They are everywhere on the Internet. Google’s pay-for-click advertising program, Adwords is easily the most popular of all forms of online advertising. The little “ads by Google” could be said to drive a huge chunk of the traffic that makes Internet advertising successful and fuels the cash cow that is Google.com.

Google AdWords is a relatively simple way to purchase targeted pay-per-click advertising. AdWords ads are displayed along with search results on Google, as well as on search and content sites all across the Internet, including AOL, EarthLink, HowStuffWorks, and Google’s blog provider Blogger.
They are everywhere on the Internet. Google’s pay-for-click advertising program, Adwords is easily the most popular of all forms of online advertising. The little “ads by Google” could be said to drive a huge chunk of the traffic that makes Internet advertising successful and fuels the cash cow that is Google.com.

Google AdWords is a relatively simple way to purchase targeted pay-per-click advertising. AdWords ads are displayed along with search results on Google, as well as on search and content sites all across the Internet, including AOL, EarthLink, HowStuffWorks, and Google’s blog provider Blogger.

It is obvious that Adwords benefit Google, but what about the advertisers? Included in Google’s promotional material on Adwords are claims by several customers that Adwords has increased traffic to their website by more than 100% and increased their revenues proportionately.

Despite some claims of rampant fraud and several class action suits it is clear that the overwhelming majority of advertisers are happy with Adwords and believe it has contributed significantly to the success of their sites. In total Adwords revenue reaches the billions of dollars.

Let’s assume that you are considering starting an Adwords campaign and take a look at the program step by step. The logical place to start is with costs.

The cost of a Google Adword campaign depends on the advertiser’s needs, expectations, and knowledge of their keywords. The final factor should be thoroughly researched before even approaching the Adwords website.

There are a number of free online tools that will help a prospective advertiser select the right key words for their campaign. Some of these tools operate from a website and others require that they be downloaded to your computer but they are work in largely the same manner. You simply type in a keyword and the tool will provide a list of permeations on the word and show how often they are searched for online.

Once you have determined the best keywords for your business you simply go to the Adwords site and follow the links to begin setting up your account. You will be charged a small, one time activation fee and you control the costs by selecting how much money you are willing to spend on both the individual click and a total for the day.

The price per click can vary a good deal depending on your keywords and their popularity. For example, discount sunglasses is a very popular keyword phrase and so cost more than a less popular one like handmade baskets. In any case, the per click cost should fall with a range of a few cents to around a dollar per click.

Google provides a tool on their site that allows you to preview what different combinations of per click bids and daily totals will likely produce in visits, what page of results your add will likely land on, and how quickly you can expect your daily total to last. Keep in mind that you can alter both totals at any time and the changes go into effect immediately and the changes cost nothing.

A quick note on the daily total, don’t worry about exhausting it. When you have reached your daily limit your ad is simply suspended for the remainder of the day and will begin again the following one. In fact many advertisers intentional set very low per click bids believing that even though their low bid places them way down in the results that as the day goes on and higher bidders use up their daily total the less expensive adds will show up closer to the top as the day goes on.

Included on the Adwords set up is a simple template to fill in that will design your ad automatically. It is incredible easy to use and like the cost totals can be altered at any time. On the form has a series of boxes that you simply fill in with the desired text and your URL and Google takes care of the rest.

After you have designed your ad and selected your per click and daily totals you provide a deposit by credit card and you are ready to go. By the way, Adwords flexibility extends to deposit minimums. They are very low, about $5.

Google Adwords are not for everyone. If your business depends entirely on local business then the ads would probably be a waste on money, for example an auto repair business isn’t going to get much business from across the country no matter how many visits the ads bring. On the other hand, a business selling merchandise commonly sold online, such as apparel, toys, games, or perfumes, can hardly afford not to use Adwords.
Art Micklewraith is a freelance writer and regular contributor to Top Ten Wholesale. He can be reached at Content and Solutions or by email at artmicklewraith@gmail.com.