When you set up keyword targeted AdGroups in Google, you would think that you would be targeting the content (keywords) of the pages that you want your ads to appear on. Right? Not necessarily…

I have had many conversations lately about a theory I have on a Google scoring system for determining ad distribution using keyword themes to target their AdSense content network. I just read an article on AdSense strategies that helped confirm my theory.

Here are some of the things you need to pay attention to when you are targeting a specific page or specific types of pages:
*Page Titles
*Page Description Tags
*H1 and H2 Tags
*Bold text and external links
*Image tags

In some cases, I have even seen some emphasis placed on keywords used for navigation.

The best way to figure out how Google is targeting your ads is to really dig deep into your placement reports. Look at your keywords. Look at the pages that are showing your ads. Look for those keywords on the pages and pull up the source code for the page and look there.

**Note: MySpace and some other sites on the content network do distribute ads differently. For instance MySpace will distribute ads at about 50% targeted to the searcher’s profile and the other 50% relevant to that page (discussion forum, groups, etc.)