Google AdWords made a big step in adding Placement Targeting, the ability to target and price content ads for a single publisher site. However, Placement Targeting is often a difficult media buy to manage. All of the challenges faced with the Content Network are magnified in Placement Targeting. These include shifting competition and limited impression inventory defined by a relatively limited number of positions available. Because Placement Targeting focuses on a single site, you have the added risk of a publisher making site changes that radically change user interaction with the ads. In the Content Network, this effect is largely absorbed by the multitude of publisher sites, but in Placement Targeting it can mean instant and dramatic shifts in the opportunity available for profitable customer generation from any given publisher.

Despite these challenges, we have seen a growing opportunity with Placement Targeting because of the relatively well-defined and stable nature of the audience that is self-selecting to visit the publisher site. Performance-based ad management is all about predictability, and having a stable and consistent audience mix means that there is less external variability for which we have to account. This is something that is not true in the Content Network, where the mix of publishers, and therefore audiences, shifts constantly.

What this has meant is increased positive performance for our clients as we have developed new ways to rapidly respond to changes by publishers, while understanding the opportunity offered by the audience for each Placement Targeting site. This has made it a growth area for us, and we believe we will see quality sites opting for Placement Targeting as they will reap the benefit of gaining advertising dollars that match the value of their core audience.

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