When running a very large campaign involving thousands of keywords and hundreds of thousands of dollars a month, does it make a difference to run on google search only instead of google and search network? Anyone with experience in this?
Obviously with ads on the likes of Amazon, google maps, google product search et cetera you're looking at higher cost and higher return. For me, the biggest factor is QS. As you'll know, low CTR negatively impacts QS and I usually experience a drop in CTR with search network turned on for the clients that want it. From all my tinkering, I can only assume the two biggest culprits are the aforementioned product search and maps...Impressions there rarely seem to result in click throughs in my campaigns. Depending on how much extra you're willing to invest, I'd suggest a foray into the content network (if you haven't already). Out of interest, may I ask roughly which sector you're advertising in?
As always, it depends. But the vast majority of campaigns I manage, the CTR on the search partners is lower, usually much lower. The good news is, the search partners do not figure into the QS calculation, only Google's own search network. The conversion rate can be lower too but that varies a lot. So too can the share of impressions (a keyword can be searched more on the partners than Google itself). Test it out, compile the data and decide if the partners are good for you or not.
I was told the same, but as conspiratorial as it sounds I have my doubts. I have noticed a definite correlation between including search network vs. falling quality score; in 3 mutually exclusive client campaigns. In each one, there's no other changes to anything in the campaign, the websites or the structure - other than opting into search network. I hate to go off topic but...any suggestions?
I would think that if you are running a large campaign with thousands of keywords having your ads appear on Google maps and the like with zero clicks would affect your CTR resulting in lower QS. Does this make sense? In addition, it would seem that it would mess up your performance reports because you arent getting an accurate sense of how many people are actually searching for your keyword in Google search versus people searching for a store in google maps. Wouldnt your total number of impressions in your campaign include both maps and search. I could see this as being a problem when you want to do proper analysis.