That’s one recommendation I thought I would never make.

As anyone who has read my prior posts would tell you, I am a strong believer in conversion over clicks. That has long been the reason I have avoided advertising on Google’s content network. I had seen the numbers on content ads and the return on ad spend was terrible.

I have now changed my mind. That does not come easy for me to say, but again I have seen the numbers.

Currently my content network ads are performing just as well, if not better then my search ads. Of course, that did not arrive by accident. There were several steps I took to get to a good return on ad spend on Google’s content network.

Below are a few tips for better content network performance

1. Don’t get swooned by big brands - Google publicizes their content network by noting that ads will show on big sites such as About.com, NYTimes.com, FoodNetwork.com, and many other big branded sites. Although these sites are impressive in their own industry, the ultimate result may be high cost and low conversion. Often the better performing sites are the unknown, but very specific sites. Give the smaller guys a try.
2. Start with a low CPC – Cost will quickly rise with content ads. It’s important to dip your foot into the pool slowly and test the waters, before jumping in. After testing and tweaking, then increase the cost-per-click on well performing AdGroups.
3. Separate content from search – Although the content ads may perform well, the CPC and budgets will be different the search network. It is important to be able to adjust one without affecting performance of the other. Separating content from search is a necessity in measuring performance.
4. Exclude not converting sites – This one is crucial. Thankfully, Google now provides performance data on specific sites. That data allows you to see content sites that perform well and most importantly which ones are performing poorly. For example, for me content ads on MySpace bring in a lot of traffic, thus a lot of cost. However, the conversion is terrible if any at all. Therefore, I exclude my ads from MySpace. Obviously, that will vary per industry. This is why it’s extremely important to run AdWords’ Placement Reports.