

Ask HN: A complete guide on how to setup a SUCCESSFUL Adwords campaign - akshat

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.
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ScottWhigham
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?

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akshat
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 However, there are many campaigns that are no longer
active or have relevance.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.

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ScottWhigham
_...there are many campaigns that are no longer active or have relevance.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.

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rfergie
With the recent switch over to enhanced campaigns this year I'm not even sure
looking at a successful past campaign would be that great.

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rfergie
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.

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richsin
Check out:

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.

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JimWillTri
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.

