Jerry Work is president of Work Media, LLC, http://workmedia.net, a search engine marketing firm based in Nashville, and author of Scientific Search Engine Marketing: Maximizing Your Pay per Click Return on Investment.
Most beginning online advertisers are very confused about the difference between SERP ("search engine results page") ads and content network ads. The major search engines blend the two together so well that they seem to be the same thing, unless you really pay attention.
Search engine results pages are what most people think of when talking about pay per click marketing. Ads are displayed based on the search terms used by searchers. When users search for terms that are the same or very similar to keywords you have specified in your account, they appear on the page. Content network sites are non-search engine web sites that display ads either based on the content of the pages or by advertisers that have specifically requesting advertising on the sites.
Web sites join content networks in order to monetize their traffic. They receive a portion of the revenue generated by users clicking on the ads. The amount that can be earned for each click is dependent on advertiser bids, so content network clicks can be just as expensive as SERP clicks for some industries. Clicks in more competitive industries will cost much more to the advertiser, so those clicks will be worth much more to the web site hosting the ad. There is good money to be made in online advertising if you can drive enough traffic to your web site.
It has been my experience that ads on content sites generate far fewer clicks and conversions than ads on search engine results pages. No matter how relevant a web site is to the advertiser, viewers of the site will not be nearly as targeted as a SERP showing search results related to a specific keyword. However, there are some very good reasons for choosing to advertise on a content network:
1. Branding is an important consideration, so you need to get your name as much exposure as possible.
2. You are in a very expensive industry.
3. There is not much search activity for your industry. If noon is searching for what you have, then you need to place your message in front of people who might be interested based on their visitation of a particular web site.
There are usually two ways to get your ads placed on sites in a content network: based on the content of all of the sites in the network, or by specifying particular sites. If you have time to research particular sites, then that might be the best route. However, you can also get good results letting the advertising platform place your ads for you based on site content.
Content network ads may work well for your business, or they may not. The only way to know if content network advertising is a good option for your business is to give it a try. Go conservative at first and carefully monitor your conversions. Content network is generally cheaper than search advertising, so you should be able to stretch your budget out. As with all things, calculate your return on ad spend or cost per conversion for both search and content and go with the one that provides the best performance.
- Related Articles
- Related Q&A
- Get on the Top of Google by Picking Proper Seo/sem Services
- Benefits of SEO & Sem
- Where to post SEO/SEM projects?
- Find SEO/ SEM Projects
- SEO Training Delhi SEO Institute Delhi SEO Training Courses Classes in India Noida Ghaziabad Dehra Dun Meerut SEM Training India Best SEO SEM Trainer
- black hat seo definition seo sem definition
- Boost Your Online Business Through Seo-sem Services
- Synapse Interactive – Seo, Sem and Expert Internet Market Service Provider
Your Turn to Make Google's Daily Searches Start Paying You Cash
By: Martinact420 | 10/11/2009Have you ever considered how much money the big search engines are making in ad revenue? Google receives more than 300,000,000 (that's 300 million) searches every day. That's a lot of eye balls looking at ads. As search activity continues to grow, the amount of money the big searches are raking-in is growing in proportion to the increase in search activity.
Local Marketing, Local Advertising By AddMelocal
By: Tikee Pittman | 05/11/2009More customers find local businesses via Google, Yahoo, & Bing local searches than any other advertising medium including Yellow Pages. Making sure your potential customers can see you on page 1 of Google Yahoo, & Bing for local searches like; ‘restaurant in San Diego’ for example, can make a huge difference to your sales volume. What’s more we can make this happen for you at a fraction of the cost of advertising on the yellow pages!
A Start-Up Guide For Your Business If You Just Discovered SEO’s
By: Ace | 05/11/2009Good SEO content articles with good keywords will help make your site successful. Remember that a website audience is like no other: they skim, they scan, they often read only the highlights and the headlines.
The Basics of Getting Your Website Indexed
By: Ace | 05/11/2009Many people try to use SEO “tricks” in their desperate fight to get to the top. Still others try to make things too complicated and end up getting nowhere.
SEM Consulting Made Easy
By: Arun Kumar | 05/11/2009If you run a website, you can easily tell its importance in today’s thriving business world. Your website not only promotes your products and services, it also helps you create your own online identity. Be it an ecommerce website or just a site with the purpose of information sharing, in every aspect utmost care is being taken these days by the website developers so as to offer you something special than your competitors.
Keep Your Customers Updated with Instant Tweets Using Twitter
By: Steve Lafavore | 02/11/2009Twitter doesn’t need any introduction. Almost everyone who is using Internet these days have some idea about Twitter. Even though, I’ll provide some first-hand knowledge about this most talked about online service, for those unfortunate people who doesn’t know much about twitter.
Social Media Giants – Essential for Success of Your E-Business
By: Steve Lafavore | 02/11/2009Social Media Optimization and Social Media Marketing is the key to success in online marketing and advertising. Internet marketers are aware with this fact very well that without implementing these social media giants in their promotional campaigns they can’t expect desired success and instant positive results.
The 5 Ways To Grow Your Online Home Based Business Opportunity To Infinity
By: Juhani Tontti | 01/11/2009The secret is to think right. How well your online home based business opportunity does, depends on your thoughts. The strategy, which I present in this article has excellent benefits. When you execute it, it will bring you a long term traffic with low risk and modest amount of work.
Link Building: Bouncing Google PageRank Back to Your Web Site with Squidoo
By: Jerry Work | 12/09/2008 | SEOThis article discusses a technique for improving search engine rankings by bouncing Google PageRank between your web site and a Squidoo lens.
Seven Essential Strategies for a Successful Link Building Campaign
By: Jerry Work | 11/09/2008 | SEOLink building is difficult but necessary. If you are serious about improving your search engine rankings, the seven strategies in this article guarantee results.
Hiring Language Translators Appropriate for Your Target Dialect
By: Jerry Work | 27/08/2008 | CommunicationSpeaking your clients' language is critical in business. When dealing with clients of prospects who speak a particular Spanish dialect, you will be well served to hire a professional translator fluent in that same dialect.
Combining Direct Marketing Strategies with Web Copywriting For Maximum Impact
By: Jerry Work | 20/08/2008 | SEOCombining direct marketing strategies with the advantages the Web offers makes it much easier for business owners to write compelling, profitable copy. Here is a quick primer on how the two fields merge.
Turn Your Paid Search Campaign Into a Laser Guided Missile with Negative Keywords
By: Jerry Work | 20/08/2008 | SEMUse negative keywords to focus your pay per click campaigns and turn them into laser guided missiles. They allow you to to greatly increase the quality of the traffic your site receives.
Content Network Ads - A Good Choice for Many Online Advertisers
By: Jerry Work | 19/08/2008 | SEMSERP ads and content network ads are two very different things that advertisers often confuse. There are times when one may be a better option than the other.
RSS: Real Simple Syndication for Serious Internet Marketers
By: Jerry Work | 18/08/2008 | SEORSS is a technology that can help you quickly spread your original content across the Web and generate lots of new links back to your site. You should use it to stream your content to other sites as well as to stream content from other publishers to your site.
How to Turn a Profit on Unprofitable Keywords in Your Pay per Click Accounts
By: Jerry Work | 17/08/2008 | SEMSometimes there is just no way to turn a profit from the initial sales generated by your keywords. However, with the right strategy, even losing keywords can become profitable.