These are some of my FAVORITE  content network and PPC books!

If you’d like information from your AdWords account streamed to your mobile phone, it’s now easy to do: Just direct your Android, iPhone, or Palm Pre to:

http://adwords.google.com/dashboard/Dashboard

(You have to be logged in to your AdWords account first.)

You can customize the information reports from your desktop computer first, and get the exact information you want sent to your phone – alerts, stats and bids.

Google has more information on this at

http://adwords.blogspot.com/2010/03/adwords-for-mobile-check-in-quickly.html

***Mobile is heating up and the opportunities to advertise to real buyers on their mobile phones are growing exponentially.*** This will be a major part of Content Network Boot Camp which starts Wednesday April 15:

http://www.contentnetworkbootcamps.com

Don’t miss out.

Shelley Ellis

What if I could give you a visual map of the Google content network? A beautifully done, visual perspective of how categorization works on the content network. Trust me, you’ve never seen the Google content network like this!

Well…I’m GIVING mindmaps of the Google content network away!

The Advanced Content Network Boot Camp kicks off Wednesday, April 14th at 9AM. As of noon on Friday, there were 18 spots left…there are less than that now. One of the reasons the course is filling up is because we have offered the mindmap as a bonus to anyone who signs up for the Advanced Boot Camp. We’ll close the doors to the live training once those 18 spots are filled.

So hurry…sign up for the Advanced course and lay claim to your Google content network mindmap AND put yourself in the top 1% of all advertisers on Google’s Content Network.

http://www.ContentNetworkBootcamps.com

Looking forward to next week!

Shelley Ellis

I was reading an article this morning about 23 amazing ad fails and it really bothered me that so many companies still don’t know how to avoid “most” of the possible embarrassing ad situations on the content network.

The content network has a number of ways for you to control where your ads are shown or not shown. Before you turn your content network campaigns on, you should walk through these steps to minimize awkward ad placements. After you turn your campaigns on, you should monitor your placement performance reports to look for potentially reputation damaging sites.

Step #1. Set up standard category exclusions.

• Log into your AdWords account
• In your Campaigns Tab, highlight one of your content network campaigns
• Go to your Networks Tab
• Scroll down and click on Exclusions
• Under Campaign level, click Add Exclusions
• Select Exclude Category
• For reputation management, you may choose to exclude standard categories like gross and bizarre, sexually oriented and death and tragedy

Step #2. Include negative keywords.

• Log into your AdWords account
• In your Campaigns Tab, highlight one of your content network campaigns
• Go to your Keywords Tab
• Scroll down and click on Negative Keywords
• Reputation management keywords are probably appropriate at the campaign level so under Campaign Level, click add, add your negatives and save
• There are obvious negative words you would always want to use such as “scam, death, kill, murder, etc.”
• Depending on your industry, you may want to add additional keywords. For instance, an airline might use negatives for words like “crash, burn, attack, bomb”, etc.

Step #3. Exclude specific sites or even pages of a site where you don’t want your ads to show.

• Log into your AdWords account
• In your Campaigns Tab, highlight one of your content network campaigns
• Go to your Networks Tab
• Scroll down and click on Exclusions
• Under Campaign level, click Add Exclusions
• Select Exclude Placement
• You can either exclude sites you are already familiar with and don’t want your ads to show on or you can use your placement performance report to exclude sites off the report after your campaigns have been running.

For daily tips and strategies on Content Networks, AdWords and Internet Marketing, join my Facebook Fan Page.

To your success!

~Shelley

PS I posted several videos to my YouTube channel over the last couple of weeks. In case you missed them:

* Finding Placements Using an AdSense Directory (Searchforecast.org)
* Bidding on Keyword Themes in the Content Network
* Below the Fold – Step by Step

Google just announced a new option for content network advertisers called “below the fold”. If you want to keep your ads above the fold, this new option allows you to “opt out” of “below the fold” ad distribution on the AdWords content network for both content targeting and placement targeting. I walk you step by step through how to turn this option on or off. Who needs this? Definitely anyone doing branding or CPM campaigns but any aggressive campaign might want to use this new option.

One of the most commonly asked questions about optimizing content campaigns is “what is a good click through rate?” The short answer…well…it depends. Your click  through rate is going to vary based on:

• your account structure (keyword themed or placement targeted)
• the types of sites you are targeting (general or targeted, top domain or specific pages)
• the ad formats that you are using (text, image, video, mobile)

You really shouldn’t grade your account, campaign, AdGroup or even your ad copy based on average click through rates. If you run a placement report, you will find that click through rates vary campaign to campaign, AdGroup to AdGroup, placement to placement and ad to ad.

If your CTR isn’t what you expected or would like, dig deeper and analyze the individual sites, the pages your ads are showing on and the ad format and copy. Some general sites are just going to get lower CTR’s by nature and some ads may perform better on some sites but terrible on others.

For higher traffic and general topic sites, try a more generic ad and landing page and a softer call to action (like a free trial or report). As you get more specific with your targeting, use different landing pages and ad copy for the different audiences. Example: if you are targeting CEO’s with placement targeting, the ad copy and landing pages should be different from the placements, landing pages and ads that target merchandise buyers.

To evaluate your click through rate on the content network, use your networks tab to look at the details for your automatic and/or managed placements or better yet, run placement reports so that you are looking at all the variables for each AdGroup and ad.

For more information on Content Network strategies stay tuned to my YouTube channel, blog or you can still sign up for the Content Network Boot Camp.