How to Promote Your Site Through Google Content Network
Published May 22, 2010 - RSS/XML Feed RSS
 
Proper use of the Google content network can multiply the traffic flow to your website by two of three hundred percent. However, it’s also possible to spend a lot of money advertising on the Google content network and see disappointment results.  Just as with Google Adwords, your success in advertising through the Google content network depends on how solid your strategy is. This article will provide you with details on how to attract cheap and qualified traffic to your website using a content network campaign.

How to Content Network Works

When advertising on the Google content network, you’re paying to have your advertisement shown on websites which are relevant to your niche. These website owners make a commission off of the money that you pay Google to have your ads placed on the person’s website. There are two ways to pay when it comes to setting up a campaign on the content network:

  1. CPM: “Cost Per Impression” is where you pay for each time that a person visits the page you’re advertising on and sees your ad, regardless of whether or not they click on it.
  2. CPC: “Cost Per Click” is where you pay only when someone clicks through to your ad.
While some marketers claim that CPC is the best strategy for making money with the Google content network, it is possible to get more bang for your buck using CPM. For example, if you’re paying $.20 per click, you’ll end up paying $4 just to get ten visitors. However, if you’re paying $4 for 1,000 impressions using CPM and your ad is converting at 5%, you can get 50 clicks by spending the same $4.

So before you decide whether or not to use CPC or CPM, it’s important to make sure you’re testing your ads and finding out which method will give you the most bang for your buck.

Setting Up Your Google Content Network Campaign

When setting up and testing a good a Google content network campaign, it’s good idea to make it separate from your regular PPC campaign. This is because there are different dynamics involved in advertising for the Google content network and you’ll need to be able to accurately test the effectiveness of each of those variables as they apply to the content network.

For example, when people type in a specific keyword and your ad comes up in this Google search results, they are more likely to be looking for something specific and are more likely to purchase. However, on the Google content network your ad shows up on websites where people are watching videos, posting on forums or reading articles. So you’ll have to use a different marketing strategy to get people's attention when advertising on the content network.

For example, controversy, mystery and curiosity are going to be more important when you're trying to distract someone from what they are currently focusing on. Image ads are usually also much more effective on the content network then mere text ads, because images are more eye-catching. However, with PPC advertising when people are looking for something specific, clear and definite language is going to be more effective. So when you set up your Google content network campaign, set it up on a new and separate campaign from your PPC ad campaign.

Managing Specific Sites and Ad Placement

It’s important that you choose to manage the specific sites which your ads are going to be shown on within the content network. There are two reasons for this: First, you’re always going to have sites which are producing better results than other sites, and in order to get the best return on your investment you’ll want to target only the sites which are getting maximum results.

Second, on some very high traffic sites you can end up blowing through your daily budget quickly and thus missing the opportunity to have your ad show up on multiple sites. As with PPC advertising, it’s best to focus on building a profitable campaign so that you can duplicate its success by increasing your budget and bringing more volume to your website.

An Additional Strategy

Once you’ve found out which sites are producing the best results for you, there’s always the option of contacting the site owner an offering them a commission for every sale that’s made off of your ad. You then provide them with an affiliate link and have them place that on their site instead of the Google content network ad. This way, you’re only paying a commission once a sale is made and as long as you have the numerical evidence to prove to the site owner that they’d make more profit this way, they’ll probably agree to the deal.

Conclusion

As you’re using the Google content network, always remember that consistent strategic split testing is the quickest and most cost effective means of strengthening your advertising campaigns. As long as you keep this in mind and keep to the guidelines in this article, you’ll be successful in using the Google content network.

Additional Articles on Marketing Your Site

Split Testing Strategies

Writing Compelling Sales Copy (Parts 1-3)

Building Your Marketing Funnel

PPC Marketing

 
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