So September has come and gone pretty quick, and I figured it was about that time for me to step back into my blogging shoes and broadcast my life (and musings) to the interwebs once again.
It’s been almost 5 months since I put my at-home business aside and started working for a “big league” web agency as their resident SEO / social / copy writing ninja. Even though the company would be considered small compared to some of their competitors (there’s about 30 employees) the business we do is BIG.
Big clients, big money and big expectations. Definitely a major shift from the offline / local business game I was rocking for the last 2 years. It’s like night and day.
So one of the things I’ve been doing a lot of (since day one) is managing our internal Google AdWords campaigns – which I’ll admit I didn’t have much experience with going into this position.
Though my PPC skill level has increased immensely in the last few months, I still feel that I need to take that extra step and become AdWords Certified so we can start offering campaign management to our existing and new clients – and bring in more revenue.
Makes sense, right?
I talked to the boss (who’s my age) and told him exactly what I just wrote – and his reply was “Cool. Find out what courses you need and the process for getting certified. Let’s do it. “My reply was something along the lines of “sweet!”
So as of October I’m going to be studying to take the AdWords Certification tests. The way it works is you complete the study modules at your own pace and take 2 tests at $50 a pop. Once I become certified as an individual (and get the little badge to put on our website) then the company will be able to get certified as a whole.
I’m pretty pumped!
Anyways – that’s what’s going on with me these days! I’ll keep you guys posted on my progress and post up any interesting AdWords techniques/tricks I discover along the way 🙂
Maybe create my own course down the road? lol…
Cheers,
Elijah
I’m sure you’ll be teaching the course next! Congratulations!!
Interesting- I didn’t even know there is such a thing!
I’ve been intending to run an AdWords campaign with one of those freebie $100 gift cards they send out every few months to promote my friend’s novel. Problem is, novels are notoriously hard to market to begin with. Any suggestions on phrases to bid on for Christian general fiction? If only she wrote chick-lit or sci-fi I’d have more to work with!
@WordVixen – I didn’t know either! Until I started researching AdWords certification courses, I had no idea. But you can get certified on any of their platforms on various levels: Analytics, Optimizer etc..
Back to your question: I would avoid AdWords and go the route of Facebook. Here’s a strategy you can start with:
1. Set up fan page for your friend / her book
2. Set up a “like” gate which prompts the user to click like to get 1 free chapter (pdf download) http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=190322544333196
3. Set up FB ads campaign, and target her specific market i.e. people who like similar books, authors, genres, Christians etc. Be as specific as possible.
4. Then just have your ad copy along the lines of “Like (book name)? Download 1 free chapter from upcoming Christian author (her name)”
You’ll totally have more success with FB ads in regards to getting her some fans/exposure etc. And the fan page can serve as the funnel between the traffic and her website where the book can be purchased.
Hope this helps!
@Gina – Thanks for the kind words! I’ll leave it up to you to keep me on track 🙂
Sounds great Elijah. But if I remember correctly, you need to be managing at least $10000 worth of campaigns (as an individual) or multiples times that as a company to keep your “Adwords certified” badge in place, right?
I made the wrong move and tried experimenting with Adwords by selling a Hypnosis related ebook once. Apparently, they are in the grey area and i have been banned. Sad, I should have done the certifications too before experimenting.
Yeah – I realized that there are a few obstacles around getting certified as a company. That is definitely one of them! For individual certification you just need to past the tests – at least that’s my understanding. http://www.google.com/adwords/professionals/individual.html