Resources for Google Ads agencies and freelancers.
Contact me@pete-bowen.com if you've found a resource that should be listed on this page.
Disclosure: I've built some of the tools and sell one of the books in the reading list. No affiliate links on this page.
Contents.
Tools.
Policing search terms for negative keywords is painful in Google Ads or AdWords Editor. This free tool makes adding negative keywords from search terms faster and easier. It prioritises the most important search terms and learns from your choices so future processing is even faster.
Five tools that'll speed up your work creating Google Ads campaigns and later managing them. See my interview with software creator Kyle Sulerud here.
Stops competitors, hackers, non converting users, malicious publishers, botnets and angry customers draining your PPC budget.
Suite of optimisation, reporting and monitoring tools.
A free Google Ads keyword tool that wraps keyword phrases in 'quotation marks' (phrase match) and [square brackets] (exact match) for use in Google Ads campaigns.
Discussion groups.
Busy sub-reddit with discussion on Google Ads, Bing Ads, Facebook ads etc.
Smaller sub-reddit focussing on AdWords.
Google Ad Buyers - Learn more about Adwords and YouTube Ad Buying and connect with other Ad Buyers. Compare different advertising tools, tips, tricks and learn from industry leading veterans.
Google Ads (AdWords) Mastermind
This group is designed to help like-minded people learn the Google Ads platform. Help & be helped! Feel free to ask any question related to running Google Ads campaigns.
Weekly Q and A format chat.
Reading list.
One thing you can bet on - sometime in the future a good campaign will go bad without any obvious reason.
That's when you need this book. It'll help you get to the root of the problem by following a methodical process. Narrow down possible causes. Home in on the exact source. Eliminate hit-or-miss guesswork and be sure that you know what went wrong and how to fix it.
Services
Reporting, automation, tracking and Power Query consulting.
I offer 1-to-1 mentoring and consulting. You’ll get help, advice, support and answers without having to commit to a long-term contract. Details here.
Related articles
Modernising legacy Google Ads account structure A successful restructure leaves the account easier to understand, easier to optimise and better positioned for the future. Understanding why the account looks like it does is key to getting from sticky mess to well-oiled machine.
Should I split a massive multi-country Google Ads account into separate accounts? At first glance it seems like splitting a big account into smaller accounts will make it easier to manage. But, there are downsides and, there are ways to make big accounts easier to manage.
An easier way to sell services. Bigger value projects take a lot of work to sell. You have to have the discovery calls, meeting notes, customised proposals and quotes. And, you often need several follow-up meetings. There is another way.
Grow your own big-budget clients Building a profitable agency or freelancing with small-budget clients is hard. Here's how to grow your smaller clients into bigger-budget clients.
My client fired me, and now he’s asking for my secret sauce. A client fired you even though you were doing a good job. Here's how to make this sting less and keep the door open for future work.
You can optimise your client's business like you optimise their Google Ads account. You can give your client a much bigger ROI by optimising their business than almost anything you can do in their Google Ads account. Here's how.
How to handle your client's terrible ideas. Your client has a terrible idea for "improving" the campaign. If you push back you're going to lose the client. Here's how to keep the client without killing the campaign.
Google Reps You may get an email or call from someone claiming to work at Google. They’ll tell call themselves an account representative, strategist, advisor or account manager. You and I would call them salesmen.
Guaranteeing Google Ads. It’s uncomfortable when a potential client asks me if I guarantee that they’ll make sales from their Google Ads. In the past my first instinct was to run away. I thought that asking for a guarantee was a sure sign that they’re going to be a toxic client. I was wrong.
Optimise your words There are a handful of non-PPC tools I'd hate to run my Google Ads business without. Hemingway is one.
The AdLeg Google Ads Software Suite. I interviewed Kyle Sulerud, creator of the AdLeg Software Suite about how he started in Google Ads (AdWords) and why he built his Google Ads creation and management software.
How do you convince a potential client to trust you if you don’t have a track record? How do you convince a potential client to trust you if you don’t have a track record? This happens a lot when people go out on their own after working in-house or for an agency. Read on to find out how I solved this problem.
How to take over an existing Google Ads account. You’ve taken over a Google Ads account that’s in trouble. You're going to turn it around - more conversions, lower costs, 10 quality scores etc. There’s a lot riding on getting this right...
Should I specialise or be a generalist? I often get asked whether it’s best to specialise or be a generalist. I understand why but I think it's the wrong question. I think a better question is ...
I've inherited a mess. Crazy structure, gibberish naming convention and 22 conversion actions that might or might not mean anything. Here is a collection of principles, tips and ideas for when you inherit a messy Google Ads account.
How to make OK money from small clients You have to work with the clients you can get, not the ones you hope for. Sometimes you might not be able to attract big-budget clients. Here's how to do OK with smaller clients.