Why & When You Need to Turn On or Turn off Content Network in AdWords?

The highlight of this article is to understand:

• Why do you need to emphasize more on number of clicks
• How does advt impression affects your CTR?
• How to gain quality score?
• How can you increase CTR?
• How can you decrease impression to increase no of clicks for better CTR
• When & how can you turn on or turn off content network?

It’s worth knowing these all. So, take your time and read to manage an effective AdWords campaign

Case I: Assume the cost per conversion is $ 24.26 for both ad groups

CTR = No of clicks/Impression x 100

• A) 15/2300 x100 -----------------------Equation A

CTR =0.65 (Quality score will be good)

• B) 15/28000 x 100 -----------------------Equation B

CTR= 0.53 (Quality score will not be good)

Case II: Assume the cost per conversion is different

CTR =0.65 @ $ 35 per conversion

CTR =0.53 @ $ 30 per conversion

It looks as though Equation B is winner because it has lower cost of conversion but it’s not the case. Since equation A has good quality score though cost of conversion is high, it will continue to win the top slots @ lower CPC because CPC gets lower with the increase in CTR and vice versa. B campaign with lower CTR will likely to have higher CPC. Equation B has lower CTR though relatively lower cost of conversion but its CPC will continue to increase and hence conv. rate will eventually decline due to low CTR history. This indicates:

1. Higher Conversion @ low CTR will eventually increase CPC to reduce conversion
2. Lower Conversion @ higher CTR will eventually decrease CPC to increase conversion

Now you must have understood as why CTR is important in AdWords to gain Quality score. CTR is a simple calculation of no of clicks and impression. Equation B, as above, has higher impression while equation A has lower impression with the same no of clicks yet Equation A is winner due to higher CTR. Higher CTR is due to less number of impression compared to Equation B even though no of click is same. So, either you need to struggle for improving numerator or denominator. Increase in numerator will improve your CTR or lowering denominator will improve your CTR.

Which way you would like to go?

When it comes to enhancing no. of clicks, you can do by setting higher bid for competitive keywords with good contextual advt. It will cost you initially but will also help you gain top slots by gaining quality score since Google looks into the CTR and bidding history and then you lower bid and continue to monitor your ad performance. I have already written why are small business dying in adwords? Why setting high bidding initially and what small business can do to achieve higher CTR?

However, the precaution is - never ever engage in bidding war - it might be dangerous sometimes, I have also written a month's back.

On the other hand, when it comes to lowering impression, just turn off content network if it does not fetch good click. Otherwise, it will mere increase your impression and will impact negatively your CTR. However, if your ad is getting clicks from content network, you need to evaluate with two sets of advertisements.

1. One ad without content network
2. Other ad with content network

Compare CTR for both. If CTR is good for your ad with content network compared to without network, continue with this but if your ad does not get higher CTR with content network, turn off this. Generally, CTR in content network is lower while impression is high. However, I don't advise you to turn off content network at all. You need to evaluate the pros and cons.

When is it possible to turn off content network?

It’s all mathematics. When you see the rate of number of clicks is higher than the rate of number of impression, you can turn on content network because of good CTR. However when rate of impression (denominator) is higher in proportionate to the rate of no. of clicks, turn off content network to reduce impression and improve CTR.

Hope, this will work you guys... :)

All the best

Munaz