Looking for the best books on Google AdWords? Here’s my list of the top books on Google Advertising, 2012. AdWords can be your best friend, or your worst marketing enemy. Marketers and small businesses use AdWords to promote their business, but Google doesn’t make it easy. These top-rated AdWords books help you understand what to do, and what NOT to do, on AdWords, to succeed!

  1. Advanced Google AdWordsThey say you can’t judge a book by its cover, and this is true for Advanced Google AdWords. Don’t let the word ‘Advanced’ scare you. This is really a very thorough, excellent treatment of AdWords from soup to nuts. Both basics and advanced. Mr. Geddes clearly knows his stuff.
    > Rating: 5 Stars | 4/4/2012 | Get it!
  2. Google Adwords Explained: How to Increase Your Profits Using The Adwords MachineThis is a new book, published by CreateSpace. So not sure if it has really truly wonderful information or not. But it may give a different perspective than the more formal books on AdWords and have some good tips.
    > Rating: 2 Stars | 2/2/2012 | Get it!
  3. Google AdWords For DummiesMy favorite book on AdWords, to date. Howie has done a fantastic job explaining AdWords for small business. He even identifies new tactics like remarketing in this up-to-date version. If you buy only one book on AdWords, this is the book to buy. This handy guide walks you through the newest tips, tricks, and techniques for maximizing your AdWords campaign. Presenting coverage that is nearly entirely rewritten or revised, this…
    > Rating: 5 Stars | 12/6/2011 | Get it!
  4. Google AdWords: Managing Your Advertising ProgramPublished by O’Reilly this book is a very serious read on AdWords. That said, it covers the very important points such as the keyword match types in excruciating detail. Its coverage of the display network / bad match types on the display network is relatively weak. I recommend this book for a more advanced user, after having bought ‘AdWords for Dummies, first’
    > Rating: 4 Stars | 11/11/2011 | Get it!
  5. Quality Score in High ResolutionQuality Score (QS) in Google AdWords is a maddening metric that measures your AdWords quality. Was that a tautology? Yes it was. Google is not very transparent on QS, beyond telling us to a) put our keywords in our AdWords ads, and b) pay attention to our long range CTR. This very expensive book claims to expose how it ‘really works.’
    > Rating: 4 Stars | 6/1/2011 | Get it!
  6. The Complete Guide to Google AdWordsMy review of this book begins, ‘Strong on Context, Weak on AdWords Details.’ Larisa Lambert’s Complete Guide to Google AdWords attempts a middle ground, and fails. Does that make it a bad book, no? Does it make it an incomplete book, yes.
    > Rating: 4 Stars | 3/7/2011 | Get it!
  7. The Definitive Guide to Google AdWordsThis book has some good coverage of the AdWords Display Network. I wish, however, that authors would be stronger in their criticism of the Display Network. Many advertisers advertise on it, without knowing or understanding and get into lots of trouble. That said, this is one of the better books on Google AdWords.
    > Rating: 4 Stars | 5/9/2012 | Get it!
  8. Ultimate Guide to Google AdWords 3/EThis book is arrogant, but I love it anyway. It covers remarketing in AdWords, which is hugely important and it emphasizes the importance of email marketing as an add on to your AdWords strategy. The Display Network is also covered. So it is going to be one of the top AdWords books on my list.
    > Rating: 5 Stars | 5/23/2012 | Get it!
  9. Web Traffic, Google AdWords and PPC Campaign: Guide for Web Traffic ImprovementThis book is a very basic intro to AdWords. I would not recommend you buy it first, but it may have some details that the others do not. This would not make it high on my list of top AdWords books for 2012, but there aren’t that many in the ecosystem – so here you go.
    > Rating: 2 Stars | 5/8/2012 | Get it!