If you've been thinking about giving the Google Content Network another try, you aren't alone. John Ellis is testing things as well and offers up some helpful tips on maximizing your ad spend on the content network.

John writes:

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.

John goes on to outline four steps he feels have helped to maximize the ROI on his content network campaigns. The most useful is probably number four, the advice to exclude no converting sites.

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.

If you are currently only running Google ads via the search network and are looking to gain more traffic, John's advice can help you navigate the waters of testing the Google Content Network. If you're already advertising on the content network (and it's best to check, lots of people are without even realizing it) then John's advice is critical for making sure you aren't spending more than you're earning.