Bloody adwords.. help with content network

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johnmatrix

johnmatrix

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Jan 4, 2008
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So i got back into adwords now that facebook has fizzled for me. I gave placement targeting a shot and decided on using image ads, set up the campaign and the next couple of days lost quite a bit with an avg cpc of around 48c, the ctr was around .30%. I tried new ads and got the CTR up to .50% (dunno how good this is for content network with image ads?) but my CPC dropped to an avg of 19c at its lowest, here I thought fucking fantastic ive got a 100% ROI... it lasted for 2 days. The next day my CTR dropped to .40% and my CPC went up to 30c, so here I am again breaking even.

I've tried about 40 different image ads and cant seem to improve the CTR much more than .50%, I continually remove placements that dont perform so they dont fuck my CTR. Im not sure why my CTR dropped overnight.. im targeting one main site that gets a fuckload of impressions. I have tried raising my bids to like $1 to get exposure on some of my other placements but it dosnt seem to do much more than raising my avg CPC even more. I've tried dropping the CPC to 20c and the traffic pretty much stops.

What else can I try apart from more ads? Cheers.
 


Did you start out with a decent list of sites / URLs?

Other than trying more ads, you can always try to harvest more sites to test the ads on. Try looking for more related keywords or segments of the niche that may have some good related sites. Weed out the good ones after Google has filtered away the ones that don't run Adwords.

If you're interested in a massive forum and blog list within your niche, hit me up with a pm and I can mass-harvest a link list with Hrefer. ;)
 
Another thing I would do is take a look at some of the sites and see where ad blocks are actually placed on those sites. Remember that placement on the publisher's sites affects CTR greatly too.

If most of your image ads do not show within prime "page real-estate", they don't catch the visitor's eye so easily - and CTR goes down the toilet.
 
cheers man, my ctr has shot up to 1% today for no obvious reason and my cpc has gone down to 20c again WOO.. hopefully it sticks. I might take you up on that offer, ill drop you a PM =)
 
hey thanks for the reply mate, my CTR jumped up to .75% today and my CPC dropped to 20c.. no idea why. I might take you up on that, ill drop you a PM soon. CHeers!
 
Problem with the content network is that you can't account for fluctuations in the quality of traffic these sites are receiving. Or the sources for that matter.
 
its just like facebook. Your ads will perfom well at first and slowly start to decline.
At least that is what i experience when doing banner ads with placement target
 
dogfighter said:
Problem with the content network is that you can't account for fluctuations in the quality of traffic these sites are receiving. Or the sources for that matter.
Click to expand...

Very true. The fluctuation can be huge. I see conversion rate fluctuation of 30% on daily basis (300 leads/day).

One tip, when running the placement reports, don't include traffic from yesterday or even 2 days ago. There is a big delay in reporting conversions. Sometimes you'll see a website which sent 100 clicks but only 2 converted. Wait for a day or two, and run the report again. It's possible that more conversions will appear while the clicks will remain the same. I ended up throwing away some quality website like that.
 
And yeah, CTR above 0.50% on content network is excellent. I'm averaging 0.15% CTR throughout all of my campaigns.
 
well you guys are right.. conversions do fluctuate like a mofo, my ctr is still a steady .75%, and my CPC has dropped to a nice 20c but its converting like absolute shit now so im losing money still. It feels like I cant win.. ill keep adding new sites and see what happens.
 
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