PPC from first principles
How paid search actually works, from the auction up - so that platform changes read as consequences rather than surprises.
13 modules · about 99 minutes end to end · free, no signup
Before you start
Written for someone who can read a spreadsheet and has never run an ad account, or who inherited one and has been pressing buttons. Google Ads is the worked example throughout; the mechanics transfer to Microsoft Advertising almost directly.
Foundations
How the system actually works, before any tactics.
- 01The auctionYou are not buying position. What are you actually bidding into?7 min
- 02Keywords, queries and match typesWhy are you paying for searches you never added?7 min
- 03Campaign types and where ads appearSearch, Shopping, Performance Max, Demand Gen - what is the actual difference?7 min
- 04What you are actually buyingWhich number in the account is the one that matters?6 min
Core mechanics
The levers you will actually pull, and what each one moves.
- 05Account structureWhat decides where a campaign boundary goes?8 min
- 06Conversion tracking is the spineWhy does everything else break when this is wrong?9 min
- 07Smart Bidding: what the machine optimisesWhat is the algorithm actually trying to do, and what did you tell it?9 min
- 08Creative and assetsWhen targeting is automated, what is left to control?7 min
Working like a practitioner
Diagnosis: what to do when the numbers move and nobody knows why.
- 09Budget, pacing and constraintWhere is the money actually going, and what is holding performance back?7 min
- 10Diagnosing a performance dropConversions fell. What do you check, and in what order?9 min
- 11Automation and Performance MaxWhat control do you still have when the platform decides most of it?8 min
The frontier