photo Darren Hester for openphoto.net
Google SiteMatch Ads
If you're not using Google SiteMatch Ads as part of you Pay Per Click campaign yet, you may be missing out on a significant amount of high quality, targeted, and most importantly, low cost traffic. Assuming you know your niche and industry like the back of your hand, using the SiteMatch or Placement Targeting options in Google Adwords can help gain great Brand Visibility and Goal Conversions for your website or online service.
Have a new blog and are having trouble gaining some limelight using Social Media? Well, keep trying your very best to pump out quality articles that titillate the linkerati, but don't forget that clever, yet direct advertising through Google Sitematch Ads maybe your ticket to being chummy with A-list bloggers.
Smart Marketing Decisions
Site Targeted Ads are probably the least used feature in Google Adwords. You'd be amazed by the number of semi well known, to well known sites that have enabled SiteMatch ads to be served as part of their AdSense placements, but have never taken the time to attractively sell their ads through the Google 'Advertise on This Site' feature.
Since smart marketers always make the most money, often by spending the least, I'll be counting you to leave a comment and tell me how much bang for the buck you got out of this tutorial. First, let's begin by acknowleging what SiteTargeting is as defined by Google, and what a SiteTargeted or SiteMatch ad might look like:
Placement targeting (formerly called site targeting) lets AdWords advertisers choose individual spots in the Google content network where they'd like their ads to appear. A placement might be an entire website or a subset of a site, such as only the sports pages of a news site. You handpick your audience, big or small. The AdWords matching system does the rest, analyzing your input and creating a list of available content network sites for you to choose from.
- You can select sites for your placement-targeted campaign in two ways:
- Name the sites where you'd like to advertise
- Give us a list of words that describe the type of site you're looking for.
Site Targeted Ads come in multiple ad formats although standard text box sizes such as 300X250 and 468X70 are the most popular formats to choose from. A sample ad that one my friends, Tim Schroeder of eMonetized ran for JohnChow.Com looked like
Tim called this Creative Site Targeting, and I agree that compelling ad copy is the key to success with SiteTargeted ads.
Make Money by Saving It
At the time when Tim wrote his article on Creative Site Targeting, Google Adwords only allowed CPM/impression based Site Targeted Ads. This meant that as an advertiser, your ad needed to be sufficiently compelling enough to entice click through's from users, else an advertiser would face a depleted ad budget in the face of a high number of impressions, but no clicks.
Google has since rethought their strategy, and now allows CPC Site Targeted Ads. This comes as a huge bonus to starving advertisers, as you will only pay for your ad as and when someone clicks on it. As a believer of never putting all your eggs in one basket, SiteMatch CPC ads provide the right supplementary medium of promoting your blog or online service.
For example: Let's say Samantha wanted to promote her line of fashionable winter coats for men. While she could go about trying to gain natural search rankings, or testing around with PPC campaigns, her best bet would be to target the individuals who visit relevant high-profile sites and blogs. In this case, Samantha could utilize the Site Targeting by topic feature offered by Google Adwords to find niche blogs and sites that have a great readership and traffic.
Having known a little about influential blogs in this niche, Samantha chooses to advertise with Uncrate.Com which profiles new and emerging fashion trends, gadgets and more.
Targeted Audience + Low Advertising Costs + Compelling Ad-Copy = Formula for Profit
5 Things For Successful SiteMatch Ads
- Research your niche and select the appropriate sites and subpages
- Write a Compelling Ad with Strong Call to Action (Make it Funny & Unique)
- Setup a Split A/B Testing Phase to Determine What Works Best
- Be Clear About Your Ad Budgets and Stick To Them
- Start Early! Start Testing Now So You Can Reap the Benefits of the Christmas Sales Period
