I was wondering if there is a course or tutorial which walks through the setting up of a successful Adwords campaign. I am not talking about the basics, but rather showing an actual production adwords campaign, which was started from scratch. The challenges faced, and then the changes made to turn it into a successful campaign.
Although it would be awesome, I doubt you will find anything like that. After all, the second someone published their "actual production adwords campaign" info, their competitors would know exactly what keywords to bid on and by how much. I know a lot of the younger HNers are all about "transparency" but that's bordering on the absurd.
"But, Scott - surely they can blur out the text so we can't see it?" Sure, but then if they're doing that, how could you trust it? Example - author says "All I did was increment by $0.10 and our CTR jumped 100%!" But what if he really pushed it up by $10 just so he could quickly have an example screenshot to show?
That is a valid point. However, there are many campaigns that are no longer active or have relevance. The learnings from that can be made public.
Alternatively if someone has the expertise in this field can start a new campaign and show how a campaign should be built for a new product. I am sure there will be a wide audience which will be willing to pay significant amount of money to learn from this.
...there are many campaigns that are no longer active or have relevance. The learnings from that can be made public.
Sure, that could have value. It would require a long term pre-publication plan that says, "At some point, I'm going to trash this successful campaign so that I can write a book." I don't know that you do that though, do you? If you're making $10,000/yr with AdWords, would you really trash that so you could make $10,000/yr with a book that's going to be "stale" within a year or two?
FWIW Perry Marshall's basic guide to AdWords is a good start for most people.
AdWords is not so simple that you can setup a successful campaign just by following a guide.
Your question is like asking "Is there a complete guide for how to set up a successful business?" There are too many what-ifs for any guide to be comprehensive.
Seeing actual production campaigns is a great way to learn, but beyond the basics this doesn't always teach you much about what to do in your own campaign unless it is in the same vertical.
If you give me some details about what you are trying to accomplish I can give you some guiding principles. Reply here and I'll reply in public or email is in my profile if you prefer.
Perry Marshall www.perrymarshall.com
- He's very famous and his training will get you on point.
Market Motive www.marketmotive.com
- This is an excellent way to learn how to do PPC correctly as if working for an agency.
Bonus: If you haven't already, check ppchero.com for a fun ppc blog and www.kaushik.net/avinash/ for everything you need to know about google analytics.
I completed the Adwords videos on Lynda.com. Very comprehensive. Actually probably went through all the videos twice to make sure I understood it fully.
"But, Scott - surely they can blur out the text so we can't see it?" Sure, but then if they're doing that, how could you trust it? Example - author says "All I did was increment by $0.10 and our CTR jumped 100%!" But what if he really pushed it up by $10 just so he could quickly have an example screenshot to show?