Review: Google Advertising Tools

Google Advertising Tools
by Harold Davis
O'Reilly 2006
Paperback, 353 pages
ISBN 0596101082

Google Advertising Tools is a computer programmer's introduction to earning money online, with focus on advertising with Google, carrying Google AdSense ads on one's website, and using Google APIs.

Harold Davis begins with an introductory section: "Part 1: Making Money with Your Website" -- a crash course on creating a content-based website and optimizing it for best search engine placement. He explains how to monetize a site using affiliate programs and CPC advertising, and succeeds in compressing a great deal of information into the first third of the book. 

"Part 2: Getting the Most from AdSense" explains the nuts and bolts of putting AdSense ads on a content-rich site. Most of this information is available from Google, but Davis explains it clearly.

"Part 3: Working with AdWords" holds the reader's hand through the process of signing up for an AdWords account and developing an AdWords campaign. He covers writing ads, optimizing a campaign, click-through reporting, and conversion tracking. While Davis explains the technical details of AdWords advertising, he presents little in terms of campaign strategy. He's looking at advertising from a programmer's point-of-view, not really a marketer's.

"Part 4: Using the AdWords APIs" constitutes the unique contribution of this book. Davis describes how programmers can tap into Google AdWords databases to extract data that can be integrated into software enabling ad agencies to manage hundreds or thousands of AdWords campaigns for clients. While the book doesn't include code for whole applications, the PHP snippets the author does provide are basic building blocks on which client applications using the Google AdWords API might be based.

Google Advertising Tools isn't intended for the entrepreneur or marketer. Rather, this is the book to purchase for your programmer so he can comprehend, in a language he can relate to, just what in the world you're trying to accomplish online. The book is written by a programmer for programmers.

At the time of this writing the book was available through Amazon for US $19.79, Canada CDN$27.71, UK £13.85, Germany €28,50, France €22,39, and Japan ¥3,173.