Google Advertising Network
This diagram was created to try and explain the complexity of the Google Advertising Network. If you wish to use this on your website please contact me first.
This is the standard Google search page network. All text adverts will be displayed on this network.
When a user enters keywords that match the keywords in a client's campaign, the advert may be shown. There are several factors that determine if an advert is shown or not, including the maximum cost per click of the keyword, the Google quality score, how much competitors are bidding, the daily budget etc. Please see the Google Advert Ranking page for more information.
Google Search Network
This network is made up of other search pages from Google's 'high quality partners'. These pages include shopping comparison pages.
Content Network
The Google Content Network is made up of websites and other products, such as email programs and newsletters, who partner with Google to publish targeted Ad Words ads. Google maintain that the quality of these sites is carefully monitored and controlled but I am yet to be convinced. There are a lot of shopping sites, sites that are just adverts in themselves and some very dodgy sites!
However, if the client is mainly interested in Brand Building, these sites may offer good value as the brand is displayed on as many sites as possible. As the client only pays when a visitor clicks on an advert the cost will be minimal.
The search network uses 'Contextual Targeting' which means that the Google software will read and analyse the website the advert may appear on and match this content to any of the advertisers keywords.
One possibly useful feature allowed in the Google Content Network is Site Targeting. Advertisers may chose a particular website and bid for advertising on that site - as long as that page accepts Google advertising of course! This type of advertising is generally more useful for popular products where there are a lot of generic content sites for example advertising car insurance on motoring pages.
Site Targeting is priced at 'cost per impression', which means that the advertiser will be charged a set price for every 1000 displays of their advert, not when a visitor clicks on that advert. This option needs a lot of managing, it is extremely difficult to find good sites to target adverts to.
Google Mobile
This network targets shorter text adverts to mobile phone and PDA users. The advertiser may chose to direct users to a mobile formatted web page or their business phone number. With the release of the .mobi domains recently this network will become increasingly important to internet advertisers.
Google Maps
This network is very useful for advertisers wishing to target their ads to a local area. This option requires a verified Google Maps Business Listing account to be set up which can take several weeks.