Google AdWords For Dummies 3rd Edition – Review.
I do not agree with everything in this book.
They dismiss ‘Conversion Optimizer’ in one paragraph (saying you won’t learn anything by using it).
They dismiss modified broad match as being “complicated and typically unnecessary”!
Some of the conclusions are backed up with very flimsy evidence.
Having said that, the book costs less than £15, and is a fascinating read, even if you don’t agree with everything in it – it will at least get your grey matter going and get you thinking about how to improve existing campaigns or set up better new ones.
If you are thinking of spending money on AdWords, you *will* get more than £15 of value from it. Buy it now!
By the way – thanks Amazon for reducing the price about 2 days after I bought it! :-)
3 thoughts on “Google AdWords For Dummies 3rd Edition – Review.”
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Hi Jordan,
Great review! You picked up on three areas of contention within the PPC community, and there’s certainly room for debate.
To your points:
1. Conversion optimizer: in our experience, you need a ton of conversions to get a decent lift from using it. It’s not a tool that intelligent beginners should be using as they learn their markets.
2. Modified broad match: we agree completely. We now recommend MBM; we’ve gotten much smarter since we turned in the manuscript.
3. Would love to hear which conclusions feel flimsy to you. We didn’t knowingly cut corners on data, but obviously we are working with a subset of all AdWords data and are very open to proof that contradicts us.
Thanks for mentioning the book, and for your kind words about the overall value despite your misgiving.
Howie
Hi Howie
Thanks for stopping by.
1. I agree, and after all, the book is called AdWords For Dummies not ‘AdWords for people who spend at least £1,000 a day on it”.
2. If you put that on your companion site, then I can’t complain about that at all.
3. I am being a little unfair to you here. One example is (from memory) in a case study where you say (to be fair) that “This isn’t enough data to be conclusive”.. OK – I am actually being very unfair on this one.
I’d just like to reiterate that *anyone* who uses AdWords should buy this book. Stop reading reviews about it, and start reading the book instead.
One of the hardest parts of being an author is that your own knowledge and wisdom develops and grows while your book just sits there getting stupider by the day in comparison ;)
So we definitely encourage readers to sign up for updates and new strategies. After all, about 50% of what we wrote in the first edition (2007) is totally outdated.
Thanks again for your blog, and for the review.