Diorex

To follow-up on a recent post about domain and error page exclusion ability, we think we have a possible workaround that will enable us to bid on content, domain ads and error ads separately.

We have enough evidence to suggest that the conversion rate on these items are vastly different, and also are susceptible to fraud on different levels as well. As part of our philosophy we always want to bid on the lowest common denominator whenever possible. Match types are in different campaigns, almost all keywords are in their own adgroup etc.

We just put this live so I cannot guarantee that it works, and in fact am sure that Google’s screwy content system is likely to mess it up in some way, but in theory this will work.

We start with adwords editor and copy and paste the enitre content account into a spreadsheet. We then alter the URLs (that is our tracking mechanism) and upload the account twice into campaigns called error ads and domain ads. At this point we have 3 identical campaigns with same bids, ad copy etc.

We then turn off domain and error ads in the original campaign so that it is now content only. In the domain group we turn off error ads so that it is content and Domain ads. Similarly we turn off domain ads in the error ads group leaving it with just Error ads and content.

At this stage we need to eliminate the possibility of content ads showing in the 2 new adgroups. The way we accomplish this is by running a performance placement report and then negative matching every domain that shows up in both the error and domain groups.

This leaves us with 3 campaigns, one that is content only, another that is Domain ads only and a 3rd that is Error ads only. I can now adjust bids and monitor performance for each type of ad and bid according to the return I am seeing from these different tranches of content.

LIke I said it just went live and is not fully battle tested, but on paper it should work.

Just read about how Google is allowing advertisers to exclude different types of traffic such as Error Page or Domain Ads, as well as social networking, tragedy, gross-out and other pages.

I applaud that they are finally allowing advertisers more control over where there ads might show. I am frustrated that the additions are all or nothing.

If Google really wanted to let me have control they would let me run all of this stuff independently with bids and tracking for each. Say I just wanted to bid on error page ads, why not let me. As it is set-up now, I cannot put different bids on error page ads than I have on search ads.

When they let me do this in Content, my spending for that segment went from $0 to several million a year.

I suspect that domain ads convert really well (ok I know they do, but not all of them - negative site match domainsponsor.com and enjoy the increase in conversion) and might even be willing to pay more for them than I do for search…

What about the search network? I want to buy AOL traffic - I am lukewarm about Ask - I want to avoid Iwon and Lycos like the Plague. My search network bids end up being an amalgam of conversion. Say 80% of the traffic and 90% of the conversion comes from Google. I end up bidding less in Google in order to offset the lower conversion elsewhere. So I end up paying Google less for the clicks where they get 100% of the revenue.

Bottom line - the more segmentation and options you give sophisticated buyers, the more they will spend with you. I will spend it in different ways and in different places within the network based upon my conversions, but in the long run it will help Google earn more from me. (A scary thought…)

Google wants your conversion data. If you are already voluntarily sharing this with them, shame on you.

Sure Google analytics, Webmaster Central or Website Optimizer are useful tools with powerful features that are not readily available anywhere else for free. But have you ever stopped to think about why Google is spending millions to bring you free services?

If you ask Google, you get the stock answer along the lines of : “With tools like this, we show webmasters how to more profitably spend money on Google and thus are willing to spend even more.” or some variation of this. They are very aggressive about inviting big spenders into these beta tools to help further optimize websites and thus potentially spend more.
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Content match is a minefield that many publishers never survive.

A few basic thoughts before we get started:

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Recently we were approached by MSN (where we still cant get a rep for adcenter!) about buying a text link on the upper left corner of the home page.

After negotiating a bit, we got a price that I thought was too expensive, but our mantra is “We test everything”, and the senior partner liked the idea, so we created a custom landing page for a product we thought would have a broad untargetted appeal and told em we would take it for one whole day.

50,000 or so clicks, around 1% conversion, which was not so bad all thing considered.

Bottom line - we took a bath, but we saw some things that we could possibly improve on.

Ideas for next time -

1. Did we get the best possible rate? “Mark Twain - Fun Facts” ran a few days after ours, which leads me to believe that there might be remnant inventory.

2. We offer a “free” product that requires a credit card. Did the “Free” drive the traffic or would another headline have converted better?

3. What other products could we sell there that do not require payment? Name Squeeze page? Free Consultation? Lead gen?

4. Our margins on product are nice, but per unit is sub $50. What about an item with much higher per unit payouts? 1% at 5x the payout and now we are talking.

5. This product tends to be a one shot deal. What about a product that continues to pay over and over again.

For us this was an expensive investment. I think the difference between success and failure in the long run is do you decide this does not work and eliminate it from the list, or do you repackage and learn from it?

Traffic volume was nice, how can i monetize the traffic to earn money?

That should be on a bumper sticker: I wish I could monetize this traffic… or Honk if you can monetize traffic