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As more and more consumers shift to new forms of media,

like the Internet, to do nearly all their daily tasks

(correspondence, shopping, information searching,

entertainment, etc.) marketers are looking for novel ways

to bring products and services to people without going

through the pain of directly phoning them or sending

advertising materials, which add to operational costs.

The growing trend towards the Internet has compelled

advertisers to seek customers’ attention via non-intrusive

ads that appear on search engines and web sites that are

related to the services they offer.

This is where Google Adwords comes in. Google Adwords is a

relatively cheap and easy way to buy cost-per-impression

(CPM) and cost-per-click (CPC) ads. The ads come up

alongside the results that are displayed when you search

for something on Google (usually on the right side), or on

Google’s sister sites, like Blogger, EarthLink and AOL.

Being a Google Adwords account holder, you get to pay only

for the sites Internet users click. And because Google is

at the top of the Internet search engine industry, you are

sure that your ad reaches an infinite number of potential

clients.

How to Start

First off, you need to identify your advertising goals.

This will make it easier for you to build a keyword list

and categorize them into various Ad Groups, depending on

your target readers. The key questions you need to ask

before you proceed are:

1) What does your company do and what does it offer?

2) Who is your target market?

3) What are you promoting and how do you want your

customers to respond to your Adwords ads? Would you want

them to purchase something or subscribe to your service?

4) What returns do you expect? How would you gauge if your

strategy is successful?

The Cost

To make it short, Google Adwords don’t cost much to make

happen. How much you expend will depend on your alloted

budget and your knowledge of your target market. With

Google Adwords, you pay only a very minimal one-time fee to

activate your account. After which, you will only pay for

every click on your Adwords ad, which could go as low as

US$0.01 each.

If nobody clicks your Adwords ad, you don’t have to pay a

single cent! You can even set up a daily budget by placing

a limit so you can track your expenses more thoroughly.

Google Adwords’ key goal is to help small businesses reach

target customers at a small price. So even if you’re

working under a very tight budget, you can still say

goodbye to those expensive Internet ad placements.

How Do I Know if Google Adwords Benefited My Business?

You hold the answer to that. When you’ve begun seeing

profits in your venture, then that is final measure of the

Adwords success. You can track click and impression

activity on your Adwords ads by accessing the Google

Conversion Tracking page

(http://adwords.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?topic=86).

There, you will be taught the basics on you to read your

Adwords performance, as well as how to set up your

conversion tracking account and how to troubleshoot when

problems arise.

The best thing about Google Adwords is that you’re working

with a reputable name that has your interest at the topmost

of its priorities. So if you’re a startup venture that

seeks to reach a much wider range of clients at a minimum

cost, set up a Google Adwords account and reap the fruits

of your labor shortly after.