The Google search network is made up of it’s own web properties (i.e. google.com, google.co.uk) and various search partners such as sky.com and aol.  Whilst this is a network, it is still based around the keyword search model.  However, Google has another network that you can advertise on which they refer to as the Content Network.  This is far more like a traditional display network, but you choose which sites you appear on by using a set of keywords that has similar content to the publishing page.  As a consequence there are a number of different best practices that should be adhered that mark this out as a separate practice to running keyword search campaigns.

Below are 5 points that will help you achieve better results from your Content Network campaigns.

1.    Keep Search and Content apart – Create separate engine campaigns and opt in to only display on the content network.  This helps you to manage the two channels separately and to take better control over your campaigns.
2.    Create a tightly themed group of keywords – When choosing keywords you wish to display against, keep to a very narrow and well defined theme.  It also pays to keep the keywords to below 20 to help with this.
3.    Do not use misspellings –  In search it is common to use misspellings to take advantage of cheap traffic, but on the content network this would result in your ad appearing on websites with incorrectly spelt body copy which could indicate a poor quality site, and less conversions for you.
4.    Use negative keywords – Just like in a search campaign, remember to use negative keywords to filter out sites and articles you do not want to appear on.  E.g. ‘lawsuit’, ‘poor’, ‘problems’ etc etc.  This is doubly as important as all content keywords are taken at the broad match level.
5.    Think beyond the direct offer – If you are a hotel aggregator, think about using keywords themes such as ‘shopping breaks’, ‘weekend deals’ and not just terms like ‘hotels’ ‘cheap hotels’ and ‘hotels in Stockholm’.  Remember to appear on pages that are complementary products, where the user may need to book a hotel in the future.

When using td Searchware to manage your content campaigns there is no need to create tracking URLs for each keyword, as the Content Network only works at an Adgroup level.  Therefore it is better to create a tracking URL at the default URL level, which then allows you to track each ad text separately if you wanted to.
If you would like more information about the Content Network, and how td Searchware can be used to manage it, please contact simon.cooper@tradedoubler.com.