Google AdWords Review

Google is perhaps the first place anyone looking to advertise online should start. Their system is easy to use, ads are placed almost instantly, costs are affordable for most topics and managing campaigns is simple. As far as reach, Google is probly second only to Yahoo!, and may reach even more than them with their AdSense publisher network, which any search ads placed at AdWords can be optionally shown on.

Google's AdWords program offers one great benefit to those that are willing to truly spend time managing and tweaking campaigns. It rewards relevance as much as Google rewards relevance in its natural search results. The higher the clickthrough rate on your ads, the less you pay for higher ranks. By testing many different sets of ad text and keywords, you can receive more clicks at a lower cost than those who bid more than you but whose ads don't perform as well.

The opposite is also true, which is a major downfall for advertisers with bigger budgets at Google. On high-traffic or broad keywords, the minimum clickthrough rate Google imposes on AdWords listings is often impossible to maintain long-term, so ads become disabled and the potential traffic is lost. This prevents a large portion of Google's traffic from reaching potential advertisers, and has kept my personal Google spend below what I'd be willing to give them if they'd just provide that traffic.

Overall, Google is a great place to get started due to the ability to rapidly change ads and bids, and has enough reach to benefit even the largest of advertisers.