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As you explore the vast world of AdWords and you extend your knowledge and experience in the world of PPC, it never hurts to have a helping hand. Plus, everybody needs somewhere to go when looking for answers.
Whether you are the most advanced practitioner or you are just starting to understand what this is all about, resources always go a long way if you want to implement a strategy, find out about a new feature, or just learn technical how-tos.
Here is a comprehensive list of helpful resources that will become your best friends:
The Legit Resources
1) AdWords Help Center For The Basics
Use this site for answers to frequently (and not-so-frequently) asked questions. You will find almost everything and anything you need to know regarding AdWords, including very specific how-tos.
2) The Interactive, Learn-By-Doing, Google Partners Help Center
Rely on this resource for text and multimedia AdWords lessons. It provides short videos, quizzes, and even the opportunity to become a Qualified Google Advertising Professional.
Because Google knows creating and organizing successful AdWords accounts is not an easy task, they provide a free AdWords learning center so you can get into the nitty-gritty like a boss.
3) AdWords Editorial Guidelines
Reminds you what not to put in your ads. Google requires that all promotions meet high professional and editorial standards, so you don’t have to wait to get disapproved to change your ads.
4) Just Ask a Fellow AdWords User, with Google Groups for AdWords Help
This site allows you to connect with more than 11,000 AdWords users. Anyone can ask questions and receive answers from Google-approved experts (free registration required). If you are in the midst of a challenge and can’t find any third party answers, chances are someone else has gone through the same challenge.
5) Google’s Very Own AdWords Blog, Inside AdWords
This is Google’s official blog on AdWords that contains news, blogs, tips, and resources – because who better than Google to write about updates and specific guidance into everything AdWords related?
6) Back To School, Google’s Certification Learning Center (Exam Study Guide)
You can learn a ton in Google’s Adwords Certification Learning Center. Simply register for the certification to access the learning center. After you join the program, the exams cost $50 each, but you don’t need to take these to get access to the course.
The Hipster Section (Blogs)
7) PPC Hero
This one is a great resource to implement more advanced strategies for your campaign. It provides expert skills, tips, and management techniques of a successful pay per click digital advertising management.
8) WordStream
Another great blog for news, blogs, tips, and resources is Wordstream. Founded by Larry Kim himself, the site features insight offered by himself and many more recognized experts from the PPC world.
9) Search Engine Journal
This one helps marketers by offering guides and information. Virtually all of their contributed articles come from real online marketing experts, both independent and in-house. Search Engine Journal spotlights the important trends, news, strategies, and personalities in the industry.
10) PPC Chat
Sometimes blogs don’t make the cut, and all you want to do is talk it up. Well, look no further than PPC Chat, where you can get that human interaction as the name speaks for itself.
11) Search Engine Watch – PPC Section
It ranges from content marketing to SEO and social media. The best part of this blog is that every post is made to be actionable, so you can get your hands dirty after every read.
The Library Section
12) Perry Marshall’s Ultimate Guide To Google AdWords
Perry Marshall holds your hand and walks you through everything you need to know when creating your first AdWords campaign to get the most out of your AdWords experience.
13) David Szetela’s Pay Per Click Search Engine Marketing: An Hour A Day
I’ll start off by saying what you really wanna know: yes, you will learn something new from this one. This book is meant to be a comprehensive overview, so there is a lot that won’t be new to you. However, it does offer good insights into methodology outside of the AdWords scope to help optimize your campaigns.
14) Anastasia Holdren’s Google AdWords: Managing Your Advertising Program
This book shows you how each piece of Google’s advertising platform works, focusing on areas that impact the performance and cost of your ad campaigns. It covers areas from how to set up your account to advanced optimizations based on conversion data.
15) Google AdWords for Dummies
Why is this one any different than all the other books out there? Well, about half the AdWords books and courses out there are dreadfully boring. Howie Jacobson’s explanations keep you hooked with his sense of humor. Not to mention it’s not just a how-to, you also get top AdWords mistakes and case studies. This book is meant to enrich your AdWords experience by telling you what not to do.
16) Andrew Goodman’s Winning Results With Google AdWords
This book offers tips on writing ad copy, strategies of how to bid, ways to improve your ROI – a good book with solid coverage of all the important aspects of AdWords. This book will not just be explaining screenshots to you, so rest assured you will learn a lot from it.
Hardcore Resources (Advanced)
17) Google Developers (Scripts)
This is Google’s site for software development tools, application programming interfaces (APIs), and SDKs. This includes documentation, sample code, and supports resources. This one specifically is about scripts, which allow you to overcome some of the gaps and annoyances of AdWords reporting.
18) Google Webinars
Learn from experienced advertisers how to make the most of your campaigns or simply learn more about new features and how to optimize your AdWords experience.
19) AdAlysis
AdAlysis is a tool that allows you to perform ad tests in your account through a user interface. You can use this tool to learn more about ad performance in your account and get enough insights to help you optimize.
20) WordStream AdWords Grader
This site offers a free report on your overall AdWords performance. It includes a final grade and is based on a detailed review of many specific areas, such as Wasted Spend, Quality Scores and Click-Through Rates. It gives you a quick scorecard of tips to optimize your account. Basically, you’ll get the good, the bad, and the worst – scores and all.
Optimize Like A Boss
Now that you have a solid list of resources to explore, you can be sure to expand your knowledge and make most of your AdWords experience – no excuses. Go forth and proceed to optimize your account like a boss.
