I’m using Google Adwords to help drive traffic to a client’s site. The client is selling a high-end ($120) book of photographs. Google has been happily sending as many people to our site as we can afford, which is great.
The ads are showing both as search results on Google (i.e., someone types in “photography book” and our ad appears among the results) and alongside news stories, blog posts, etc., in the Content Network.
The question: Which of these two audiences, in theory, contains better prospects? Do you have a better shot at closing a sale with someone who has actively sought out information on your product category (and then clicked on an ad) or with someone who just stumbled across your ad on a random (but probably contextually relevant) web page (and then clicked on the ad)?
Both groups have shown some interest/initiative, in at least clicking on the ad. But is there anything more to be learned here? Would we be better off spending all of our ad dollars on search results, rather than on the Content Network ads, or vice versa, or does it make no appreciable difference?