When you choose both keywords and placements for an AdWords ad group, they team up to to determine where on the Content Network your ads will run and how much you'll pay for them. (The combination won't affect search results, which are based only on keywords.)
How do they work together? Here are two key points to remember.
Step 1: Keywords always do their work first. When an ad group has keywords, the AdWords system always starts by looking through every possible page in the Google Content Network to find content that matches those keywords. This happens automatically. AdWords takes contextual matching down to the page level. If a placement has many different pages, only those pages that match your keywords can show your ads.
Step 2: Depends on you. What happens next depends on a choice you make in your network distribution campaign settings.
- If you select Relevant pages across the entire network:
Keywords alone will determine where your ads are eligible to
show. You can add managed placements to an ad group, but their only purpose will be
to raise or lower your bid when keyword matching puts your ad on one of
those placements. This helps you win more or fewer ad auctions (and therefore clicks and impressions) on those sites. So, if you find a site that performs well, you can increase your bid for that site. On the other hand, if you have a site that is performing poorly, but you don't want to completely exclude it, you can adjust your bid to reach your goals.
- If you select Relevant pages only on the placements I manage:
When you target both keywords and placements, you add a new
layer of matching. You can restrict your ads to the specific sites
where you want them to appear -- and you can be sure your ads will show
only when the content of a page is relevant to your ad. Your ads can appear only on your chosen placements, and only when pages on those
placements also match your keywords. You'll be choosing the set of
placements where your ad can show, but contextual targeting will determine the pages where your ad will show within that
set of placements. (You don't have to add keywords. In which case, your ad can show anywhere on the placements you choose, even if your ad doesn't precisely match the content on those placements.)
Let's look at that second situation more closely. Suppose your campaign is set for "Relevant pages only on the placements I manage," and you create an ad group with managed placements A, B, and C, and the keyword 'red roses'. In that case, your ad will appear on placements A, B, and C only if their content is related to 'red roses'.
If matches for 'red roses' appear only on A and B, then your ads can appear only on A and B. Your ad won't appear on placement C, even though you've selected it. Because placement C doesn't have any content about red roses, its not a contextual match for your keyword. Using keywords to refine the targeting for your ads on placements is a good option when you're targeting sites that have a wide variety of content (such as news sites and social networks). That way, your ads will be more likely to appear in relevant locations on those sites. Adding keywords will also limit the potential number of clicks and impressions, so you should monitor your ad's performance to make sure you're seeing the results you want.
Suppose placement A is a website about flowers, with 100 different pages: five about red roses, and 95 about other flower varieties. Because contextual targeting happens down to the page level, AdWords may identify only those five pages about red roses as a good match for your keyword. Your ad won't appear on the other 95 pages of A, even though you've targeted the entire website, if those pages aren't a good match for your keywords.
Of course you can also create an ad group or campaign with only keywords or only placements. If you want contextual targeting to be the only deciding factor, then a keyword-only ad group will work great.
If you want your ads to show anywhere on a given placement,
with no regard to contextual matching, then create an ad group with
placements only, and set your campaign settings to "Relevant pages only
on the placements I manage." That way your placement choices (and the AdWords auction) will be
the only factor involved in where your ad can appear.
