Over the coming months, Google will be rolling out a new way to target your ads on the content network called Interest-Based Advertising.  It’s basically behavioral targeting with a slight twist that I’ll talk about later in the post.

Up until now, advertisers could use the Google AdWords content network to target their audience in a few different ways.

Keyword Targeted

Advertisers can pick groups of keywords that are relevant to those Internet users who are likely going to be interested in the advertisers’ offer.  If there is content on Google’s content network that matches the keyword group, then the ad will potentially be displayed on that page.

Placement Targeted

If an advertiser knows their target audience frequents certain sites, then they can target those sites or specific sections of the site.  Advertisers’ ads will then potentially be displayed across those sites or on the particular sections of the sites that the advertiser has deemed to be the most relevant.

Placment and Keyword Targeted

Advertisers can also target specific placements with a group of keywords.  In this case, the ad will potentially be shown if there is content on the targeted placements that match the keyword group.

Google has now taken it a step further with the announcement of Interest-Based Advertising.  As an advertiser, you can now use behavioral data to target ads.  What this means is that Google will collect data on the types of sites users visit that are utilizing AdSense.  And, based on those sites, Google can determine categories of interest for each user.

Interest-Based Advertising will also allow advertisers to tailor ads based on how the user has previously interacted with their company.  For example, if a user has been to your site you could then display an ad to them on other sites they are browsing that offers them a discount on their next purchase.

For users, Interest-Based Advertising also gives them a certain amount of control.  Using Google’s Ad Preferences Manager, users can opt out completely which means Google will disable the cookie that is used to display the behavioral-targeted ads to the user. 

The twist that I mentioned at the beginning of the post is that Google is giving users the ability to change the interest categories that have been associated with their browsing history.  They can eliminate categories that have been assigned to them based on their browsing history. They can add categories that they are interested in but that have not been associated with them based on the sites they’ve visited.

If you’re interested in being part of the beta test for Interest-Based Advertising then fill out the request form.  In my opinion, it’s definitely something that’s worth testing to see if behavioral targeting will be a cost effective way to utilize the Google content network. 

As we all know, Google dominates search and continues to increase its share of searches.  The latest Nielson Online data has Google garnering 60.2% of searches and 16% year over year growth.  That translates into a significant amount of additional revenue for Google’s already deep pockets. 

In order to continue to increase their revenue from search, they will either have to increase their revenue per search or continue to steal market share away from their competitors…or both.  Are they really going to continue to increase their search share and eventually end up with a 70%…80%…or even a higher share?  Maybe, but Google is not dumb and knows that they’ll need additional sources of revenue in the future.

That is why they are constantly putting out their feelers to determine new sources of revenue, which critics often refer to as a waste of money.  I’d generally disagree with that assessment, especially since they are in a position now to have the luxury to experiment. 

One area that Google seems to be experimenting in is the Google content network in AdWords.  They are constantly releasing new features that make it more transparent and give advertisers greater control over where their ads are shown and who sees them.

A couple weeks ago, they announced the set of enhancements to the Google content network.  These latest enhancements, that will be rolled out in the coming months, are a result of the DoubleClick purchase.  The four improvements are:

Frequency Capping – Limit the number of times a user sees your ad on the content network.

Frequency Reporting – Find out how many people see your ads on the content network and on average how many times they are seeing them.

Improved Ads Quality – I’m not exactly sure what this feature is, but it sounds like Google is saying they will be able to use the additional data to improve the quality of the ads that are shown on the content network.

View-Through Conversions – Find out how many visitors came to their site after viewing one of their ads on the content network.

These enhancements will give advertisers more control over who sees their ads and give them additional metrics they can use to optimize the content network.  They will first have to hope that advertisers - who had given up on the content network because of how poor much of the traffic can often be - are willing to use the new features and begin to allocate some of their budget to the content network.

If they do utilize the content network and Google is able to drive high quality traffic from the content network, then Google could begin to significantly increase their revenue from the content network.  It will be a slow process and only time will tell if these and other enhancements really do improve revenue for Google and its advertisers.