Google created the online advertising industry over-night with the immensely popular AdWords product. If you are a business owner, small or large, and derive any of your revenue from the Internet, AdWords is an industry norm and practically essential.  In fact, you don’t even need a website or online presence to get started, as Google will help you build one for FREE.

If you know a bit about Google AdWords, the following information is probably a little basic, so I’d recommend just installing AdWords and trying it out. However, if you’re new to AdWords, here’s a brief synopsis of what AdWords is all about:

AdWords is an advertising program created by Google to allow users to create powerful and simple ads to be displayed to people who are already searching for related content. Taking full advantage of Google’s advanced search technology, relevant AdWords ads are displayed alongside search results and are highly targeted by using “keyword based advertising.”

Keyword based advertising is essentially what has revolutionized online marketing. Every day people enter keywords into Google searches looking for information and looking to make purchases, among other things.  If someone searches for “online dating” then Google displays all sorts of results for online dating. Google also displays ads, linked to the keyword(s) “online dating,” created by people and companies, using AdWords.

When you’re highly targeted ad is clicked by the user who was looking for online dating, then you’re AdWords account is charged the nominal pay per click (PPC) fee you set in your AdWords account, which is a small price to pay for a highly targeted referral to your website and/or business.

It’s fairly simple to get started with AdWords and begin driving highly targeted traffic to your website. Once you activate your account, your ads are eligible to begin appearing alongside relevant searches, bringing traffic to your site that is very interested in what you have to offer. And because you set the cost per click (CPC) and the maximum daily expenditure limit, you are in full control over how much money you invest in AdWords.

Most beginners start by putting a small amount of money (~$5.00) in an AdWords account and begin trying out different relevant keywords and ad copy. Results are all recorded and it’s easy to see if your AdWords “experiments” are providing a return. 

There’s really not a whole lot to lose, but there’s certainly a lot you could be losing by not trying out AdWords today. Sign up for AdWords and see for yourself.