Google upgrades AdWords to offer "placement" targeting

In the past with Google's site targeting option, online marketers could target the general content on a website - sports, lifestyle or editorial content. Now, within a sports website, advertisers can target specific content. Rather than all sports, marketers can choose to advertise only on basketball content, only on football pages or within the show time listings of a movie theater website.

This is a huge plus for advertisers who want very specific content with their ads. For example, a sports fitness company may want to target football fans or athletes for their football-related workout. Instead of randomly advertising within a general sports website, marketers can target the ad specifically to the webpages related to football.

A recent report from Online Testing eXchange ads shown in context perform better than ads shown out of context.

Along with the placement upgrade, Google is offering cost-per-click bidding for AdWords advertisers.

"Advertisers can now choose the bidding option that best matches their needs. If the purpose of your placement-targeted campaign is to increase sales, leads, sign-ups, or other conversion-oriented metrics, you can select CPC bidding and pay when users click on your ads," was written on the AdWords blog.

Tags: CPC advertising, in-context advertising