One of the perils of search marketing is that, if done effectively, it’s somewhat easy to become complacent. Sales or leads are flowing and further optimizing a campaign begins to feel like more of a luxury than an absolute necessity.

Having become all too familiar with this worldview, I recently spent a couple of days in Houston, TX attending the advanced (301 & 302) AdWords Seminars for Success sponsored by Google. My goal? To learn some advanced techniques and tactics that would breath new life into my AdWords campaigns.

I also hoped for some much needed motivation. The more I’ve explored sponsored search the more I’ve found myself bogged down under mounds of data that all to often have kept me from making the hard decisions needed to make my campaigns more effective.

Overall, I came away from the seminars much more informed and decisive. I also came away with a renewed appreciation of how effective, and yes, fun, sponsored search can be.

Day 1′s morning session was an intensive review of AdWords best practices. It’s a great confidence builder to re-discover the foundations and remember how much you already know .

I also got up to speed on dynamic keyword insertion, a technique I’ve slightly frowned upon in the past. I gained an appreciation not only for it’s responsible use but it’s ease of use as well (which is probably directly correlated with the overuse of keyword insertion.)

Speaking of overlooking, I’ve never once dipped my toe into the content network. I’d come to think of it as a resource drain and akin to *gasp!* traditional advertising. I gained a new perspective on how to keep ad relevance high (a must for any search marketing junkie) and returns positive. Some truly advanced geo-targeting techniques brought day 1 to a close.

Day 2 began with bid strategies and improving ROI. There was a five minute period in which I learned a technique or two that easily justified the entire cost of the conference. An overview of account organization followed, an area in which I sorely need to attend to. I’ll have to unlearn some habits and re-think my approach in this area. As usual, strategy and long-term vision is key.

The afternoon session began with an intensive look at testing, one of my passions. I got some much needed clarity on some metrics to attend to, as I’ve always struggled with where to focus my decision making process: on click-through-rate, conversion rate, revenue…?

A high level view of AdWords Reports and Google Analytics brought the seminar to a close with more great actionable insights.

All in all, I found the Seminars for Success to be highly informative and very economical, considering most conferences are $1000+ nowadays with often questionable value. Brad Geddes, the seminar leader, really knows his stuff and is a highly skilled presenter. I’d recommend any AdWords enthusiast read his blog regularly.

Bottom line: I came away from the seminar jazzed about AdWords whereas a couple days before I’d been burned out. It’s easy to get confused and overwhelmed with AdWords campaign optimization, but I’m much clearer now about where to focus my attention and resources.

The value of the AdWords Seminars for Success greatly exceeded the cost. I’d recommend it to anyone ready to take their paid search campaigns to the next level.