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Google last week quietly began allowing advertisers to "set one price when their ads run on search sites and a separate price when their ads run on content sites," according to the AdWords FAQ section, reports ClickZ. Google apparently confirmed that it was testing such an offering, but would not elaborate.
The move comes nearly two years after Overture/Yahoo allowed separate bidding while Google instead attempted, via its SmartPricing, to charge advertisers less for lower-performing ads.
"If you find that you receive better business leads or a higher ROI from ads on content sites than on search sites (or vice versa), you can now bid more for one kind of site and less for the other," according to the FAQ. "Content bids let you set the prices that are best for your own business."
To use the new feature, AdWords users must edit the settings for each campaign, selecting a separate "content bids" box; otherwise, Google will use their regular bids, adjusted by SmartPricing, for contextual listings.
