As you set up your Pay-Per-Click campaign, you come to an inevitable decision: Search Network? Content Network? Or Both? In order to answer this question, you should evaluate your campaign and its goals. Are you trying to boost brand awareness or strictly increase ROI? Another question that you may want to ask is: How costly is my conversion? Are you looking for someone to sign-up for your newsletter, purchase your iTunes song, or purchase a home appliance? The answer to these questions may help you in deciding which network you want to run your PPC campaign on. The search network is the first option. Searchers who may come across your ad on the Search Network have obviously typed in a relevant query and are seeking out that information. The Content Network may display your ad if a browser is reading an article deemed to be relevant to your ad. Although they may not have searched your ad out, there is something to be said for having your ad in the right place at the right time. For example: Your “Solar Panels” ad may appear next to an article about Federal Tax Credits for green building, where your ad may be able to capitalize on the peaked interest of this reader.

While each campaign is different, the best way to choose which network to advertise on will be to complete some initial testing and analysis. Allot portions of your budget to each network and allow your campaign to run. This will give you an idea as to what type of traffic, Cost-Per-Click and Click-Through-Rates you can expect with each network, and then you can redistribute budget or turn one off.