We all know what a ‘bad neighborhood’ is – it’s the one where people stumble around 24/7 holding bottles with brown paper bags wrapped around them. Wrapped around the bottles, not the people.
Now imagine yourself as an insurance salesman. You’re assigned that neighborhood as your territory. Specifically, you’re told to sell policies to those guys with the brown paper bags. Those are your ‘Prospects’.
Let’s face it. After a few attempts you’d probably get your own bottle of ‘Juice’, wrap a bag around it, and spend the rest of the day singing with your new friends. There’s no point trying to sell in that place to those people. But that’s exactly what’s happening with your search ads on the Content networks.
The Problem With the Content Network It’s not all bad on the Content network, but it’s close sometimes. Google, and the rest, are showing your ads on sites whenever their software finds a trigger word(s) on it that seems to fit what you’re selling. The problem is that it misses context, which is crucial to showing your ad to the right audience.
Example: I have a client involved in accommodations here in Hawaii. That shouldn’t be too hard for the software. Unfortunately, I found that our search ads were showing on sites for clothing. If a shirt, hat, or sunglasses said anything about the beach or the word ‘Hawaii’, our ad was shown. Those clothes shoppers are not our prospects. Our prospects are people planning to travel to Hawaii.
I won’t get started on the other major villain on the Content network – those pages built just to show ads that have no content. Just ads. So, what can you do about your ads showing in these bad neighborhoods?
But What Can You Do About It?
2 Things. First, consult your log files and/or web site stats. That will tell you where clicks and visitors are coming from; you’ll want to investigate those sites that look shady or are unknown to you. Those that are obviously no good, or of no use, to you need to be eliminated using the tool in your Google AdWords account.
The 2nd technique is this: using copy from your AdWords ad that is unique, copy it and paste it into the Google search box. Remember to put quotes (“ “) around the text you use. You want an exact match to your search.
What should pop up are returns of the sites where your ad is showing. Again, you need to investigate. Check those sites and eliminate the waste from your AdWords account.
The bad news is that you won’t be able to do a complete house cleaning. There are other sites out there showing your ad that aren’t great for your business. Plus Google will find new Bad Neighborhoods’ to show your ad. But, you’ll improve your marketing environment and that’s more than most can, or will, do. Every little bit helps.
How To Move Your Search Engine Ads From Skid Row To Uptown - To learn more about this author, visit Jonathan Cook's Website.
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Jonathan Cook
(Visit Jonathan's Website)
Jon lives and works in Waikiki/Honolulu,
Hawaii, providing Internet/Search
Marketing and Copywriting services to
clients. He relaxes by walking his dog to
the beach and swimming with his wife.
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