Comments on: Reverse Engineer The Content Network http://www.scrappybusiness.com/reverse-engineer-the-content-network.htm From Cents to Sense! Fri, 12 Mar 2010 03:48:56 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 hourly 1 By: Content Network http://www.scrappybusiness.com/reverse-engineer-the-content-network.htm/comment-page-1#comment-21306 Content Network Thu, 09 Jul 2009 17:24:13 +0000 http://www.scrappybusiness.com/reverse-engineer-the-content-network.htm#comment-21306 Interesting and convoluted topic, the content network. I hope some of the info below may help take your reverse engineering to the next level. The top positioned as is not necessarily the post "relevant" ad. It can actually have a lower CTR than the ads below it. BID is a large factor in positioning as well. You cannot simply assume the first ad is the most relevant. Ads with higher bids and lower CTR can make their way to the top. We have to think about Quality Score, which is made up of CTR, Bid, and many other relevancy factors. Additionally, "relevancy" cannot be determined by which ad gets the most volume of clicks but instead the CTR. The percentage of clicks to impressions is what counts the most, not the volume of clicks. The "more sponsored links" section of Google does not contain ads relevant to the content necessarily. This section of Google provides any and all ads (paused, deleted, different language, different targeting) etc., that Google continuously tests. These ads are not necessarily active or relevant to the topic. You can reference "http://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=53502" for additional info. Finally, and most importantly, the relevancy and visibility of an ad on the content network is not weighted on CTR. The most important piece of the ads on the content network are the keywords in the account that tell Google when to trigger an ad. Essentially, you can have the same 2 ads show up on 2 different sites and not in the same position because the keywords from one account may match content on one site better than the previous. Interesting and convoluted topic, the content network. I hope some of the info below may help take your reverse engineering to the next level.

The top positioned as is not necessarily the post “relevant” ad. It can actually have a lower CTR than the ads below it. BID is a large factor in positioning as well. You cannot simply assume the first ad is the most relevant. Ads with higher bids and lower CTR can make their way to the top. We have to think about Quality Score, which is made up of CTR, Bid, and many other relevancy factors.

Additionally, “relevancy” cannot be determined by which ad gets the most volume of clicks but instead the CTR. The percentage of clicks to impressions is what counts the most, not the volume of clicks.

The “more sponsored links” section of Google does not contain ads relevant to the content necessarily. This section of Google provides any and all ads (paused, deleted, different language, different targeting) etc., that Google continuously tests. These ads are not necessarily active or relevant to the topic. You can reference “http://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=53502″ for additional info.

Finally, and most importantly, the relevancy and visibility of an ad on the content network is not weighted on CTR. The most important piece of the ads on the content network are the keywords in the account that tell Google when to trigger an ad. Essentially, you can have the same 2 ads show up on 2 different sites and not in the same position because the keywords from one account may match content on one site better than the previous.

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