Adwords - Opt-out of the content network!

Quick summary: Opt-out of the content network when managing your Adwords campaign.

Details: When managing an Adwords campaign, the "Content Network" is an optional delivery option for your ads. In my experience, generally speaking - the content network is not where you want to deploy your ads.

The problem is click-fraud. Click fraud take several forms, but the most common type is where site publishers (bloggers etc) click on the ads on their own site for the purpose of generating revenue from those clicks. It isn't terribly easy for Google (or Yahoo, etc) to control because the fraudulent clicks could come from computers not easily connected to the publisher's account. As an advertiser, click fraud can easily double your campaign costs. While there is merit to advertising on the Content Network, my advice is to avoid it.