My CTR is absolutely horrible for my affiliate and since it can't be in the search section, is there a way I can improve the ctr.....right now its a dismal 0.01 with about 10 clicks per 100,000 impressions......its geo targeted correctly but does keyword adgroups really apply that much on the content network? sorry if this is confusing
Keyword adgroups work differently on the content network. For content, the keywords in your group are used to ascertain the theme of your ad, more than the individual keywords working in the way they do for a search campaign. Also, don't forget to run reports to show where your content ads are being shown, to decide whether they are being shown on sites that have a hope of converting. And it sounds as if you've got search and content in the same campaign - don't do that. Separate them out - have one campaign where content is turned off, have one where search is turned off, and write different ads - in the search ads you're 'competing' with organic search results, in a content ads you're trying to attarct the attention of people who don't even know they're looking for what you're offering.
After running your campaign for 24 hours, go through and delete adgroups with a ctr under .05% or so. If that is the case with all of them, then you need tighter themed adgroups, try a max of 20 keywords per adgroup, all kw in one group being similar in theme. If using text ads, make sure you're bidding high enough for positions 1-3.