Looking For Love…In The Google Content Network
Published: December 13, 2011
Author: Todd Mintz
We waste time looking for the perfect lover, instead of creating the perfect love. – Tom Robbins
A couple weeks ago, Will Lin, one of the PPC Associates partners, did an internal presentation about the Google Content Network that I found incredibly insightful and informative. I could summarize his talk in this blog post, but that would be my take on his ideas, stealing a bit of his thunder for myself, which wouldn’t be just or fair. Instead, I’m going to take the core of his argument and spin it an entirely different way…
It’s almost impossible to find love in Google Search Network…but there’s plenty of love in the Google Content Network.
After all, plenty of us are looking for love…both in real life and in Google.
However, there is very little love to be found in Google Search because most people looking for love are looking for that special intangible feeling/state of mind that can’t be associated with tangible goods, services, or knowledge…the items that Google Search excels at delivering. Google Search mostly associates a search for “Love” as someone who as actually looking for a relationship/date, poetry, or information. In fact, the only true “Love” that can be found in Google Search is “Love…The Band.”
On the other hand, looking for love in the Google Content Network would likely be a far more successful undertaking because the content network presents ads based upon the conceptual context of the site upon which the ad is presented. The algorithm knows that if you’re on a dating site, you’re likely looking for a date, and you are very likely to be open to the possibility of love – so that if that pathway to love actually presents itself to you, you are far more likely to take it. Similarly if you are looking at certain types of gifts, clothes, or events, you might similarly be much more likely to be open to love’s possibilities.
I’ve worked with multiple clients that are similarly disadvantaged in the Google Search Network. They have awesome product offerings…however, their goods don’t translate well into the common phraseology mandated for success in Google Search. Very much like love, these clients are selling a concept that people desire but don’t know they desire until exposed to it. The Google Content Network does a wonderful job of establishing a relevant nexus between indefinable commercial offerings and the placements that are most advantageous to those businesses.
Most anyone’s love story consists of a fortuitous confluence of location, opportunity, and circumstance that led two people to meet and get together. Contextual advertising takes these same factors at a far baser level, bringing together customers and merchants in order to generate a successful sale. It’s entirely possible to be a total failure in the conventional search marketplace and yet contextually find love in the content network.
– Todd Mintz, Senior SEM Manager
– Questions? Comments? Email us at blog at ppcassociates dot com.
