Understanding Adwords - Final Notes on Content Searches

Something that I forgot to mention about content searches...

If you choose to use content searches, please be aware of what they are! For normal google searches, you are guarenteed positions on Google Searches or some of their direct affiliates (like AskJeeves). Again, these are very targetted searches based on the keywords that you are bidding on. Content searches are a bit different. These are the ads that can appear on any website. Specifically, the ads that are generated when using Google Adsense. This blog, for example, has ads on the right column from Adsense that come from content searches. Keep in mind that the ads that are placed are based on the content of my website, not necessarily from a specific searched keyword. Therefore, your ad may appear on a website that is unrelated to your topic audience.

Unlike Google Searches, though, are you not penalized for this! The CTR of your content searches has no bearing on your content search position nor does it affect the CTR of your campaign related to google search position. So if you have a Google Search CTR of 5% and a Content Search CTR of 0.01%, you are not being penalized for the 0.01%. It is what it is!

Getting back to the topic of click fraud, you can probably guess that some idiots on the web take advantage of links they have placed on their website by clicking them. This, of course, makes them money and costs you the price of a click (or many clicks) with no quality at all. Google works fairly hard to prevent this and a lot of their software is smart enough to detect fraudulent clicks. They will banish you from Google Adsense if they suspect you are clicking your own ad links. Don't be stupid, just play the game fairly!