Consumed => “AdWords and Me: Exploring the Mystery” by Paul Downs on NY Times.

http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/03/adwords-and-me-exploring-the-mystery/?ref=business

Left a comment…

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing Paul. I’d like to add a couple of things if you don’t mind.

=> You said, “But I measure my AdWords success by calls, not clicks.” Which is absolutely true. I was impressed.

=> That said, you later added, “I didn’t have the time or money to experiment with changing one variable at a time to isolate the changes.” Simply put (mainly to those who are considering a tool like AdWords), PPC is not a something for nothing game. It’s not based on the set it and forget it model. You’ll get out what you put in. In other words, if you’re going to use a screwdriver as a hammer, don’t expect hammer-esque results.

=> And finally, you closed with the idea, “Search is mysterious. Nobody outside of Google can tell you exactly how it works…” I’m glad you said that because it’s true. There’s this mysterious (?) belief in the power of Google search yet I know of no scientific study that put Google over it’s competitors in terms of being more effective *at search*. There is no doubt AdWords made Google extremely rich. But that cash machine is independent of the rest of us getting better search results. Thank you for bringing this out in the light.