How To Use The Google Content Network To Invest In Domains
One thing we have been helping more and more clients with recently is domain acquisition for conversions. We are by no means hard core domain investors and our experience of the domain industry is intermediate at best. However, one of the often overlooked benefits of PPC marketing is the conversion data from the different sources the networks use…
For this example, we’ll use the trusted Google Content Network. For those unfamiliar, Google allows you to advertise using Adwords on three different “networks”. These are “categories” are the Google Search Network, which AdWords advertisers will be most familiar, The Search Partners Network which includes AOL and various other “trusted sources” and the Google Content Network which consists of hundreds of thousands of websites and domains running Google AdSense. For the sake of simplicity, I am leaving out print, audio and TV. What we will be focusing today is the Google Content Network.
Many advertisers either fail to consider buying additional domains to compliment their main one or don’t want the trouble of researching the value of the domain. With the Google Content Network, this is already being done for you behind the scenes.
The content network is, by default, run on all sources. This includes a plethora of relevant publisher websites as well as social networks, video portals and parked domains. We want to take a closer look at the latter.
It should be noted that Google give options to exclude most of these sources from within the AdWords console.
Assuming you are advertising on the content network and have your conversion tracking set up (you do have it set up don’t you?) you can use a rarely spoken about AdWords report called the “Placement Performance Report”. This report gives you insight into how your ads are performing on the different sources and gets as granular as the domain and URL of where your ad was served from.
When you run this particular report, you can choose to report and view on a variety of metrics. For the purpose of this post, we will only be looking at the domain, URL impressions, clicks, conversions and Value/Cost (Return On AdWords Ad Spend).
Below you will see an actual report run for one of our clients. As you can see, we have sorted the list by ascending conversion data. This is a report for ONE WEEK. Starting to see where I am going with this? For this particular client, the value for each conversion is between $97 and $227 so you can clearly see that the content network is working for them.
Great! We can see the content network is working well for this client. We can leave it running right? Well… let’s just take a look at what’s actually on “parked domain 1″. When we navigate to the site, we see a typical SEDO landing page with content network ads prominently displayed. We can also see the clients ad running in position #3. However, as with most/many SEDO landing pages that are only monetized through advertising while they are waiting to be sold, in the left column there is an offer to “Buy this domain“.
So this domain is for sale eh? If this domain is generating an average of six conversions per week for this client and it’s getting a lot of type in traffic, it must be worth something. Even sharing this domain with ten advertisers using AdWords, the value to this particular client is on the bottom end is $762 ($127 x 6) per week or $39624 per year! (assuming traffic is maintained AND that the client is still sharing with the other advertisers). We might be on to something. Clicking on the “More Details” link to buy the domain brings us to the following page:
So here we have a domain that’s generating $762 a week gross revenue and it’s for sale for $500? Do I need to tell you what happened next?
We advised the client and they purchased the domain the day of this report. Because we know which landing page was generating the conversions from this domain, the client simply did a 301 redirect to the landing page and let me tell you, they are reaping the rewards. They are getting an even higher than expected return because now they are not paying for the clicks to their site and are not sharing the page with 9 other competitors! Since the beginning of the year, they have purchased over 30 domains using this method.
Buying these domains that have type in traffic and that you KNOW convert (from your AdWords conversion data) offer a significant long term return on investment. So what are you waiting for? Go run your placement performance reports and see what money you are leaving on the domain table today! (before your competitors read this)
July 15th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
Very true, those parked domains could be purchased for less than the cost you’re paying in clicks!
July 15th, 2008 at 6:36 pm
so great.
but i have no google adwords account.
July 15th, 2008 at 7:53 pm
Stupendous post!!! Very rarely do we see such valuable advice shared with the community. I cannot say enough about your work, except move to San Diego and work with us!
There is so much value in buying domains, especially on the SEO side, but that is a story for another post.
July 15th, 2008 at 9:20 pm
Outstanding!! Really - I had just set aside a few hours to catch up on my RSS reader and this is BY FAR the most interesting and useful advice I’ve read in days. I don’t think I would have ever thought about doing that, and almost all of my AdWords campaigns exclude the content network because I thought it would be a waste of money. This is seriously clever, thanks!!
July 15th, 2008 at 10:00 pm
You have just upped the bar in domain buying, I hope you’re happy :)
July 16th, 2008 at 8:15 am
Hmmm, does not really work anymore it seems..Google just displays ‘Parked domains’ as the url so I can’t see which domain it actually is.
July 16th, 2008 at 3:38 pm
@ Martin - I think the “Parked Domains” are domains in the google domain parking program and wouldn’t contain domains typically for sale on sedo. I think you need to look through every domain in your placement report to find the parked ones.
July 16th, 2008 at 4:52 pm
Excellent post. I have a lot of tools for finding domain names, but this really is a unique way to do it. Not only unique, but you have enough data to make very profitable decisions!
July 17th, 2008 at 7:50 am
Aren’t you forgetting one thing?
If you 301 redirect the domain, it will lose it’s own organic tyraffic eventually as there will be no content to index. Therefore the valuable/high conversion traffic that you buy would be wiped out (as quickly as 3 weeks in some cases)
July 17th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
cool idea, but for big shots i guess. for those who pay ‘for each conversion between $97 and $227′
July 17th, 2008 at 3:36 pm
I was thinking the same thing as SEM Mythbuster - would a better long term strategy be to build out at least some rudimentary content, or a landing page that presells the main domain?
Either way, great idea -
July 17th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
Thanks for the comments guys.
@SEM mythbuster: No, this is irrelevant. The traffic is all type in traffic. Most parked domains have very weak (if any) organic rankings. Most search engines don’t see them as being much value in the organic index.
July 18th, 2008 at 6:25 am
Hey man, thanks sharing this info. Now I’m even more glad that I check your blog on a regular basis.
July 18th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
Great Food for Thought!!! I am going to dig into my placement reports and check out potential domains to buy. Thanks for the advice.
July 21st, 2008 at 6:12 pm
This is certainly a novel approach, and hopefully adds some transparency to a very shifty domain economy. BUT — one should also consider that the Content Network tends to reflect search behavior more typical of PPC, and conversely domain names are more germane to organic traffic. Therefore you really want to be assessing the conversion rate of your visits from organic search. Depending on the product (and the website content) the difference could be big…
July 21st, 2008 at 6:20 pm
Certainly a very good use of Google’s placement report. Good way to think outside the box.
July 21st, 2008 at 9:34 pm
How Google looks on such 301 redirecting? Would they penalize you if they finally find out you are using this site just for a redirecting to another web site?
July 21st, 2008 at 9:44 pm
@Paul Burani: That is a VERY good point. Of course it is essential to weigh up the intent of the visitor. As with all investments, especially with domains, it is important to perform your own due diligence.
@ Ann: No. You’d be surprised how many domains redirect to this site alone. What we like to do is redirect a domain about a topic to a page about that topic. That’s what this method should do in my opinion too.
July 22nd, 2008 at 2:31 am
Dave,
I completely agree with SEO PRO, this is one of the most valuable posts I have read in a long time. As a veteran of SEO, SEM, PPC, and domaining, you have used a little known tool to uncover one way to determine the value of a domain. Rick Latona has some good thoughts as well, especially on geos.
@Paul…great point…kinda… :) I understand your logic from an ‘organic SEO’ and ‘generic/keyword domaining’ point of view, but if an affordable domain is driving traffic, buy it. :)
Dave…found your blog via a google alert. I will be visiting often. Keep up your insightful investigation and comprehension.
Jay Lohmann
http://www.InvestInURLs.com
July 22nd, 2008 at 8:23 am
Another great post Dave. Well done !
I assume that the traffic to these parked domains is from type in traffic, rather than search results or back links ? You’ve shown a great way to use the AdWords reporting tool !
paul
July 22nd, 2008 at 2:31 pm
Excellent post and very interesting strategy to build long term ROI. With that analysis, I bet the decision to buy those domains was easy. Great work!
July 22nd, 2008 at 3:57 pm
Great post!
I don’t think that you should 301 redirect the domains though. Ideally I’d add parallel content linking through to the landing page in the money site. Or as last resort 302 redirect.
July 22nd, 2008 at 8:36 pm
Hi Dave,
Good post a creative way of looking at domain value and potential. Certainly something to look at for clients, but not so much for my personal projects.
Thanks for sharing this tip. Its a bit of a golden nugget :).
July 23rd, 2008 at 10:20 am
Excellent post Dave, best I’ve read in a long long time.
July 23rd, 2008 at 4:39 pm
Thanks for the tip, this is very valuable.
As of late I have also been seeing some of the content network referrer data showing up in GA as well, which could provide to be useful in the same manner. Specifically, I have been seeing the URL’s of the “referring” domains in the referrer report even though they should not be showing in that method.
July 24th, 2008 at 9:20 am
@ Paul: Yes, the traffic is indeed from type in which makes it a defensible purchase and an asset.
@ Martin: It was indeed.
@SEO I-COM: I already addressed this issue above.
@Gavin & Liam: Thanks for the kind words and thanks for stopping by.
August 1st, 2008 at 11:26 am
Excellent post Dave, realy ingenius method to look at a domain potential.
August 1st, 2008 at 11:49 am
Well, i believe you guys should be doing excellent work in optimizing sites for others. I too was thinking of having my blog optimized by a third party like you all. But prices are too high.
August 1st, 2008 at 9:02 pm
It’s posts like these that make me keep coming back to redflymarketing.com!
August 2nd, 2008 at 11:06 pm
This is pretty interesting Dave. Well I have bookmarked it and I will read it thoroughly for some time…
August 3rd, 2008 at 5:24 am
I’ve purchased over 1,000 domains and I just added your RSS feed. Great article - I’m impressed. I’m of course always looking for new ways to monitize parket domains… I’m going to send this article to the PPC manager at work. Regards,
August 4th, 2008 at 9:23 am
Really interesting article! Very good summary of what some domainers are doing.
Thanks
August 5th, 2008 at 8:13 pm
Interesting post. I would suspect that there arent many parked domains that are for sale for $500 that get good traffic / conversions. But hey, worth a little time researching.
August 6th, 2008 at 8:43 am
This is a great tip. Thanks for sharing it. I use the content network and look at the placement report all the time but never thought of this.
I’m off to trawl through all my placement reports again.
Thanks
August 6th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
Great tip, but 1 question. IF the domain is indexed and getting traffic from the search engines. How long before it is dropped from the SE due to the 301 redirect?
August 6th, 2008 at 4:13 pm
Never mind! Just read all of the comments :)
August 24th, 2008 at 10:17 am
This is a very good tip. I normally do not use the content network because of the low conversion ratio. Now, I am changing my thought process to use this tip to increase my overall profit.
August 25th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
Google just keeps coming up with new tools to help Internet marketers and other small business owners.
I just learned about Google Ad Planner which enables ad placement by demographics. I believe this is much better than placing ads just by keywords.
I just wrote a post on it and linked to that post above.
August 29th, 2008 at 1:02 am
This wouldn’t work anymore. Inbound links through 301s are no longer counted so the rank of this site would plummet. Anyone typing the address directly in their bar would still bet there but I don’t there are many people doing that.
September 5th, 2008 at 11:45 am
That’s one interesting method indeed. To my disappointment, it’s not something I can use right away with my modest personal websites, but definitely worth offering to our clients.
September 9th, 2008 at 2:44 pm
Great read, we checked in our report and have identified not only atleast 3 domains but 1 website
September 12th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
Excellent post! This method rocks. I do it a little different way. Thanks.
September 12th, 2008 at 8:35 pm
Hey Dave,
Just wanted to say that I just discovered your blog and have been finding the adwords posts really helpful for my foray into the adwords world.
The post from back in January on the updated status of the Adwords Content Network was particularly helpful because I had remembered reading that the content network performed quite poorly. I’m glad I stumbled across your post clearing all that up.
Just as a heads up, I’m a big twitter fan so I looked you up and sent a request to follow you. Just thought I’d give you a heads up so that you don’t think I’m just some random twitter spammer.
Not sure if you are using twitter just for private company stuff or not but I thought I’d give it a shot just in case since I’m very interested in following your insight on the online marketing industry.
I’ll be following the blog either way. Thanks again for the great posts so far.