I’ve been managing PPC campaigns for what seems like a really long time. I work in Google AdWords every day. But you know what? I still learn something new every day. Sometimes this fact is scary. So, there is this nifty little thing called Google AdSense for Parked Domains. It’s a way for domain owners to park their unused domains, aim them at Google’s servers and whalah – earn some cash with AdSense ads. I knew this existed – I’ve even helped clients set up AdSense accounts with the Parked Domains feature. But that’s just it – when I hear AdSense, I think Content Network. Though let it be known that if you are opted into Google’s Search Partners, your ads can and will show up on Parked Domains (and Error Pages, too)!
In a great post at the Apogee Weblog, Richard discusses how this advertising medium blurs the lines between Search advertising and Contextual advertising. I couldn’t agree more. He points out that in one location, Google comes clean on this stating that parked domains “may include certain highlighted words that act as search queries” – this is how these pages show up as part of the Search Partners network.
The upside to all of this is that you have the controls to report on and block Parked Domains and Error Pages if necessary. Go to the Reports tab and choose to run a Placement Performance report. Don’t be fooled by the description: “View performance data for content network sites where your ad has been shown.” This report will also show you which campaigns and ad groups have been serving ads on Parked Domains and Error Pages via Search Partners. Under Advanced Settings – make sure you choose “Ad Distribution” and “Ad Distribution: with search partners”.
This report will give you detailed data on how you’re performing not only with Search Partners at large, but specifically for Parked Domains and Error Pages. Review your performance and determine if your money is being well spent. If you are seeing conversions come through Parked Domains and they fall within your CPA goals – assuming the leads are quality, you’re going to be just fine. But if you find that you’re just throwing money away on unqualified traffic, it’s time to take action and exclude your ads from these pages.
You can exclude Parked Domains and Error Pages at the campaign level. In the new AdWords Beta Interface, you can edit these settings from every ad group (for the campaign as a whole). In the regular interface, find the line that says “Site and Category Exclusions: Edit” within your campaign.
So, let this be a lesson to all AdWords advertisers that you cannot afford to assume that “Search Partners” automatically means visitors from search engines. Google has bent the rules a bit to include Parked Domains and Error Pages, too. Review your reports, determine if these pages are performing for your campaign and take action!
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Hey John,
This is very valuable. I really learned something here. Who would have thought that Google would include parked&error pages in the Search Partner network or in other words OUTSIDE of the content network. Wow! And you are right, while I was running placement Perf. Reports for my Content Campaigns, it never occurred to me doing so for the ‘Search’ campaigns until I read your article. And yes, several parked domains showed up… I tested it for ‘last month’. It seems to be no big deal since it only generated 32 clicks (and 1 conversion) for the account concerned out of a total of 22,355 ‘Search’ clicks for the account as a whole, excluding content. Yet it is another way to further refine the campaigns. In my experience, parked domains sometimes do very well, especially if they are variations of the account’s root URL (basically typosquatters) since people visiting those domains are typically ‘direct’ customers who happened to have misspelled your domain name. It is the equivalent almost of bidding on your own brand/domain name on Google Search. Anyway, wonderful information, truly advanced and one of the few instances where I have discovered a blog with true PPC information nuggets.
This is very smart move by Google. After banning Parked Domain Arbitraging and banning parked domain to get listed on SERP, Google has to make a way for a huge domain parking lobby and the revenue Google getting from their. I always thought that Google will definitely compensate their banning against parked domains and there will be a back door entry after all there is soooo much of revenue in domain parking that even a big bully can’t ignore the fact
I’m sure these clicks work for only a few advertisers. But if the keywords generating the ads are from the URL itself it can’t be that bad. The comment on typo bids was a helpful insight.
Thanks, John. It’s important for advertisers to understand that AdSense for Domains spans *both* the AdWords search and content networks.
Sometimes those parked domains convert really well. Make sure you track conversions from them before you just shut them off lol.
My next question qould be to find out if this is confined to broad matching terms only. I can’t imagine how they could justify this with phrase or exact match.
Hi John, You say you work with adwords every day so I have been looking for someone who can answer a question.
I’ve worked with adwords for years but can’t figure out why, every time I run adwords to a parked page like UsedCarsOnline.org or yBuyGold.com it runs for anywhere from a few minutes to a few days with a good quality score and then all the sudden at some point the score falls down so far the ad quits running and adwords wants a much higher minimum bid to continue. I run very specific, targeted ads and keywords
I know these two examples have not much if any content but even if I add a lot of good original keyword rich content to the landing page adwords still gives me a poor score after a few days.
So my question to you is: What can I do to maintain a good quality score with adwords campaigns for long periods of time with these parked landers instead of just 3 days or so?
Thanks,
Dave
@ Dave C
Dave I would like you to know that google does not entertain parked domain arbitraging hence whenever you will try and promote your parked domains with google, the moment it crawls the content it will come to know that its a parked page and your quality score will be dropped immediately irrespective of how targeted and rich keywords you have selected.
This is what my knowledge is about parked domain promotion. Anyone if finds this reply half true or wrong, please feel free to reply to this.
Regards,
Hiren D.
Interesting post, keep the good stuff coming, good content appreciated!