Some of the more insecure agencies in our field don’t generally like to share their resources or methodology, but that’s not a hesitancy that we share. So in that vein it occurred to us that although we have shared some of our favourite resources throughout the course of our blog series, we probably haven’t provided a solid list of “go to” links. So to that end (and although this is hardly a definitive list), here are some of our favourite sources of inspiration and information when it comes to the various aspects of Google Ads, SEO & Facebook (with more platforms to be covered in the next blog).

Google Ads (Formerly Google AdWords)

Having been around almost as long as the search engine itself, there are many, many places you can look to find information on Google Ads and one obvious way is to Google the resources you need, but to safe you the effort, here are our 2 favourite go-to places.

1. Google’s Official Ads Forum – This may not look official with a URL that doesn’t include the business name, but rest assured this is the official forum for all things Ads/Adwords. It’s a thriving community of users and advertisers discussing everything from common (and rare) issues through to winning approaches, changes in the platform and winning approaches. Well worth exploring.
2. Google’s Official News Blog – Again, it’s hard to beat the official channels when it comes to AdWords. This is the official blog Google uses to inform people of all the latest when it comes to the platform.
3. Wordstream – Although this isn’t usually the first site that comes to mind for us when we’re thinking resources, we do find ourselves here more often than anticipated when seeking answers and tips. They often link out to other great blogs and resources and always seem to have done their research and have a handle on the online marketing issues being discussed, so also worth exploring.

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)

SEO has actually been around for as long as Google itself given that it’s the art of ranking well via an understanding of its requirements and algorithmic ups and downs. For this reason the online community is huge and again Googling your issue is often a good avenue, but here are a couple of our surefire standards.

1. Moz.com Blog – Without a doubt the world’s most recognised authority on SEO outside of Google themselves. These guys have been around since 2004 and their co-founder Rand Fishkin is widely acknowledged as one of the best SEO (and general web marketing) minds in the world. His “Whiteboard Fridays” are worth the subscription alone.
2. Search Engine Land – This is the place to go if you’re looking to get constant updates on the technology of search engines, changes to things like the layout or the algorithmic requirements and how best to apply this to your website so that you can stay ahead of the game.
3. Google – Seriously, when you think about it, who outside of providers and students of the practice are going to know the most about how to ensure you get the best results when searching for anything at all, let alone search optimisation terms? Searching for answers on this topic will almost always yield fruitful results and provide you with other go to resources such as search engine journal, search engine watch and much more.

Facebook Marketing

Facebook is such a unique and complicated beast when it comes to online marketing and we often bring aboard very frustrated customers who have trouble wrapping their heads around the many, many things you need to learn across both page management/advertising and PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising in order to be successful. While we’re hardly going to be able to scratch the surface in trying to give you advice on where to start here, we do have quite a few good articles of our own here and can also recommend the following.

1. Social Media Examiner – This is much like search engine land in that it covers a vast array of topics to do with social media marketing, but it has a huge wealth of Facebook specific information no matter which aspects of the platform you need help with.
2. Facebook Ads University – Fair warning right off the bat, this one is a paid service and when it comes to landing page design, we wouldn’t personally make most of the choices made on that site (read as: we think it looks pretty spammy). But with that said, LOTS of very important people in the industry swear by what you’ll learn there. It’s got professional endorsement from leading industry figures and some of the most successful Facebook campaigns every run began here, so if you’re looking to really step things up, this is the place to do it.
3. Social Pros Podcast – If you’re a bit time poor, you might be the kind of person who enjoys podcasts as opposed to having to take the time out to sit down and do nothing but read. If that’s you then these guys are your ticket. They have regular guests giving real world examples of social media success every week and it’s a highly engaging listen.

And that’s all we’ll throw at you today as we’re willing to bet you’ve got a lot to look over by this point. But we do hope we’ve been able to help and we will continue where we left off next week as we cover off resources that are Instagram specific along with great channels to find out more about Google Analytics & Tag Manager as well as producing great content marketing, so stay tuned!

As always if you’d like to know more about anything above or if you’d like to get in touch to explore your digital marketing options then please feel free to get in touch! You can also leave a comment below if you think there’s anything we’ve missed or if you have anything to add.