Google to Let Advertisers Target Sites – Adwords Site Targeted Ads

Google is beta testing a new feature for AdWords that will allow advertisers to choose which sites their ads will appear on – Site-Targeted Ads. They explain the program with the following statements:

‘Since Google first introduced AdWords, advertisers have asked us for the ability to run their ads on specific websites. Site targeting gives our users that ability, while also allowing their ads to compete for ranking with traditional keyword-targeted AdWords ads. It’s one more tool that AdWords advertisers can use to bring their message to highly-targeted groups of web users.

Site targeting isn’t available yet. We’re currently running a beta test of site-targeted campaigns with just a few advertisers. We expect to make site targeting available to all AdWords advertisers in the near future.’

So for instance if you wanted to specifically expose your blogging related product (or blog) on my blog here at ProBlogger you could specify that as an advertiser and ensure it only appears here. Advertisers will be charged on a CPM basis (per 1000 impressions at a minimum of $2 per 1000 – and not a CPC basis. Also animated banner ads look like they’ll become available to all Adwords Advertisers and not just some.

How will this impact publishers?

I guess this is yet to be seen and will vary from site to site – however if you have a quality site that is in high demand by advertisers wanting to get their ads seen on it you should see an increase in your click value. It could be a dream come true for some higher profile sites who have advertisers engage in something of a bidding war over them.

Sounds good – however the New York Times which has an an article on Site-Targeted Ads writes:

‘Google will abandon rules that require advertisements to be directly relevant to the pages on which they appear; it will now place a motor oil ad on a wine site if the refiner outbids the cheesemonger.’

If this is true then publishers should be a little concerned as it means you could end up with some pretty non relevant ads appearing on your site. Of course the non relevant ads might pay more than your other ads (the highest bids appear) – however non relevant ads get clicked on a lot less than relevant ads. It will be interesting to see how this works itself out.

Jensense sums up the changes by saying it’ll be good for publishers as well as advertisers – as long as they are good advertisers (with good content). She writes:

‘Overall, this is a great move for Google to make and should pay off for publishers with solid quality content. However, the effect on publishers with less-than-stellar content could be significant, if advertisers begin monitoring their content conversion rates and begin excluding sites they feel are not up to par.’

Read more on Site-Targeted Ads at:

• CNET
• Jensense
• Search Engine Watch
• New York Times