This just came out from Google – and it’s good, huge news. Advertisers on Site-targeted campaigns (now called Placement Targeted) can choose to pay on a CPC model rather than a CPM model. Here’s their announcement; watch this blog and my SEW Content Advertising column for analysis and advice:
We’d like to announce two changes to site targeting in Google’s content network. First, because site targeting now offers more precise targeting options, we’ve given it a more appropriate name: placement targeting. Second, we’re introducing a new cost-per-click bidding option so you can now pay per click or per impression.
Introducing placement targeting
When site targeting was first introduced two years ago, advertisers could search for specific URLs or topics to find individual sites in the Google content network and run their image and text ads on these sites. Over time, we’ve introduced other features like targeting by demographics and richer ad formats such as click-to-play video ads. Now, advertisers can target not only websites but also precise subsections of sites, such as the football pages of a news site, the show times section of a movie site, and even a specific ad unit (a block of Google ads) on a particular webpage.
Because of these new changes, we’ve changed the name from site targeting to placement targeting. The term “placement” can be used to refer to any site or subsection of a site that you choose to target. As the number of placements available for targeting continues to grow, you’ll have even greater control over the parts of the Google content network on which your ads appear.
Cost-per-click bidding for placement targeting
With the launch of cost-per-click (CPC) bidding, advertisers can now choose the bidding option that best matches their needs. If the purpose of your placement-targeted campaign is to increase sales, leads, sign-ups, or other conversion-oriented metrics, you can select CPC bidding and pay when users click on your ads. If you want to maximize impressions and increase brand awareness among your target audience, you can select cost-per-impression (CPM) bidding. And you can specify either the maximum price or the average price (with preferred bidding), that you’d like to pay for each click or 1000 impressions.
Along with Placement Performance reports, CPC bidding for placement targeting was one of the most common advertiser requests we received for Google content network campaigns. We’re excited to make this feature available as part of our ongoing efforts to increase the flexibility and control advertisers have when advertising on the content network.
If you’d like to get started on placement targeting, you can read more about it here.
Here’s what the AdWords Help page says:
What is placement targeting?
Placement targeting (formerly called site targeting) lets AdWords advertisers choose individual spots in the Google content network where they’d like their ads to appear. A placement might be an entire website or a subset of a site, such as only the sports pages of a news site. You handpick your audience, big or small. The AdWords matching system does the rest, analyzing your input and creating a list of available content network sites for you to choose from.
- You can select sites for your placement-targeted campaign in two ways:
- Name the sites where you’d like to advertise
- Give us a list of words that describe the type of site you’re looking for.
- A site must be part of the Google Network in order to be available for your placement-targeted campaign.
- As with all AdWords advertising, you’ll compete for space with other advertisers. If you choose very prominent and popular sites, you’ll need a higher price to win the ad position.
- Placement-targeted campaigns can take either cost-per-click (CPC) or cost-per-thousand impressions (CPM) pricing. The minimum bid with CPC pricing is $0.01 (or the local currency equivalent) per click. The minimum bid for CPM pricing is US$0.25 (or the local currency equivalent) for each 1000 impressions. To check minimum CPM in your currency, please see the account fees finder.
Who should have placement targeting? Should I?
Anyone who has an AdWords Standard Edition account can run placement-targeted ads. We suggest that you experiment and see what works best for you. Advertisers have found placement targeting is an especially good option for:
- Businesses who want to promote an existing brand or a new product to a large audience.
- Small advertisers who want to reach a very precise audience.
Of course, if you’re happy with your keyword-targeted ads, there’s no need to change. Placement targeting is simply one more tool that AdWords advertisers can use to bring their message to highly-targeted groups of web users.
How do I create placement-targeted ad campaigns?
To create a new placement-targeted campaign, follow these steps:
- Log in to your AdWords Standard Edition account at https://adwords.google.com (if you’re not already logged in).
- On the Campaign Summary page, find the table titled Online Campaigns.
- Click Placement-targeted in the ‘Create a new campaign’ section at the top of the table.
- Follow the sign-up wizard instructions to create your campaign.
