How To Dominate Google’s Content Network
October 19, 2009 Posted by ryangrayThis is a guest post by Ryan Gray, a veteran affiliate marketer that along with his two business partners (John Kirkpatrick and identical twin Brother Richard Gray) make upwards of $600,000+ a month using various marketing techniques. You can read more about pay-per-click affiliate marketing and how to make money online at their blog located at SuperAffiliateTwins.com.
Recently I was asked how to scale a campaign on Google’s Content Network. For many, this can be a very challenging, daunting task. For me, this is one of my favorite pay-per-click platforms to promote affiliate offers. Let me explain.
Google’s Content Network is an extension of their Adwords advertising. Using the Content Network you can target your advertisements via site placements (URLs) or by keywords. You then have the option to either bid CPC (cost-per-click) or CPM (cost per one-thousand impressions). The Content Network is very different than placing advertisements on their Search platform. In this post, I’m going to explain how use Google’s Content Network to promote your affiliate offers and how to dominate your competition. In the coming weeks, I’m also going to hold a real-life case study using this manual on my blog.
Before we jump right into things, there are a few things you’re going to need. First and most important is a budget. You’re going to need some money that you’re willing to invest to test out your campaigns. Recently, I wrote a guide on “PPC Marketing 101.” In that guide, I explained how investing in your campaigns a lot like getting an education is. You have to spend some money to learn, before you can make money. So for that matter, I suggest starting with $5,000 a month dedicated just to Google’s Content Network. This should be plenty of money for you to learn the ins and outs of the platform and more-than-likely begin profiting. Please don’t get yourself into credit card debt or spend money you don’t have. Don’t try to take on this task until you have the money to invest!
Once you have your money set aside, you’re ready to begin. You’ll also need to have an account at your favorite affiliate network or program that you want to promote (I recommend Copeac). The key to being successful on the Content Network is finding traffic that is cheap, yet effective. For many this is also the most challenging task, but it is possible. Also, a lot of people try to setup their Content Network campaign the same way they do their search campaign. This is the WORST mistake. Even though they are both on Adwords, the internal structure to each campaign is very different. Personally I recommend having one Adwords account dedicated to search and another one dedicated to content.
When your account is ready, you can begin creating your campaigns. When you’re targeting someone on search they are actively searching for your product or service. With this, you’re able to laser target the traffic to your offer. The content network on the other hand is different. Those ads are placed on websites all around the Internet. Therefore, your objective is to interrupt the reader and have them click your advertisement to eventually convert. “I Lost 59 LBS” – This is an example of a headline that you could use. You want to make the visitor notice your advertisement and follow through to complete your offer.
Getting traffic on the content network can also be challenging. Given that you’re not targeting someone who is actively searching for a product; your traffic quality is going to be lower. That is why I like to go after the cheap traffic. To find cheap traffic on Google’s Content Network, you need to use keywords that are of popular news items. An example of this would be “swine flu” or “h1n1”. Websites all across the Internet report daily on new outbreaks, prevention tips, vaccines, etc. Therefore it is very beneficial to use this story to your advantage to getting cheap traffic.
When setting up your Content Network campaign it is important to note that your ad groups are used to describe what you’re targeting. Google only looks at the first 50 keywords in each ad group to determine where to place your advertisement. Therefore one of your ad groups could look like this:
Ad Group Name: Swine Flu Group 1
Keywords:
- about swine flu
- and swine flu
- asian swine flu
- avoid swine flu
- bird swine flu
- ca swine flu
- cdc swine flu
- current swine flu
- death from swine flu
- first swine flu
- get swine flu
- getting swine flu
- great swine flu
- h1n1 swine flu
- how to prevent swine flu
- human swine flu
- information on swine flu
- is swine flu
- japan swine flu
- latest on swine flu
- mexican swine flu
- national swine flu
- new swine flu
- pandemic swine flu
- prevent swine flu
- preventing swine flu
- recent swine flu
- shot swine flu
- stop swine flu
- swine flu
- swine flu 1918
- swine flu 1919
- swine flu 1976
- swine flu advice
- swine flu affair
- swine flu alert
- swine flu americans
- swine flu areas
- swine flu article
- swine flu asia
- swine flu australia
- swine flu avian
- swine flu birds
- swine flu blog
- swine flu canada
- swine flu cases
- swine flu chart
- swine flu clinic
- swine flu clinics
- swine flu cure
There is no need to copy this word-for-word as I just used Google’s Free Keyword Generator to make this list. You would then want to create an ad copy to go along with this ad group. An example may look like this:
“The Swine Flu Kills”
Prevent the Swine Flu with the all new XYZ Multi-Vitamin.
Notice how the headline is designed to get the attention of the reader while the ad description goes on to explain more what you’re trying to promote. You could then direct traffic to a website that promotes multi-vitamins.
Please note: The above is just an example; I’ve never created a campaign based around the Swine Flu.
By using “popular news stories” to generate your Content Network campaigns, you’re able to find a lot of cheap traffic with large amounts of volume. If you’re creative you can make a lot of money while the topic is hot. The possibilities are endless with this method as long as you’re willing to take a risk and think outside the box.
Last of all I always want to remind people of one thing. There is NO substitute for hard work. This blog post, a PPC coaching site, etc. is NO magic pill or formula. Successful Affiliates are successful because they’re willing to be dedicated and work harder than everyone else. You have to be willing to make sacrifices and put the effort into this, if you’re ever going to be a Super Affiliate! Good luck!
To learn more about how to make money online, check out Ryan’s blog at SuperAffiliateTwins.com.
44 Responses to “How To Dominate Google’s Content Network”
Very interesting. I would have thought to just do the same as Google search, but I love how you say that you want to catch the readers attention.
Yeah, I don’t know very much about the content network, but the one thing I do know is that it’s completely different from search.
nice post and Google’s Free Keyword Generator tool is excellent i also use this tool.
Nice post. I never thought about using news stories to get cheap traffic.
Thanks for the comments guys! Yes, this is thinking outside the box to obtain cheap clicks! This is a PROVEN technique. Good luck!
Finally, a quality article on Google’s content network. Thank you! 🙂
Affiliates – Cash In on the Google Content Network…
Harness the power of the Google Content Network. If you haven’t tried the Content Network yet or even if you are already using it, you’re about to discover some great tips and tricks for leveraging this unique, low cost traffic source.
…..
One account for search and other one for content? WTF? Isn’t it forbidden by Google?
Nope, you just need to upgrade your account to a client account. Its free and easy.
This is true…
To be honest, I have avoided the content network in the past due to all the reports of click fraud. It sounds like I am missing out on a valuable advertising platform though. I really should look into this again.
In my ten years of Internet marketing experience, I have found that Google is best about click fraud. If you look through your billing history you’ll see where they actually credit you for fraudulent clicks. I’ve worked with MANY other companies that are not near this nice. The only problem is, they are also profitable. Unfortunately something we must deal with, but just another obstacle than can be overcome!
If you want to get even cheaper clicks many smaller PPC search engines are a great deals. Services such as 7search, adbrite etc, have much cheaper prices
Excellent point. My post was talking about getting cheap clicks/high volume on Google’s Content Network. But no source is too small. We work with MULTIPLE 2nd and 3rd tier PPC platforms.
Great guest post Ryan! I definitely got alot of takeaway from this one, since affiliate marketing is not my thing. =D
Till then,
Jean
Thanks Jean! I hope you’re able to use my information to start a new money making venture! I wish you the best of luck;)
what is Content Network?
cool idea with hot topics as a cheap traffic generator – do you happen to have experience if this technique works with online stores?
Will try and implement something similar for myself.
This is a great short tutorial about how to use hot topics to generate cheap traffic for your campaigns. I look forward to reading your case study in the coming weeks.
$5,000?! I’d never invest that much to start and I’ve been doing this a long time.
$50 is plenty to test out a campaign I’ve found.
Chris I would say, Everyone has different risk levels, the one thing that is for sure… the more money you spend… the more data you can get.
Till then,
Jean
I agree with you. I can’t afford to use 5k in order to test a campaign
Do I have to believe in this now? “Spend money to earn money”.
Co’z as what I understand this, we need to spend and out from that we can surely earn from the traffic that we can generate.
This is a good post.
Wow 5k on swine flu its really hot as the seasonal flu is getting big everyone things its swine flue.
Is adwords worth the money Tyler???
Good read, I never thought of harnessing the power of sensationalist headlines for cheap traffic…
I wish I’d have read this before I tried Google adwords for the first time. I hot all the expensive keywords, made a hash of it and spent all my money really quickly. I suppose it’s just something that you put down to experience, but still is kind of annoying. It’s really good that people who ahve experience in this kind of thing are willing to share their expertise and maybe prevent someone like me making the same mistakes I did!
Very useful article for Google. Thank you!
Ryan,
Great post man! I do have a quick question: Can you direct link to the affiliate link you’re using or should you set up your own affiliate page for that particular product? Or does it matter?
Actually, I lied, I have one more question… do you still have that PSP contest going on at your blog?
Thanks man!
Jay
I reserved a blogspot domain few months back on swine flu topic when that thing was very hot in news but didn’t got time to work on it..I think it’s not too late now and I will try doing something to make money out of that niche ..
[…] using Google AdWords still don’t know what the main difference is. A guest post this week on TylerCruz.com goes into detail on how to create a successful campaign on the content network, which the author […]
this is wonderful , more than i thought that you know a lot about seo…
I learned an powerful tip in your article, thanks. I’ll use this in my advertising.
Franck
nicece post. I never thought about using news stories to get cheap traffic.wish I’d have read this before I tried Google adwords for the first time.
Network Marketing
i never have tried google adword, and i am thinking of using it to my marketing stratey, thank for this idea
i really dont know how to do pay per click or ppc
I think the great thing about the content network is there is no quality score. Meaning you can start really small and blow a few campaigns. A low bid, CTR etc wont hurt your future adwords campaigns.
It’s getting even better and better.
Nice post. I never thought about using news stories to get cheap traffic.
nice post and Google’s Free Keyword Generator tool is excellent i also use this tool.
Hello Tyler, Interesting post however I must admit I have not had much success with the adwords content network, the search network provides much better traffic and if you know how to use it you can produce solid results for your business.
Regards, David
Hello Tyler, Interesting post however I must admit I have had a lot more success with the search network. All the content network does it bring in traffic with a VERY VERY low ROI and the bounce rate is through the roof.
Do you prefer the search or content network for your affiliate marketing?
Regards, David
I didn’t write this post… it was a guest post…