PPC training from PPCblog

Posted by Mike Theodoulou on 04 February 2011

If you are considering managing your own PPC campaigns, it is essential you get training and don’t just jump in blind with a budget and a prayer. With that in mind, I am reviewing PPCblog.com, one of the few PPC training resources that has impressed me.

PPCblog.com stands out from the crowd as it comes from Aaron Wall’s stable of training and tools sites, which includes SEOBook, one of the oldest and most respected SEO training resources available.

The PPCblog training package costs $175 per month, which includes access to 50+ PPC training modules, a selection of PPC tools, and access to the members’ forum. Let’s take a look at what you get for your money ...

The PPCblog course

After logging in, a clear interface allows you to jump straight into the training articles, either by section or through the training sitemap, which lists all the modules available. See image:

Unsurprisingly, the bulk of the basic training is about Google Adwords. You’ll learn how Adwords works and the key Adwords policies to be aware of. The inference here is that PPC beginners should start with Adwords, learn their lessons managing campaigns on that platform and then move on to other networks such as Bing and Facebook.

I agree with this approach as Adwords still has the most advanced platform with the most polished tools for reporting and campaign optimization. It is definitely the easiest network for beginners to get the most out of.

There are separate sections outlining how to prepare and build campaigns for Adwords Search and Content networks.

Adwords ‘Search network’ is adverts appearing on search results pages like those on Google.com and aol.com. The ‘Content network’ is primarily adverts appearing on editorial pages of hundreds of thousands of publishers’ websites.

It is good to see that a lot of best practices are being taught, including:

• Create separate campaigns for Search and Content adverts

• Create separate campaigns for geographic regions

• Concentrate on goal (conversion) tracking for optimization

The training modules give a good grounding in how to research, build and set up Adwords campaigns. You can learn about Bid Strategy, Quality Score and Landing Pages in the Search network section. Importantly, you’ll discover how to use the power of ‘long tail’ keywords to achieve cheaper and more targeted clicks.

I would like more detail about ongoing campaign optimization. It would be good to have included some day-to-day actions and checks that can be done to make sure campaigns achieve their potential.

I put this point to PPCblog and they replied “most of the ongoing optimization advice is handled in the forums as there has been so much Q&A that covers it. That said, day to day checklists would be handy, I'm working on something similar for release soon to our members.”

That’s not only a good answer, it tells us that if PPCblog’s training isn’t providing something you want then ask them for it and you might get it.

The PPCblog tools

Membership to the training course also includes access to a suite of PPC Tools comprising:

• A competitive research tool (powered by SEM Rush)

• A local keyword tool

• An Adwords campaign builder

• Keyword list generator

• Typo generator

• Match type wrapper

• Keyword list cleaner

• A/B split test validation calculator

• PPC ROI (return on investment) calculator

• ROAS calculator (return on advertising spending)

This provides a good basic set of tools that will help you build a decent Adwords campaign.

Of particular interest is the competitive research tool, powered by SEMRush. I haven’t used SEMRush in anger before but a few quick searches on some of my PPC clients’ domains and keywords shows me its dataset is pretty good. It’s delivering similar results to other tools I trust and use on a regular basis.

The image below shows the start of a detailed report from the competitive research tool:

SEMRush is a great tool to have as spying on your competitors’ campaigns and keywords can be a good short cut to figuring out what can work in your sector.

The PPCblog community

Access to the PPCblog community (driven by Geordie Carswell), is included with membership. Clearly Geordie has a lot of experience setting up and running PPC campaigns. Geordie is the man behind most of PPCblog’s content, including PPC news, fresh tips and tactics and answering members’ questions on all aspects of PPC.

You can also get your ad copy and landing pages reviewed which is really useful. Such help from a professional like Geordie will be invaluable to you if you are running your own PPC campaigns. A lot of the feedback I’ve seen on there is very thorough and constructive. These reviews are probably worth the monthly fee on their own.

The verdict

In conclusion, I would say that PPC novices will be well looked after when they sign up for PPCblog. It provides a good grounding and body of reference for setting up PPC campaigns, plus some tools that will certainly help with the process.

Ongoing value will be gained from using the tools with the community’s feedback and help. Having a PPC professional such as Geordie on call to go through campaigns, answer questions on landing pages, ad copy and more is pretty much invaluable.

If you combine this with the fact that SEMRush charge around fifty bucks for access to their tool, I would say the course is good value for money for anyone looking to run their own PPC campaigns.