AdWords site targeting allows advertisers to pay CPM rates to appear on specific content network sites.

At present, if an advertiser only wants to appear on specific content network sites, they can’t just pay a cost per click or bid into position - they must pay on a CPM auction model.

For many advertisers this adds another level of complexity to managing a campaign. To be successful with Site Targeting, one must:

• Know where a publisher is showing ads on a page (above/below fold)
• Understand the publisher’s audience
• Convert CPM into CPC to determine relative effectiveness
• Track Site Targeting campaigns separately
• Bid in CPM while other advertisers are bidding in CPC (difficult to see placement, what one needs to bid for high exposure on a website).

I do use a decent amount of Site Targeting and have been fond of it in certain situations. If one steps out of direct response marketing and into brand awareness or product launches, Site Targeting is essentially another banner buy.

It’ also the only area in AdWords where one can target by demographic.

AdWords has recently announced that they have a beta program for allowing advertisers to pay in CPC with Site Targeting campaigns. I’m very interested in finding out how this program compares to the typical content network. If it does work as it sounds, it could completely change how advertisers bid on the content network.

If you’d like to signup for the beta, the form is here:
https://services.google.com/ads_inquiry/cpc_sitetargeting

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