Lessons Catalogue

Lesson 3a: Search and Contextual Targeting

Remember that the Google Network is split into the search network (which includes Google and other search sites like uk.ask.com) and the content network (like Google Mail, newsletters and bebo.com). Together, the search and content networks make up thousands of search and content sites displaying targeted Google ads. See other sites where your ad might appear.

By default, AdWords keyword-targeted campaigns are opted in to the entire Google Network: Google search, search partners and the content network (with 'Relevant pages across the entire network' as the setting). You can opt in or out of the search or content networks at any time on your Edit Campaign Settings page. To do so: Sign in to your account > Tick the box beside the campaign that you want to edit > Click the Edit Settings button > Tick or un-tick the boxes and radio buttons under the section titled 'Networks and bidding' > Click Save Changes.

• Keyword-targeted ads can appear across search and content pages in the Google Network. Google uses search targeting to match keywords to search queries on search sites. For content pages, Google uses contextual targeting to match keywords to web page content. (See details below.)


• Placement-targeted ads can only appear on pages in the content network. The advertiser chooses a specific audience and site, or portion of a site, to target. If the ad group also has keywords, the keywords and placements will work together to determine where ads should appear. Keywords will continue to match your ads to placements through contextual targeting, and you can add your own placements to bid more when your ad appears on certain sites, or to limit your ad to appearing only on the placements you target. To learn more, see the Placement targeting lesson.


• Google displays ads in the search network and in the content network based on relevancy factors. You can test different results by creating two separate campaigns - one targeted to the search network and one targeted to the content network. This lets you customise your ad text, keywords, placements (if any) and bids.


• The appearance of your ads may vary slightly among Google Network sites to match the look and feel of different web pages. Google automatically formats your ads for you. AdWords ads are always clearly labelled as advertising-related links.


• Text ads can appear on search pages and on content pages. Ads that contain graphics (like image ads and video ads) can only appear on content pages. To learn more, visit the Using Different Ad Formats lesson.

Advertisers can fine-tune their search targeting using phrases, negative matches, broad matches and other Google AdWords features. For more information, please refer to the Keyword Matching section.

As a result, contextually targeted ads provide useful information to readers and attract an audience with an established interest in your message.

You can fine-tune ads for contextual targeting by using the site exclusion function in your AdWords account. Site exclusion lets you choose sites, or types of sites, that you don't want your ads appearing on - such as competitor sites, low conversion rate sites or sites that conflict with your interests. To learn more about site exclusion, visit the Site Exclusion Tool lesson.

You can also now combine keyword targeting and placement targeting in the same ad group. This lets you define specific content sites where you want your ads to show (based on your keywords), and allows you to bid more effectively when a keyword match is found on a targeted site. To learn more about how to combine keyword and placement targeting, read the Keywords and Placements Together lesson.

Using the same technology, the AdWords system detects sensitive themes and restricts inappropriate ads from appearing, as in the case of tragedies in the news. Google is continuously updating our system with the latest analysis of all sites in our content network, so ads are always relevant to the content of the page, even as the content of the page changes. Contextual ads may be formatted in many ways, depending on the look and feel of the publisher website, so they fit with the rest of the webpage. AdWords ads are always clearly labelled as advertising-related links.

In addition, Google uses "smart pricing" technology for clicks made in the content network. Ads in the content network sometimes return lower conversion numbers than ads in the search network. To make up the difference, smart pricing automatically lowers the cost of these content clicks.

If you find that you receive better business leads or a better return from ads on content sites than on search sites (or vice versa), you can enable content bids at the ad group level or campaign level. Content bids let you set one price for ads on search sites and a separate price for ads on content sites.

To learn more about smart pricing and content bids, visit the Cost Control lesson.