Mastering Search Advertising: How the Top 3% of Search Advertisers Dominate Google AdWords [Paperback]

Rich Stokes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 2, 2008

Mastering Search Advertising shares insight and professional guidance from an expert Internet marketer on how to launch, manage and improve already-existing pay-per-click campaigns, providing an inside look into a largely undiscovered and exciting industry.Richard Stokes, founder of AdGooroo, a leading search engine intelligence company, has over 15 years of experience in advertising and technology management and includes real-life examples, case studies and charts that reveal not only the basics of creating a pay-per-click campaign, but also break down the intricacies of the process into simple, easy-to-understand steps that will help any business leader focused on achieving a world-class marketing strategy. Successful tactics known only to a handful of elite search marketers are discussed in detail and include specific techniques on how to:Increase search traffic while simultaneously lowering costsConduct keyword researchDetermine the best starting bid prices for new keywordsManage bids without expensive bid management softwareLaunch a new campaignUnderstand the Google quality score algorithmStop throwing your marketing dollars away and learn how to dominate Google AdWords today!"A well researched, truthful, and up-to-date guide for pay-per-click marketers."Mike Mindel, CTO, Wordtracker.com

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Richard Stokes is the founder of AdGooroo, a leading search engine intelligence company, and a successful Internet marketer with 15 years experience in advertising and technology management. Richard earned his MBA in Marketing from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management and is a regular speaker on search engine advertising.

Product Details

• Paperback: 110 pages
• Publisher: iUniverse (November 2, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0595493459
• ISBN-13: 978-0595493456
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #876,162 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The top 3% really do dominate Google AdWords..., October 20, 2008

By 

Perry Marshall (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Mastering Search Advertising: How the Top 3% of Search Advertisers Dominate Google AdWords (Paperback)

...and only the owner of a company like AdGooRoo could write this, explaining why and how. It's one thing to look at search results and study your Google account; it's another to gather data from thousands of companies and show exactly what works and does not. That's what Richard has done with this book.

As author of The Ultimate Guide to Google AdWords & having taught hundreds of thousands of people how to advertise on Google, I was elated to see Richard put hard numbers on many things I've believed but was unable to prove.

Richard shows:

--Specific types of keywords and searches and how they relate to buying behavior

--Hard factors that influence Quality Score and Click Thru Rate

--Information that is very hard to get from Google, like % ad exposure and relationships between bid price, ad position, Click Thru Rate and Conversion Rate

Richard explains the inner workings of Google's formula, revealing why ultra-relevant advertisers get a wonderful advantage of being served *all* the available clicks and not just a portion. If you're up against competition who is in that enviable position, you need all the intel you can get.

This book is not for beginners. I really don't see that as a problem, though, there are plenty of books that do that (such as my own). There's a whole class of Google advertisers who know all the basic stuff but are still perplexed by Adwords. They're in hyper-competitive markets duking it out with hundreds of bidders and they need advanced info. This book is perfect for them.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Some nice points, light on content, leaves many questions unanswered, July 11, 2009

By 

Jason H (Arlington, VA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mastering Search Advertising: How the Top 3% of Search Advertisers Dominate Google AdWords (Paperback)

The book quickly offers some great strategies and makes some very practical points, but there is not a lot of content and a few examples. Large fonts and big diagrams left me thinking wondering why this wasn't condensed into a pocket size 20 page book. It was a little annoying that throughout the book the author repeatedly pitches his AdWords management product. The strategies described are good and make great sense, but also often assume you're working with an unlimited budget. That said, the book did pay for itself with some helpful suggestions, but I think I'll probably pick up another text for more information.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Easy to read with great online advertising insight, August 4, 2008

By 

TCummings - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mastering Search Advertising: How the Top 3% of Search Advertisers Dominate Google AdWords (Paperback)

I've been working professionally with pay-per-click advertising for several years and I'm in as good of a position as any to review books on this subject.

This book is a little different than the 300 page tomes one usually finds written about AdWords. At just over 100 pages, this is a quick and easy read. It's evident that the author is an expert and is speaking from experience. It dives quickly into intermediate and expert-level optimizations that can have a huge impact on paid campaign results.

In fact, this is what I liked most about the book - it doesn't waste time repeating the same kinds of things you can find in other AdWords books. For instance, there's a great chapter which explains why high bids don't necessarily translate to high traffic and how you can use this relationship to drive more first-page traffic while lowering your average bid prices. It seems like nearly every chapter presented some new insight, some of which go right in the face of common AdWords thinking

The main shortcoming of the book is that it's not suitable to first time PPC marketers. If you haven't run a campaign before, you'll need some other resources in addition to this book.

In short, this book belongs on every professional search marketers shelf. 5 stars.