Google AdWords Report More Information Overall Rating: Not Rated Pay Per Click Universe Recommends: AdWatcher - 100% Click Fraud Protection. Concerned about click fraud? Protect your online advertising dollars with the world's most trusted & accurate click fraud solution on the market today. AdWatcher will put a stop to competitors and fraudsters who are looking to drain your hard earned advertising budget. Test-Drive AdWatcher For FREE For 30 Days! This tool, officially entitled “21 Pay-Per-Click Campaign Secrets Your Competition Doesn’t Know” was first written by Andrew Goodman in March 2002, soon after the pay-per-click program AdWords was released by Google. The publication has gone through a number of versions and updates, with the latest rewrite dated September 2004. Given the longevity of Goodman’s study of AdWords and Google itself, one would expect this publication to be thorough and up-to-date. The tips themselves have changed over time, to reflect the changes in Google’s program from its small beginnings to the complex product it now is. This latest version, for example, introduces information on ROI, currently a hot topic in the marketplace of pay per click. Goodman’s background in working with search engines, search engine optimization, and now pay per click (mostly working with Page Zero) all have come together in this publication to provide some advice, specific formulas to follow, and tips to improve your click-through rates and reduce your cost-per-click bids. Currently, Goodman is offering two extras for no additional cost if you order by October 8, 2004. The first is subscriber-only updates (free until January 2006), which appear to be mostly excerpts from Goodman’s “Page Zero Advisor” newsletter, published every other month. The second is a 12-page PDF entitled “Top 7 PPC Pain Points”, which talks about more recent changes in Google’s AdWords and how to deal with them. This booklet was written in July 2004 and seems to be a good addition to his base product. It is rare to find anyone who says anything but good things about Andrew Goodman’s “21 Pay-Per-Click Campaign Secrets Your Competition Doesn’t Know.” Goodman himself offers a plethora of testimonials about his product and you can find plenty of good things said about the publication all over relevant forums on the Internet. Looking carefully at those who make testimonials and post positive reviews of the book, however, they are mostly small-to-medium sized businesses, many of whom admit not having a lot of experience with pay per click before reading Goodman’s book. This makes Goodman’s work a good match with PPC Universe’s primary audience – smaller businesses and those just entering the pay-per-click market. For those companies who run large campaigns and already spend a great deal of time and money on finessing their projects, they probably already know most of the “secrets” that Goodman has to offer in his publication, and it may prove less useful to them. Goodman has used a masterful advertising campaign to market his publication and the strong use of affiliates to sell his book has served to “spread the word” about his publication far and wide. He has also chosen an excellent price point of only $69, which makes the book appealing, as it is not too cheap (therefore giving the impression that it must have valuable advice). In addition, it is not too expensive (therefore giving the impression the author is not just interested in making a lot of money, but wants to give quality at a reasonable cost). Whatever his motivation, the book is a standard in the industry and with continuing updates, should continue to be so. The major challenge that Goodman faces is keeping up with the extremely quickly changing pace of the pay-per-click industry itself – it was far easier to provide winning tips when the players in the market were few in number and the programs available were simpler. Now, with Google and Overture fighting head-to-head to keep their top positions and to provide their users with advice similar to that which Goodman provides, and other pay-per-click search engines quickly moving to try to duplicate their success, Goodman’s book may lose some of its usefulness for businesses with even a small amount of experience in the market already. Overall, at such a low price point, this book would be a good investment for anyone just entering the pay-per-click market and those who have tried a couple of times to produce a winning ad campaign and failed. Goodman also claims to provide methods of “beating the AdWords system”, so even more experienced users may want to take advantage of this low-cost item to see if there are any tips in it that they have overlooked as well. Moreover, who can resist a book that claims its latest version has “28% more lame jokes than last year’s edition”? |
