The AdWords Search Partner Network has been somewhat of a mystery to the owners of most AdWords accounts I’ve audited this year.
It’s been conventional wisdom that it’s worth separating Search Partners from Google (and separating both from Content/Adsense) … but as a matter of practice we find probably less than 5% of accounts are ever structured this way. (It’s a shame because you can usually find 10% to 20% savings)
Recently, Google’s evolution of the Search Partner network to include shopping feeds, and newer large properties has changed the game. Furthermore, it appears their fuzzy logic algorithms are sometimes causing some “bleed” between networks when one uses the standard separation method (setting one campaign to “Google” only, and another duplicate as “Google + Search”, … but bidding one penny lower on Search).
One very astute listener to our recent free MP3 “Maximum AdWords Results in Minimum Time” suggested to me that the concept of separating the two networks AT ALL was “out of date” due to the “bleed” between campaigns. This concerned me, because it contrasted with the continued advice I’d been giving to make the separation.
So I put the RocketClicks.com team to the task of digging deep into dozens of reports to find out the answer.
If you want to know, you’ll just have to listen, and you might find a half dozen or so other “Mysteries of the Search Partner Network Revealed”. (Rob, the low-key but brilliant gentleman interviewed, heads up our entire PPC management department)
Enjoy!
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
This is weird timing in that I just asked Jerrold earlier today about this as I’m seeing quite a bid of bleed with Google impressions in my Search Partner campaigns, even though the SP bids are .05 less per click. (Way more than 30% in multiple campaigns.)
I’m beginning to wonder if it makes sense to ignore separation until a keyword has established itself of being “worthy” to spend extra time on. (ie, 80/20)
Bring on the Pivot Table tutorial.
Hi Glenn,
many thanks for all this great content you\’re releasing, it\’s very informative. Keep it up!
On Partner networks: I\’ve noticed over a long time now that the conversion rate and overall quality of Partner traffic is frequently very poor.
Sometimes impressions for a given keyword will be tens or even hundreds of times higher on this network, and it\’s impossible to know why. Needless to say this kills your ctr.
That being said, cpc is usually lower, and conversion costs can be acceptable – only there\’s a lot less of them.
I asked Google for a list of all the Partner sites, and they cannot produce a definitive one, although they point out some of the more well-known. I suspect this is because they don\’t even really know, since new ones probably appear all the time.
I\’ll only use a separate partner campaign these days with an ecommerce offer, where we can track conversions and costs with certainty.
Also, I prefer that to be in combination with Conversion Optimizer, having tested first with Google only, then scaling up a successful offer with acceptable CPA to other traffic sources.
Let us know how you\’ve found CO to perform …
Because of the lack of transparency in the search partners, we’ve stopped bothering to build out seperate PPC campaigns, and rather just turning it on or off.
The insight about different ads on different sites is a great imperative for creating 2 campaigns, one with search partners, and one without.
We’ve been seeing that although CTR’s are lower in the US, the CPA’s / CPC’s are still better. However, internationally there seem to be alot lower quality partners.