It began as most friendships do: all seafood, clogs, and ice parties. A few days later, naturally, we were drinking bubble tea under ice cube lights. Before long we were talking of cowboy boots and learning how to make gelato. Naturally, as friendships go, we spent endless hours talking of mini & toy labradoodles, liposuction photos, and guitar lesson scams.
It was like we had known each other all our lives, and could talk about anything, from lighthouses to ski resorts to Superman Tees (2 for $30).
Was it a bad sign when the subject of annoying ringtones came up? Wedding planning? Thinning brows? Ted Koppel? I’ll be awaiting my gmail inbox destiny.
It’s a fun exercise to notice what Google AdSense advertisers make of your conversations by way of their keyword-targeted advertising in gmail. From what I’ve seen, advertisers have a great deal to learn about more focused targeting when advertising via AdWords. The only ads that have applied throughout the course of my many email exchanges with this friend are ski resort ads and the tactful dearth of ads when our conversations turned to subjects dealing with, ahem, “making out” and “stalking.” For these conversations, the right-hand column of gmail was conspicuously, and thankfully, blank.
What I’m getting at is proof that while pay-per-click advertising is accessible, it can be deceptively straightforward. Companies would do well not to take matters into their own hands and waste their money with keywords or ad groups that display their ads to an audience that has no interest in their product. There is a huge difference in ad campaigns targeting searchers and targeting content areas, such as gmail or other websites containing content related to the terms in your ad. It’s not a one-ad-fits-all model. But the majority of companies still haven’t learned this. Professionals who have experience researching keywords and market trends, developing highly targeted keyword lists, and discerning between various display methods (content, search, email) and knowing how to go after each audience, are going to save companies time and money in the long run.
