that have no relation to your offers, add them to the exclusion tool. If you know you show up in certain categories where you don’t want to be (weight loss and muscle gain are big culprits here, along with dating keywords), add categories to the exclusion tool as well.

• Quality Score and Placement – Monitor your quality score and current placement. The algorithm for content quality scoring is a bit simpler and focuses more on overall CTR and the quality of your landing page. Use those to tweak how you appear on those content sites.

Since Google launched its content network, there have been millions of tweaks and adjustments to make it more accurate in placing ads related to specific content. Today, with demographic tools and better algorithms, it works better than ever before. But that doesn’t mean you can be lax. It still takes very close attention to your audience, the sites you appear on and how your ads are formatted. Remember, if you want to get into online marketing the easiest way possible, War Chest Marketing is for you.