Under­cover Google AdWords Expert Shares Key Insights

Google AdWords Expert Recommendations

Today we have a spe­cial guest that I had the chance to talk to and I got his per­mis­sion to post parts of our con­ver­sa­tion on this blog. 

What Google AdWords Expert did we talk to?

Our Google AdWords Expert requested that we keep his iden­tity hid­den because some of his rec­om­men­da­tions might actu­ally hurt his own busi­ness (he for exam­ple rec­om­mends strongly against hir­ing some Google AdWords Experts).

First Ques­tion: How long have you been using Google AdWords?

I have been a Google AdWords user since the first year that Google AdWords was launched.  In the old days any fool could get started with Google AdWords and make easy money because the costs-per-click were not competitive.

Sec­ond Ques­tion: Who should hire a Google AdWords Expert, is it really worth it?

Well, this truly depends.  I would say that if you are a small ven­dor and expect­ing to make less than $10,000 in sales per month, then you can­not afford to hire a “Google AdWords Expert.”  There is lots of so called “Google AdWords Experts” but most of them just sell snake oil.  These days it has got­ten really bad because every­one is try­ing to win with Google AdWords.

If you are a large site mak­ing over $10,000 a month, then it might be worth it to part­ner up with a Google AdWords Expert.  How­ever, I would be very cau­tious before hir­ing a Search Engine Mar­ket­ing Com­pany.  It can get very costly and the results can be very uncertain.

Third Ques­tion: How do you find a good Google AdWords Expert?

Truth be told, you find them via word-of-mouth and occas­sion­ally you can find good peo­ple by fol­low­ing the blog­ging scene.  The top Google AdWords blog­gers are easy to spot.  They give you qual­ity infor­ma­tion and free tips and advice.  They know their stuff so well that they are not afraid to and have no need to hide it. 

“An expert is a per­son who has made all the mis­takes that can be made in a very nar­row field” Niels Bohr

Fourth Question: What advice would you give some­one that is new to Google AdWords? 

If you are a small busi­ness try­ing to make a few bucks on the Inter­net, then learn the skills of the trade.  It is not too hard to fig­ure out Google AdWords and there is lots of Google AdWords Experts that are will­ing to share their expe­ri­ence.  So, just stick to what they tell you. 

Two well known prod­ucts are:

• AdWords Sys­tem Exposed (by Mind­Val­ley Labs)
• The Defin­i­tive Guide to Google AdWords (by Perry Marshall)

If you do exactly what the Google AdWords Experts tell you, then you should be ok and you can get all of that by spend­ing less than $100 instead of hav­ing to hire some­one for $5,000 after which you still don’t know how Google AdWords really works.

Fifth Question: What’s the one thing a new AdWords user has to do to suc­ceed? 

Start over­bid­ding!  I am seri­ous!  You hit the nail on the head when you shared your shock­ing results that new Google AdWords adver­tis­ers are screwed.  They have no his­tory, no good qual­ity score, so they have to bid high to get into the door and stand a fight­ing chance.  You have to start out aggres­sive and then scale back.  Oth­er­wise your cam­paigns will never get off the ground.

Final Question: What about get­ting help directly from Google?

Are you kid­ding me?  These are the peo­ple that want you to spend more money with Google AdWords.  I worked for one client who told me before I started work­ing with him that a spe­cial team at Google had setup and opti­mized their Google account.  Not sur­pris­ingly, they were grossly over spend­ing, over bid­ding, and their Ad Groups and key­words were very poorly opti­mized.  Truth be told, I was a bit shocked at how bad this was because I would have expected bet­ter from Google.

Con­tinue learning

• Pay Per Click Make Money
• Google AdWords Tips

Last 5 posts by

• Do you think SEO in other lan­guages is eas­ier? — Sep­tem­ber 18th, 2008
• Google Slap — How to recover from a Google Slap? — Sep­tem­ber 8th, 2008
• What Does Your Order But­ton Say? — August 29th, 2008
• Will Knol Rule The Search Engines? First Analy­sis Indicates…It Just Might — July 23rd, 2008
• Are small busi­nesses drop­ping out of AdWords? — July 23rd, 2008

About the Author

Prior to MindValley Media, Mike was the Head of New Ventures Strategy at eBay where he conceived of the strategies that led to the investment in Craigslist, the launch of Kijiji.com and the acquisition of Skype. Mike has an MBA from Stanford and previously worked for the Boston Consulting Group. He is also a certified Google AdWords Professional.

Check out other posts by Mike Reining

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