Review: AdWords180

Regular readers know that I've reviewed several AdWords books recently — see my AdWords book review roundup for the links. Once I was reviewing the third book, though, it became apparent that these books were all saying the same things, just in different ways, and that they all focused on selling affiliate products by placing Google AdWords ads. I got bored with the whole concept. If you want to go that route, though, I recommend Beating AdWords as the book to purchase.

The other day, though, I came across another AdWords book that promised a different take on things. It's not being hyped much as far I can tell, probably because its price is only $47, which doesn't give much money to affiliates promoting the book, and it also has a very simple and not very long sales page. So here's my take on AdWords180.

AdWords180

AdWords180 is subtitled “Looking at AdWords From a New Angle” and it's true, it takes a different tack than the other AdWords books. In this book you won't find any information about how to join AdWords, how affiliate marketing works, how to get a ClickBank account, etc. etc. All that basic stuff is left out and it jumps right into the meat of the book, which is a technique for getting the cheapest advertising possible via AdWords.

The book starts out with a section describing the “popular wisdom” about AdWords, rules like “don't use the content network”, and what the author thinks is right and wrong about them. In particular, you find out why he thinks that the content network is in fact an underappreciated source of cheap, high-volume advertising that you can leverage to get a lot of traffic that converts well — if you do it right.

This is why AdWords180 is different from the other AdWords books. All the other books ignore the content network (us AdSense publishers) and focus almost exclusively on the search network. The only book I've seen using the content network is AdSense Arbitrage and Leveraging, which isn't about affiliate marketing via AdWords but using AdWords and AdSense together for arbitrage. Even that book, though, doesn't use the technique described in AdWords180, though I suspect many arbitrageurs will start to use the technique once word gets out.

The heart of the book is a technique called the AdWords180 Plan. The first half of this 78-page book is the leadup to this plan, the second half describes and dissects it in detail.

Instead of using the search network, the AdWords180 Plan focuses entirely on the content network. But not the way you might think. It uses site targeted ads instead of keyword targeted ads to drive traffic to your site. The trick is selecting the right sites to target with your advertisements.

I'm not going to give out any more details of the technique at this point, since I don't think that would be fair to the author and this is the first time I've seen this technique discussed. The author claims that clickthrough rates (CTRs) of 20% to 30% are easily achievable with this technique with a per-click cost of only 5 cents or less — in fact, it's possible to get clicks that cost you less than 1 cent using this technique. The technique is discussed in extensive detail, with precise instructions, for over 30 pages.

Another interesting thing about the technique is that it can be used to advertise any product or service, not just affiliate products. The example he gives is an advertising campaign for a bed & breakfast. Doesn't everyone want cheap traffic, after all?

One problem with the technique he describes is that content network advertising isn't reported as quickly as search network advertising within the AdWords console. It takes a day or two to see any results, which makes it easy to significantly overspend if the campaign isn't working out as expected. The author points out these risks in various places and emphasizes the need to start slowly, with a low budget, and only ramp up a campaign once it's proven itself. Because of this, though, I don't have any actual results to report yet from my own experimentation. I do, however, think the technique has merit. It probably won't suffer as much from overexposure, either, the way all the other AdWords books have managed to send per-click prices for affiliate products sky high.

Also, you'll need some time to create your first campaign and work through all the gotchas. Things get easier after that, and one nice thing about this technique is that you're not sitting there generating long lists of obscure keyword variations. No special software is needed or recommended, you do it all with a couple of browser windows.

So if you're looking for a different take on AdWords, I recommend reading AdWords180.

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Eric Giguere is the author of Uncommon AdSense and the award-nominated (that just means it lost!) blog Make Easy Money with Google and AdSense.

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