Content vs Search Ad Placement
When you first sign up for a pay per click account, the choices presented to you can be a bit overwhelming. One is whether you should place your ads on the content or search platforms.
Search engines are much more than they seem. While all search engines do basic search functions like you get whenever you go to the home page of Google and do a search, many also have affiliate relationships with other sites such as this one. Google, for instance, also supplies search results to AOL.
When you open a new pay per click account, you will have to make a choice about whre you want your ads to appear. If you want them to just appear on the results page of the search engine, then you must pick the “search” option. If you want them to appear on affiliated sites, the you pick the “content” option. You can, of course, pick both options.
So, what do you do? In general, it is best not to go “all in” at first. Instead, stick to the search option. The traffic is a bit more expensive, but is of better quality. You can test different ads until you find the perfect on that converts really well.
Once you have an ad that converts like crazy, you can expand into the “content” platform. You’ll find that the ad doesn’t convert as well, but the traffic will also cost significantly less than you find with the search option. As always, you need to monitor your costs compared to revenues so as to avoid doing things at a loss.
Ultimately, search and content both should play a role in your pay per click campaign efforts. Start with search to perfect your work and then expand to content. Taking this approach, you should maximize sales and profits.