Winning Results with Google Ad Words [Paperback]

Start with "Boring".
This books reads like a terrible University book, I hated some most it because:
- How lengthy and irrelevant the paragraphs are
- 300 pages!!! Come on, this book could have been 100 to 150 pages tops.
- Subjective POV
- Not proving and establishing creditability with actually case studies and stats. Instead stating `I had this client, and we did this...'
- Quoting Seth Godin about 17 times! (Maybe I should have bought Seth's book instead?!)

Being "Out-dated".
Unlike most University books this book needs a "New Edition" - already. Go figure, the book is only a year old; then again Google Adwords is only going to be three years old in February 2006. Sadly, there weren't even chapter summaries and a glossary of terms.

"Getting results".
If you're an advanced Google advertiser you are wasting your time reading this book, if you're a Google advertiser beginner or a immediate (as was I) read this book it could save you $1000s - it would have for me. I'll save you the time and give you what I think are the best parts:
- Use the "keyword tool" from Overture (yahoo's adword program) to establish choice keywords
- CTR (click through ratio) is very important because the higher your CTR the less you pay for your ad position, and the lower your CTR the more you have to pay for ad positioning
- Your Ad Position = CTR x Max Bid. Therefore, if I bid $1 and you bid $1, but my CTR is 3.2% and yours is 3.1% my ad will appear above yours.
- Don't bid to be #1 because you'll waste your money. Instead bid to be positioned between position two to five (this tip alone could have saved me $1000s in the beginning)
- Favorite ad position is two and three because you're either right above the "real" searches or first one on the top right
- Conversion rates are king. Try changing your landing page, and optimizing your landing page with a clear "call to action" and navigation.
- Use the "keywords" in ad copy to increase CTRs
- Buy a book on "Copy Writing", you will not good "copy writing" insights in this book. My favorite is "How to Write Good Advertisement" don't get fooled by how old it is
- Use "negative keywords", which are words with a "-" in front of them. Example, if you have the word "-free", and someone searches for "free team building" your ads for the keyword "team building" won't show up; saving you a click and saving money irrelevant searches lowering your CTR. A win/win

Andrew Goodman is a fellow Canadian doing his best. I know his next book or "Updated Edition" will be as you say Seth Godin says "Remarkable". And next time Andrew, please shorten the book by 100 to 150 pages.

PS. Great book marketing of your book, that's why I bought it.

Andrew is one of very few authors I've read in the 3 months I've been in SEM/SEO that has given me real, practical, and well
articulated advice on what I can actually do to produce results. In sales and marketing literature, I find that is a truly rare commodity.