PPC & PPA ADVERTISING PROGRAMS…

MASTERING ADWORDS
$24.95. Beginner only.
Program Includes: "Mastering AdWords — A Comprehensive Guide to Optimizing Your AdWords Campaigns" eBook (53 pgs). 60-day money-back guarantee.

The best thing about Mastering AdWords is the $24.95 price. Ashwin Iddya's slim eBook is a primer at best, and truth be told, is largely comprised of information which is freely available all over the internet, including, for that matter, in Google's own AdWords tutorials.

The eBook covers bidding, ad group, CTR improvement, and ad content strategies. The ad copy and keyword brainstorming examples never really graduate beyond elementary — good for getting your feet wet, but not enough to make a splash. There are some interesting CPC strategies presented, but they're often presented as absolute truths that will apply to any ad campaign. No such animal.

Iddya's strategies for fixing ailing campaigns tend to be a bit too try-this and try-that. While ad campaigns do often require tweaking, the trick is to do your homework on the front end, not after the ad goes live and you're actually paying for it.

There are a couple of nice touches — for example, the side-by-side competitive analysis of Google AdWords and other major pay-per-click search engines, such as Yahoo YPN. This analysis offers novices a nutshell perspective of each program's partner network, campaign management tools, ad posting time-frames, and the impact of cost per click on ad position.

Last updated in 2004, Mastering Adwords' core strategies seem to revolve largely around the pay-per-click world of 2003. The pay-per-click environment of 2006 is a whole new ball game.

While we aren't panning Mastering AdWords, we aren't exactly recommending it either. It's not that it's bad. It just won't get you very far. Save your pennies for AdWords Miracle or Beating AdWords. A lucrative pay-per-click portfolio requires more mastery than Mastering AdWords can give you. Learn more about Mastering AdWords…