PANELIST:Shelley Ellis, CEO, Shelley Ellis Consulting

Content Targeting

Content Targeting Category NegativesWhat is a Category

Content Targeting Category NegativesExamples for Using Category Negatives

• Fighting with husband/boyfriend – showing sites for fighting colds and for UFC/MMA fighting

• category::Health>>Health Conditions>>Cold & Flu• and• category::Sports>>Combat Sports• Cheating Husband/Boyfriend  - showing sites for how to cheat

on video gameso category::Gameso or o category::Games>>Video Games>>Cheats & Hints 

• Through Google AdWords: category exclusions > sites• Through AdWords Editor: campaign negative site

Content Targeting Must Use Reports for AdWords 

• Placement reports for relevancy, exclusions and for peeling off sites for placement targeting.

• Placement reports for high traffic Enhanced Online Campaigns (EOC's - placement targeting combined with keyword targeting) to make sure ads are being distributed on the right landing pages.

• Ad Copy reports to see which ads appeal to what audience. Looking at two different metrics – CTR and conversions.

Content Targeting Determining Word Count - What Works Google is designed to make content targeting successful with a few keywords or with the hundreds of keywords that people typically have in their search campaigns already. The difference is in the targeting. With more keywords (20+), you can still see Google trying to target based on the keyword “theme” but there may be more sites to exclude that are not relevant.

Content Targeting Determining Word Count - Optimizing • When mirroring a paid search campaign:

o cull match types (use broad only)o cull misspellingso cull long tail keywordso cull un-necessary variations  (plural, non-plural, ‘ing, etc.)o goal - keep keywords that are commonly used in blogs,

forums, articles, reviews, etc.

Content Targeting Quality Score - Keep the Flow • Keyword theme relates to the ad copy• Google uses keywords and ad copy to find your relevant audience• Audience relates to the ad• Ad carries through to the appropriate landing page. 

o Instead of creating "topic related" landing pages right out of the box, run the campaign about a week and then see which campaigns, AdGroups and ads are getting generating a lot of interest and then use those for testing new pages.

Content Targeting - Top 5 MetricsIdeal Positioning - Text Ads • Goal - #3 position

o test higher bids if low traffic at or above position 3o lower bids if below position 3 with high spend and no conversions

• Most text ads are shown in groups of 3o If your positioning is above 3, you are paying too much. o If your position is below 3, you may be missing out on traffic.

Content Targeting - Top 5 MetricsImpressions - Too Low • review keyword level quality scores• review keyword themes (is your AdGroup TOO targeted or is the

niche too small)• review relevancy between keywords and ad copy• Test results - Added 1 new keyword dense ad to each AdGroup.•  

Content Targeting - Top 5 MetricsImpressions - Too High • Look for keywords that are too broad • Review placement reports to see if one or a few sites are generating

all the traffic • Review data for Site and Category Exclusions

o Page Typeso Media Typeso Topics

• Review demographic data if not excluding social siteso Campaign Settings > Demographics > Ageo Campaign Settings > Demographics > Gender

Content Targeting - Top 5 MetricsAd Performance • Highest CTR’s• Highest Conversion rates

Content Targeting - Top 5 MetricsContent Relevancy • Placement Reports: 

o Sort by Campaign > AdGroup > Domain. o Look for patterns (news sites, social sites, International sites,

topic related sites). o Is Google doing a good job interpreting your keyword theme and

distributing your ads to relevant sites?

Content Targeting - Top 5 MetricsEOC Relevancy • Placement Reports: 

o Sort by Campaign > AdGroup > Domain. o Look for patterns. o Is Google doing a good job interpreting your keyword theme and

distributing your ads to relevant pages on the placements you have targeted?

Content Targeting Secrets and Tips • Use Categories in placement targeting• Use Category negatives• Use Micro targeted keyword themes• Use Sub-Categories with Placement Targeting

(Marketing.About.com, CNN.com/Health/)• Use Enhanced Online Campaigns for social sites (MySpace)• Use Enhanced Online Campaigns for high traffic sites (CNN.com,

BusinessWeek.com, ReadersDigest.com)