Google Advertising Tools, 2nd Edition

Google Advertising Tools, 2nd Edition

by Harold Davis, David Iwanow
Released November 2009
Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
ISBN: 9781449382957

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Book description

With this book, you'll learn how to take full advantage of Google AdWords and AdSense, the sophisticated online advertising tools used by thousands of large and small businesses. This new edition provides a substantially updated guide to advertising on the Web, including how it works in general, and how Google's advertising programs in particular help you make money.

You'll find everything you need to work with AdWords, which lets you generate text ads to accompany specific search term results, and AdSense, which automatically delivers precisely targeted text and image ads to your website. Google Advertising Tools focuses on best practices, with several case studies that demonstrate which approaches work well, which don't, and why. Google's ad programs can help any business with a web presence, and this guide explains precisely how to use them.

  • Learn how to create effective campaign plans for your website
  • Understand the PageRank algorithm, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
  • Drive traffic to your website and make money as an advertising host
  • Add AdSense code and Google search to your site
  • Learn how content, search, and referral ads perform
  • Create and edit AdWord campaigns
  • Monitor AdWords activity and improve your campaign's performance

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Table of contents

  1. Google Advertising Tools
    1. SPECIAL OFFER: Upgrade this ebook with O’Reilly
    2. Preface
      1. Organization
      2. Assumptions
      3. About the Examples
      4. Using Code Examples
      5. Conventions Used in This Book
      6. Safari® Books Online
      7. How to Contact Us
      8. Acknowledgments
    3. I. Making Money with a Website
      1. 1. Creating Successful Websites
        1. The Taxonomy of Success
          1. Entertainment
          2. Useful Free Services and Software
          3. Magazines and Newspapers
          4. The Blogosphere
          5. Practical Information: Content Sites and Niches
          6. E-Commerce Sites
        2. Tools for Measuring Popularity
          1. Using the Google Toolbar
          2. Let the Google Search Engine Be Your Guide
          3. Finding Popularity with Alexa
        3. How Much Content Is Enough?
        4. Presenting Content
          1. Page and Site Design
          2. Page Size
          3. Images, Video, and Podcasting
          4. Keeping Content Fresh
          5. Positioning Ads
        5. Content Architecture
          1. Separating Content from Design
          2. Server-Side Includes
          3. PHP Includes
          4. Optimal Include Layout
        6. Where Does Content Come From?
        7. The Power of Community
        8. Action Items
      2. 2. Creating Effective Marketing Plans
        1. Telling a Story
          1. The Elevator Pitch
        2. Basics of Marketing
        3. Creating a Plan
        4. Creating a Checklist
        5. Naming Your Site
        6. Introducing SEM
        7. Comparing SEO with SEM
          1. Crafting the Blended Campaign
        8. Action Items
      3. 3. Driving Traffic to a Website
        1. Submitting Your Sites to Search Engines
          1. Important Search Engines for Submission
          2. Submission Tools
        2. Working with Google
        3. Taking Advantage of Site Mapping
        4. Working with Directories
          1. Understanding Taxonomies
          2. Getting Open Directory Project Listings
          3. Getting Yahoo! Directory Listings
        5. Becoming Popular by Generating Inbound Links
          1. The Best Inbound Links
          2. Finding Sites to Make a Link Request
          3. Making the Link Request
            1. Finding email addresses
            2. Emails should not be spam
        6. The Power of the Press Release
        7. Unleashing Your Inner Blogger
        8. Using Syndication Feeds to Your Benefit
          1. Creating Feeds
          2. Telling the World About Your Feed
          3. Submitting Feeds
        9. Creating Email Lists and Surmounting the Spam Problem
        10. Action Items
      4. 4. Nuts and Bolts of SEO
        1. SEO’s Evolution
          1. The SEO Advantage
          2. What SEO Can (and Cannot) Do
          3. Free Tools
          4. Google Webmaster Tools
            1. Crawl errors
            2. HTML suggestions
            3. Your site on the web
          5. Commercial SEO Analysis Software
        2. More About How Your Site Appears to a Bot
          1. Images
          2. Links
          3. File Formats
          4. Viewing Your Site with an All-Text Browser
        3. Excluding the Bot
          1. The robots.txt File
          2. Meta Robot Tags
        4. Meta Information
        5. Design for SEO
          1. Site Design Principles
            1. Text is best
            2. Navigability
          2. Words and Keyword Density
            1. Page size
            2. Choosing keywords
            3. Keyword placement
          3. Site Design Principles
        6. Using PageRank
        7. Linking
          1. Inbound links
          2. Outbound Links
          3. Cross Links
        8. Avoiding Overly Aggressive SEO
          1. Google’s Prohibitions
          2. Why Not to Be Overly Aggressive
        9. Action Items
      5. 5. Making Money with Affiliate Programs
        1. Kinds of Ad Programs
        2. Understanding Affiliate Programs
          1. Mechanics of the Process
          2. Creatives
          3. Areas of Concern
            1. Amount of the commission
            2. Sales and commission tracking
            3. Merchant support of affiliate programs
            4. Matching affiliates with content
        3. Working with an Affiliate Program
          1. Benefits of Affiliate Aggregators
          2. Finding an Affiliate Aggregator
            1. Commission Junction
            2. Kolimbo
            3. LinkShare
          3. Ad Hoc Affiliation
            1. Fred Miranda Software
            2. iContact
          4. The Amazon.com Associate Program
        4. Action Items
      6. 6. Making Money by Hosting Advertising
        1. Understanding Cost Per Click (CPC)
        2. Contextual Relevance
          1. How Good Is the Context?
          2. Serving Ads
          3. Dollars and Cents
        3. CPC Vendors Compared
        4. Placing Ad Units on Your Site
          1. Signing Up
          2. Choosing the Kinds of Ads
          3. Selecting Ad Formats
          4. Adding Code to Your Pages
        5. Display and Banner Ads
        6. Action Items
      7. 7. Understanding the Google Behemoth
        1. The Parts of Google
          1. Blogger
          2. Book Search
          3. Directory
          4. Gmail
          5. GOOG-411
          6. Google Health
          7. Maps
          8. Product Search
          9. Scholar
          10. YouTube
        2. Content Versus Search
        3. Anatomy of a Search Query
          1. Google Syntax and Operators
          2. The Rules of Simple Search
          3. Effective Searching
          4. Advanced Search
          5. The Search Results Page
        4. The Automated Ad Broker: AdWords
        5. Action Items
    4. II. Cashing in with AdSense
      1. 8. Working with AdSense
        1. Applying for an AdSense Account
        2. Setting Account Options
          1. Payment Preferences
          2. Ad Display Preference
          3. Account Access
          4. Reviewing Payment History
          5. Filing Tax Information
        3. AdSense Programs
        4. AdSense for Content Ad Settings
          1. Ad Type
          2. Ad Format and Colors
            1. Format
            2. Colors
            3. More options
          3. Ad Channels
          4. Getting the Code
            1. Ad unit example
            2. Link unit example
          5. Managing Ads
          6. Custom Ad Colors
          7. Using Channels
          8. Applying Competitive Filters
          9. Site Authentication, Ad Review, and Allowed Sites
        5. AdSense for Search Settings
        6. AdSense for Feeds
        7. AdSense for Domains
        8. Video Units
        9. Linking Google AdSense to Google Analytics
        10. Action Items
      2. 9. Making Sense of AdSense
        1. Fundamentals of Navigation
        2. Understanding the Metrics
        3. Running Reports
          1. Saving a Report as a Template
          2. Choosing a Date Range
          3. Page, Unit, or Ad Impressions
          4. Aggregate Versus Channel Data
        4. Statistics
        5. Downloading a CSV File
        6. Other Program Performance
          1. Search Performance
          2. How Are Your Parked Domains Doing?
        7. Optimization Tips
        8. Site Diagnostics
        9. Your Earnings
        10. Tools Beyond AdSense for Tracking
          1. Listening to Web Logs
          2. Web Analytic Software
        11. Action Items
    5. III. Working with AdWords
      1. 10. Using AdWords
        1. Signing Up for an Account
          1. Creating Your Account
          2. Creating Your First Campaign
          3. Bidding and Budget
          4. Advanced Settings
          5. Creating an Ad
          6. Crafting an Ad
          7. Choosing Keywords
          8. Providing Payment Information and Activating Your Account
          9. Graduating
        2. Ad Campaigns and Ad Groups
          1. Creating and Editing Ad Campaigns
          2. Creating a New Campaign
          3. Editing Campaign Settings
            1. Pausing, resuming, and deleting an ad campaign
            2. The Campaign Summary
            3. Excluding sites or categories
            4. Adding negative keywords
            5. Changing campaign settings
            6. Optimizing ad service
            7. Ad scheduling
            8. Where ads display
            9. Position preference and delivery method
          4. Ad Groups
            1. Creating a new ad group
            2. Editing an ad group
            3. Creating an image ad
        3. Getting a My Client Center Account
        4. Action Items
      2. 11. Improving Performance
        1. Monitoring Your AdWords Activity
          1. Understanding Your Campaign Summary
          2. Drilling Down into a Campaign
          3. Understanding Ad Group Performance
            1. Search and content results
            2. Individual keyword results
            3. Keyword status
        2. Campaign Management Tools
          1. Using the Ads Diagnostic Tool
          2. Optimizing Your Ads
            1. Keyword Tool
            2. Estimating traffic
            3. Campaign Optimizer
        3. Action Items
      3. 12. The Zen of AdWords
        1. The Customer Life Cycle
          1. Keywords
          2. Getting Seen
          3. Test Your Ads
          4. Landing Pages That Work
          5. Tracking
          6. Balance
        2. The Path of Indirection
        3. Success via Iteration
        4. Targeting the Competition
        5. Estimating Traffic
        6. Exclusion
          1. Excluding Sites and Categories
          2. IP Exclusion
        7. Action Items
      4. 13. Advanced Performance Monitoring
        1. Using AdWords Reports
          1. Kinds of Reports
          2. Creating a Placement/Keyword Report
        2. Conversion Tracking
          1. Understanding Conversion Tracking
            1. Conversion tracking reports
            2. Tracking Google Analytics goals as conversions
            3. Tracking views of content network ads as conversions
          2. Tracking PayPal Purchases
            1. Setting up a new PayPal button
          3. Tracking Visitors to a Crucial Page
        3. Google Analytics
          1. Getting Started with Google Analytics
          2. Using Google Analytics
            1. The Dashboard
            2. Map Overlay
            3. Content Overview
            4. Advanced Segments
            5. Goals
            6. Custom Reports
        4. Website Optimizer
        5. Action Items
      5. 14. AdWords beyond CPC
        1. Display Ad Builder
        2. Mobile Ads
        3. Video Ads
        4. Advertising on TV
        5. Action Items
    6. Index
    7. About the Author
    8. Colophon
    9. SPECIAL OFFER: Upgrade this ebook with O’Reilly

Product information

  • Title: Google Advertising Tools, 2nd Edition
  • Author(s): Harold Davis, David Iwanow
  • Release date: November 2009
  • Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
  • ISBN: 9781449382957