AdWords Consultant

What do AdWords Consultants do? It's a fair question but as Google's AdWords system has become more and more complex, there is a surprising amount of skill required to run an account profitably.

The key skills include

• copywriting
• understanding consumer motivations
• understanding ad distribution and associated market behaviours
• understanding account structures - Campaigns and Ad Groups and, specifically, what controls are available at what level
• a good grasp of statistics and an ability to analyse data and decide what is statistically relevant and what's not
• keyword research - knowledge of research tools, what they do and how to use their results
• familiarity with the AdWords editor
• conversion tracking - what it is, where it works and where it doesn't
• integration with Google Analytics - and how to work with different traffic sources
• ad scheduling - basic and advanced
• negative keyword utilisation to control which ads your target market sees as well as who doesn't see them at all
• geotargeting capabilities and how to exploit them to the full
• time-dependent account optimisation
• billing cycles
• competitor research 
• keyword types
• content-targeting
• the AdWords pricing model
• relationship between AdWords/PPC and SEO 

There are a bunch more too but that's a quick list. Copywriting alone is a skill that can takes years to develop.

Over and above this list you need to understand how businesses work, the lifetime value of a new customer, cashflow issues, impact on margins of operational gearing and you also need the ability to work with your client closely so that the goals for the AdWords account you are managing are aligned as closely as possible with those that will maximise profitability. Check out this article on Business Analysis and AdWords optimisation to see how a deep understanding of business puts perspective on the role of an AdWords Consultant.