Google finally making sense out of targeting sites!

I don’t make a habit of creating very short blog posts that just announce something or refer to something interesting.  But in this case I couldn’t help myself.

Google AdWords is finally allowing advertisers to target individual sites and pay for the traffic by the click, and not just on a CPM basis (cost per thousand impressions)!

Now you can choose to pay by CPM or CPC.

Google changed the name of this targeting service too – from “Site Targeting” to “Placement Targeting” (perhaps a nod to the fact that Google’s Universal Search model is moving way beyond simple Web pages?).

So, while in the past we could select specific sites for our clients to advertise on, it often did not make sense given the economics.  Especially when we are working with B2B clients who are focusing on lead generation, and not as much on brand building (at least in this medium). 

This new option is also great for B2C marketers as well – especially transaction-based e-commerce companies.

The CPM model also often does not work because not all publishers of Google ads (participants in AdSense) are created equal.  Not only does the quality of sites vary in terms of their content and user base, sites also have many different page layouts.  In a CPM model, who wants a page layout where many of the Google ads are at the bottom of the page where most users do not even venture?  You’re just paying for wasted impressions.

This move by Google is perfect for our clients.  We will likely be experiementing much more with Placement Campaigns now that we can be sure we are paying for visitors, not eyeballs.  (so, I guess this is good for Google too?  another time I would say Buy GOOG now!)