Customer Reviews

Winning Results with Google AdWords

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Okay, why are people giving this book positive reviews when the most important thing in Adwords changed in early August and the book is now obsolete? Hello? The bid management tool CHANGED. No more 0.5% threshold. No more On-Hold system. That's gone. Didn't those "reviewers" notice this? If you want to work with Adwords and you're looking for a book on Adwords, you'll need to make sure the book covers the current state of Adwords.

For being "boring" I give this book one out of five, for "getting results" three out of five, and minus one overall for being "out-dated". Therefore, two stars.

*** Start with "Boring". ***

This books reads like a terrible University book, I hated some most it because:
- How lengthy and irrelevant the paragraphs are
- 300 pages!!! Come on, this book could have been 100 to 150 pages tops.
- Subjective POV
- Not proving and establishing creditability with actually case studies and stats. Instead stating `I had this client, and we did this...'
- Quoting Seth Godin about 17 times! (Maybe I should have bought Seth's book instead?!)

*** Being "Out-dated". ***

Unlike most University books this book needs a "New Edition" - already. Go figure, the book is only a year old; then again Google Adwords is only going to be three years old in February 2006. Sadly, there weren't even chapter summaries and a glossary of terms.

***"Getting results". ***

If you're an advanced Google advertiser you are wasting your time reading this book, if you're a Google advertiser beginner or a immediate (as was I) read this book it could save you $1000s - it would have for me. I'll save you the time and give you what I think are the best parts:

- Use the "keyword tool" from Overture (yahoo's adword program) to establish choice keywords
- CTR (click through ratio) is very important because the higher your CTR the less you pay for your ad position, and the lower your CTR the more you have to pay for ad positioning
- Your Ad Position = CTR x Max Bid. Therefore, if I bid $1 and you bid $1, but my CTR is 3.2% and yours is 3.1% my ad will appear above yours.
- Don't bid to be #1 because you'll waste your money. Instead bid to be positioned between position two to five (this tip alone could have saved me $1000s in the beginning)
- Favorite ad position is two and three because you're either right above the "real" searches or first one on the top right
- Conversion rates are king. Try changing your landing page, and optimizing your landing page with a clear "call to action" and navigation.
- Use the "keywords" in ad copy to increase CTRs
- Buy a book on "Copy Writing", you will not good "copy writing" insights in this book. My favorite is "How to Write Good Advertisement" don't get fooled by how old it is
- Use "negative keywords", which are words with a "-" in front of them. Example, if you have the word "-free", and someone searches for "free team building" your ads for the keyword "team building" won't show up; saving you a click and saving money irrelevant searches lowering your CTR. A win/win

Andrew Goodman is a fellow Canadian doing his best. I know his next book or "Updated Edition" will be as you say Seth Godin says "Remarkable". And next time Andrew, please shorten the book by 100 to 150 pages.

PS. Great book marketing of your book, that's why I bought it.

This is probably the best AdWords book that I've laid my hand on. It's is certainly much better than the similar book called "Google Advertising Guerrilla Tactics: Google Advertising A-z Plus 150 Killer Adwords Tips & Tricks". If you are deciding between these books, grab Winning Results With Google Adwords. Although that the 'Guerilla Tactics' book is newer, this book is much more useful.

All books about AdWords are somehow outdated, but it's not really important. All the fundamental things are included in this comprehensive book.

It has helped me to improve my AdWords campaign which is now more profitable, 'Guerilla Tactis' book failed to do that.

Maybe the reason people are still giving this book 5-star reviews is that it's crammed full of incredibly useful information. The 0.5% CTR limit is NOT the most important thing about Adwords, no matter what one of the other reviewers (Andreas Ramos) says. And although the limit is gone, keeping your CTR high is still critical to effective results.

It's the nature of computer books to become outdated more rapidly than most other non-fiction categories. Writing about Google is particularly tough, as they are such a rapidly moving target. However, I'd say that 95% of the advice in this book still holds. Two years after publication, that's pretty good.

Uniquely among the books in this area, Goodman writes in depth from many points of view: both the micro nuts-and-bolts stuff and the macro big-picture stuff. If you want to learn as much as you can about Adwords, get Goodman (and then Perry Marshall's book). I'm looking forward to the 2nd edition.

I had been running an adword campaign for 3 months with limited success. I immediately used every tactic I could from this book and increase the quantity of terms I used, the quality of terms I used, my ad text, my landing pages, my offer.... and my Results. I almost instantly increased my Profits 10x over what I was making before this book. At the same time I dropped my cost per click from .59 to .14.

I am not a web guru. I'm not a marketing guru. I'm not a sales guru. I just read the book and did what he said to do. The real key for me was in finding seldom considered keywords that cost tons less than the obvious keywords, and still bring in the traffic. I learned it from this book.

(This update is a year after reading the book: I'm now a Google Professional and help others transform their Google Adwords programs. This book plus lots of real-world experience made that happen.)

I guess, that for a newbie, the entire book would be interesting, but for me, i found the meaty parts to be in part III , from chapter 6 onwards.

Readers that are running current adwords campaign can benefit greatly from the chapter on "Writing Winning Ads' and on 'Increasing Conversion Rates'

These two chapters alone is worth the price of the book

I just got my copy, and finally, a real pro has done what was really needed. After years of books that were obsolete before they came out, poorly written, or just plain bad, now we have the first clear, complete useful Pay-per-Click handbook. Goodman is a good writer, and knows his stuff. As a business owner who uses Google Adwords, I have entrepreneurs asking me all the time what to do and how to do it. It's really not hard to get started, and I try to help them. And now, I finally have the perfect book to recommend. This book is all you need. EXCELLENT! It even includes a clear, fascinating "history" of the various search engines--how they've grown, changed, imploded, disappeared, reappeared, etc. and it tells us exactly where we are now as advertisers interested in building our web businesses. A great new tool.

Google is the most popular Internet search engine, so having your ad pop up on its search results can be a boon for your business. The challenge is to get your ad to appear on the first page of search results by using just the right keywords. Author Andrew E. Goodman shows readers the best ways to play the AdWords game. The primary warning is that Google AdWords rules change faster than a book can be published, and they have changed since this book was issued. However, the book still provides valuable concepts and ideas for online ad campaigns. Learn how to select the right keywords, write copy, test your ads, modify campaigns based on collected data, set a budget and reduce the chances of attracting the wrong prospects. We believe this book gives readers a better understanding of how to work with search engine ads.

This is a truly excellent book. While, no doubt, there will be parts of this book that become stale in this fast changing environment it's more important to focus on the general principles he explains here and the comprehensive overview he presents on Pay Per Click advertising. Through this book you will learn the vocabulary and concepts that are applicable irrespective of the particular technological changes. Well worth the price of admission. Marcos Dinnerstein at http://www.parlo.com

I've been using Adwords for a year, but after just an hour with this book, I had tripled my click volume. After reading the whole book twice, I have a 3-page to-do list of ideas that should make things even better. I could have done with a little less of the history of PPC advertising, and as always there are the things you wish the author had covered, but on balance the book covers the right ground with an appropriate level of detail. Well written, well organized, and highly recommended for anyone involved with Adwords.