Google AdWords™ For Dummies®, 3rd Edition

The AdWords Wind Tunnel

Although AdWords sometimes (but not always) can be a source of profitable traffic, that's seldom achievable from the start. Here's a common AdWords complaint: “I couldn't make it work. The clicks were just too expensive, and nobody was buying, so I gave up.”

Think of a kid just starting to play the violin saying, “I want to perform professionally after my first month of lessons.” Virtuosity may be a wonderful long-term aspiration, but that unrealistic focus on instant results will clearly lead to quick frustration, failure, and disappointment.

Instead, suppose that our hypothetical budding violinist set goals like “learn how to hold the violin and the bow properly” and “determine whether I like the instrument enough to make it through the hundreds of hours of practice before I sound better than Pinkie the Cat.” Those twin goals of improvement and discovery will lead to a much more empowering outcome, even if it ultimately doesn't lead to Carnegie Hall.

Perry Marshall compares AdWords to a wind tunnel for your business. He points out that the Wright brothers' main competitor in the race to invent the airplane was the better-educated, better-connected, and better-financed Samuel Pierpont Langley. Langley, head of the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C., focused his R&D efforts on an engine powerful enough to fly. The Wright brothers, on the other hand, didn't mess with the engine. Instead, they worked for years on the proper design and structure of a ...