Uber Excited In a Geeky AdWords Kind of Way
Jun 12th, 2007 by msdanielle
Today I get to start a new Google AdWords campaign for my client. I’m super excited because each of these opportunities lets me spend someone else’s money and see how well I can optimize out a campaign! LOL I know, super lame, right? Well, how else will you know your skills unless you can spend real money testing?!
My eventual goal, when time permits, is to be a Google Advertising Professional. What is that, you might ask? Well, basically you take a series of AdWords tests in their Learning Center, pay $50 for your certification test, and as long as you pass, you have the authority and bragging rights to say, “What up, yo, I’m an AdWords Pro, gimme some more money!” But more importantly, if you know AdWords forward and backward, you can pretty much sell anything online in any industry. There are roughly 108 tutorials and tests which range from three to 21 minutes each. Think you can sit through it? I dare anyone out there to beat me in getting their certification first. It’s well worth the time and investment, in my book. If you take on the challenge, let me know. This could get fun! 
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Hmmm…are you asking for a challenge?!?!?!?!?
are you down for the challenge??
Don’t be comin’ up in here talkin’ all that mess about “I’m an AdWords Pro” and “I’ma bust you in the head with my knowledge!”. Sorry.
Seriously…me in golf and now Tyson in AdWords? You are one competitive female! I like it.
Actually I was quoting Stinko Man from Homestarruner.com
Challenge
The character was introduced in this Strong Bad e-mail
Stong Bad e-mail - japanese cartoon
But, I do find challenges to be the best way to get something accomplish that you might not complete if you were doing it alone.
heehee…homestarrunner is rad. my favorite is the techno song.. or the web site with the rotating globe. lol omg too much…
yea sometimes having a buddy makes goals seem more achievable
that is a lot of tutorial time. But hey.. it’s worth it. Good luck.
thanks prija!
I will be calling you for ideas when I push into the affiliate market!
Certifications are a great career builder. Taking time to get them really helps you pick up skills and shows employers that you are serious about your work.
yes accumulating cert’s will boost any career. i’ve gone through a couple of the first adwords tutorials already and it’s really interesting the little things you learn, and think, oh! i didn’t even know that!
like, you’re not allowed to use two exclamation points in the tagline. who knew?
have fun if you go to freakmont!!
ms danielle,
I have a suggestion for you. The Google Adwords link that you have in your post should be switched up. Try putting your Google Adwords Affiliate link there instead that way if anybody signed up for adwords you will get a commission.
I’m going to try to go through some of those tutorials.
cool. let me know what you think. have you done any of them before? i don’t know anyone who’s completed it, bc i don’t know any other ppc mgrs, but anyone who’s interested in making money online should learn ppc, and definitely understand adwords. if you seo your site properly and target your ppc , you can have a very successful online business.
@myron - thanks for the tip. i’ll see if i can mask a link. it’s not my top priority to drive adwords leads, but it would be a good little test i suppose
Wow … I can’t believe you put that challenge out there like that !!!
Feeling Lucky I see!
LOL
Darin
the challenge is currently hindered monetarily by $1,000… damn you google!!
I’ve heard Adwords is gearing up to offer CPA advertising soon. Could this spell the end of Adsense/CPC as we know it? Wouldn’t advertisers prefer to only pay when a desired action is completed? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this Danielle. Perhaps in a post of its own?
yes they’ve already started their “ppa” (pay per action) program, which is still in beta. here’s some info on it: http://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=61449
as an advertiser, yes, cpa programs can be great if you know what your max cpa spend is, and that your leads are qualified. for instance, email leads can easily be manipulated, so you have the user double opt-in… but if you’re a really great marketer, you know when and how to use cpc, cpa and cpm. there are a few ad networks that offer all three types of advertising, so i’m not sure that adsense will necessarily be phased out. i think google’s just trying to get more money, and compete with all the affiliate networks out there that drive tons of traffic via cpa programs, like azoogleads.
i haven’t seen it in action yet, but i think it’s about time. maybe i will post about it, nick. that’s a really good idea. i’ll see what i can find out. the only thing is that bc i haven’t tested it yet i won’t have any real data to play with
Thanks for that link, I read through it. So, my understanding is that publishers will be able to choose the ads they want on their site, which makes it completely different from Adsense. I also see that publishers will be able to put simple text links to the advertisers inline, which means you’ll have Amazon, eBay, Kontera, TLA (coming soon I believe), and Google all competing for keywords within blog posts. Soon, every word in a post will be a link!
Sorry I’ve gone off topic. Good luck with getting your GAP certification!
Interesting. I wasn’t even aware of their little learning center. I guess you really do learn something new every day
I’ve bookmarked it so I can give it a little more attention when I’m more awake.
I’d take you up on your challenge but I’m pretty sure you’d win. I have a tendency to get distracted really easily. Show me something shiny and I totally forget what I was doing.
That’s funny. Do want this shiny dime or this dull $10 bill.
You dont directly mention it in your post, but (I believe) to get that certification you must have run campaigns over a certain value, so, if like me the rest of your readership is too cheap to spend on adwords then you are not going to have any competition!!!
I am afraid I sit within the SEO camp on this one anyway… I would rather spend money buying static links for long term gain, as opposed to adwords… I have been thinking of using adwords for a little arbitrage… I know that is ‘banned’… but I reckon thats only for MFA sites, if your site is legit (WH / relevant original content) I don’t think there would be an issue…. what do you reckon??
Nah. You don’t have to have a certain amount you spend in your campaigns. You just pay your $50 bucks and take the test. If you fail pay another $50 and take the test again.
actually i didn’t check about account requirements. i double checked and here are the requirements to become a qualified individual. it’s $1,000 minimum ad spend. actually that’s not very much if you’re managing someone else’s account
but yea that is a lot of money out of pocket. i guess i’ll be flying solo on this then? hehe…
oh whoops sorry forgot to answer your question! since i manage ppc accounts, and am planning other online businesses, i know how valuable ppc is. i’m not buying any traffic for this blog, and most likely i won’t in the future. but if you have an online business, it’s best to acquire links in addition to promote the site via adwords for your non-ranking kw’s, to supplement your organic traffic. if one day google somehow dumps your “paidlinks,” as matt cutts calls them, or you do something to get your site banned, and you don’t have a back up, you’re screwed. there goes your organic traffic. if you only do ppc and you get banned from adwords, and you don’t have a back up, you’re screwed. there goes your paid traffic.
in regards to arbitrage, if your site has a lot of relevant and unique content, it shouldn’t be considered mfa (made for adsense, or made for affiliates). mfa sites are pretty obviously mfa. google spiders will check to see if the majority of your site is advertising. and in regards to linking, there are ways to get “free” links that one might traditionally have to pay for. i’m giving away a zune that i acquired for free. if i had to pay for the links i’ve received so far, i bet it would cost me well over the value of the zune. get creative and use your blog to get links to your business site and supplement your paid links as well. if i had another online business (which i don’t) i could have very easily said in the post, “link to msdanielle.com and whatever-other-site.com to enter…”
dang that could’ve been its own post! lol
Yeah but the Zune is still giving away money, to a point… You could have sold the Zune on Ebay and spent the money on adwords
Yeah that is short term money though. $200 - $250 for the cost of then Zune. Think of the amount of money that can be made over the long term. If she got enough links for that contest she will make her money back 2 or 3 times over.
Whoops I forgot too….
Thats kinda what I figured regarding arbitrage. I can get traffic for 2-3c per click to a site that can generate 70c - $2 per click… dunno how well they will convert though. If I take conversion rates based on current traffic then it is not a good plan, however, I would expect people who land on your site via adsense to be more likely to click subsequent add’s… I have never researched this… just seems to make sense that users would exhibit that behaviour …..
Nice. Marketing and Advertising is something I’m interested.
If only you started two months from now I might have taken up your challenge.
For now I can only hope you will provide us with good tips, yes?
of course! i love giving ppc tips bc i don’t really know anyone who does ppc. wanna see what other people think. feedback is rare in this field
My brother and I tried our hand at using Google Adwords Feb or March last year after he had discovered clickbank and explained the concept to me.
We had a sell of a product the 1st day we spend 5 dollars on PPC ads and had a sale that brought in 24 dollars. A net of 19, we thought this was going to be in, but a month and 180 dollars in PPC ads later, no more sales. We did not stick with it and moved on to something else.
There is value with PPC, or else we would not have some many folks with Adsense income.
Ms, D.
What do you think a good prize to be for the adwords cert challenge? Money? A new car or a trip Around the world?
Maybe anchor links for everybody site who enters in to the challenge?
a successful adwords campaign and lots of sales
Owh… I didn’t know that you’re into AdWords. This particular category should be interesting, hehe.
Ms. Danielle,
Well I took my exam today and passed … it’s really easy … you should just take the plunge if you are managing ppc accounts on a daily basis … if you want some tips … email me and I’ll help you with my weak points …
Darin Carter
Google AdWords Professional
[…] to manage my own or other people’s AdWords accounts. I became one last year so I beat MsDanielle’s challenge but that was before we knew of each other so it doesn’t […]