Search Marketing Sage

I’ve written before about how most Google AdWords advertisers who use the Display Network on mobile devices usually have no idea that their ads are showing on mobile apps.  The problem with that from my perspective is that if you are using keywords to contextually trigger your display ads you are relying on those words to keep their ad serving targeted.  Google says that it uses keyword context to trigger those ads, but all the evidence indicates otherwise.

• What is the keyword context that would make an ad for Toyota.com show on Angry Birds?  Shouldn’t all the ads be for bird seed instead?
• Why would a realtor’s ad show on Pandora for the song Primary, by the Cure?  Shouldn’t there be ads for medicine?
• Why would an ad for Charmin Toilet Paper be on my Advanced Task Killer?  Is it because it “wipes” out Apps on your phone you aren’t using at that time?

My personal opinion is that when advertisers use keyword context on Display Ads triggered on mobile apps the context that really matters to Google is how high your AdGroup’s default bid is and keywords don’t come into the equation at all.

So I was very interested in Google’s recent news that they now have Display Network targeting to just advertise on mobile apps only including the AdMob Network which Google bought two years ago for $750 Million.

I’ve come to accept that for some advertisers, Google Content Network can be an effective way to achieve an advertiser’s goals.  Google Content Network ads are contextually triggered when keywords on a Google AdSense Publisher’s website match the keywords in your Search Advertising accounts.  At least that’s the way it’s supposed to work…

I recently wrote about, how Google was showing Content Network Ads in Gmail, based on the content of possibly up to 100 different e-mails, the Content of the e-mail you are actually reading won’t always necessarily trigger any ads.  Sort of like contextual triggering of your ads divided by 100.  Not nearly as effective for advertisers as having your ad match the content that’s on the same page.

Now, in the course of monitoring our clients advertising and experimenting with Content Network on Google Mobile, I’ve discovered another instance of Google looking the other way and showing Content Network ads somewhere where the keywords I want triggering my ads are NOWHERE TO BE FOUND!