Having worked on Google Adwords for awhile now, its been quite interesting looking at how much Adwords has changed from the past. For this blog post, I’ll be sharing more about content targeting by Topics, a new targeting option from Google Adwords.
Content targeting started simply enough – by allowing users to have their ads appearing in websites in Google’s advertising network. Users can then select the websites which their ads appear in by targeting specific keywords relating to their products as well as relating to the websites which they wish to appear in.
Google has launched Display Network targeting by topics, allowing advertisers to target websites relating to topics which your ads can be featured in. This form of “topic targeting” allows you select interests, themes as well as subjects which your target audience likes, and Google would then target your ads to websites related to these topics.
Doing a quick test using Topic targeting, and I have noticed that depending on the products which you are advertising on, the topics which are related to your product may be rather limited. In addition, it is important not to just limit your topics to those directly related to your business or ads, but select other topics which may be relevant to the users whom you are trying to target.
The following are some best practices recommended by Google for using Topic Targeting:
- Implement conversion tracking. Before you implement your campaigns, ensure that you’re tracking performance. We recommend you rely on conversion data to guide you. This will help you understand how individual topics or pages are converting (leading to a purchase or sign-up, for example). We offer two free tools for advertising accountability: Google conversion tracking and Google Analytics.
- Use AdPlanner to see examples of the types of sites where your ads may appear for specific topics
- Create a separate campaign for topics, which will allow you to set a separate budget for your campaign. This best practice also applies to your Display Network campaigns overall.
- Choose sub-topics that are relevant. Add relevant sub-topics to your ad groups, rather than more general, top-level topics. Note: adding top-level topics will add all sub-topics.
- When targeting a top-level topic, target its sub-topics, too. This will give you more specific reporting.
- Use topics and keywords together for more precise targeting. Topics and keywords can work together to find the best places on the Display Network for your ad. For example, a hotel in Paris might target the Travel topic, while using more specific keywords, such as “paris hotels”.
- To refine topics, select “Relevant pages only on the placements that I manage” in campaign settings and add keywords to further refine targeting. Note: Refining with keywords can limit traffic.
- Bid modification: Select “Relevant pages across the entire network” in campaign settings and add topics to your keyword campaign to set specific bids for your topics.
We will review and share more on Topic Targeting’s performance once further review and optimisation on its performance is in. 
By the way, want to know how Pay-Per-Click Advertising can help your business? Feel free to drop us a note for a free consultation.
Cheers and have a good week ahead!
