Google’s AdWords Program

Trust Google to take the pay-per-click concept to the next level. Many of the

protocols inherent to Google’s AdWords program are now being adopted (or

copied) by other services. (LookSmart and Overture come to mind.)

Is AdWords better than your average PPC?

In some ways, it’s better and more flexible. And in some other ways, it’s worse.

The AdWords program is definitely much harder to wrap your head around, and

it’s definitely a lot easier to lose money at! However, once you do grasp its

power, you will become a convert! So what makes AdWords different?

On a typical Pay-Per-Click SE, it’s pretty easy to figure out where you are going

to appear in the rankings for your selected keywords. All you have to do is

determine your bid level, and the corresponding position is yours until someone

outbids you. Ultimately, your involvement depends on your budget.

Let’s lay out its positive and negative points to help you decide, beginning with

the former...

• The initial activation fee for an AdWords account is $5 (compared that to

Overture’s $30). Bids start at $0.05 per click, half of the $0.10 per click required

by Overture.

• Overture has a monthly minimum charge of $20. AdWords has no minimum.

• The AdWords program offers extremely targeted advertising. For example,

you could advertise to Canadians searching in French. You are also able to

select whether you want your ad to be displayed for broad matches, phrase

matches or exact keyword matches on Google's partner engines, AdSense sites,

or only on Google and its regional domains.

• The AdWords program is extremely flexible. You can set up several

campaigns, each one consisting of multiple ad groups with different keywords

and bids associated with each group. AdWords will then give you detailed

information for each individual ad, and each keyword associated with that ad.

• Daily and monthly budget limits are under the control of the advertiser.

Estimated daily advertising costs and approximate click throughs are reported for

all selected keywords.

• Google's AdWords go live immediately and are reviewed shortly afterwards

(usually within a few hours). At Overture, you'll be waiting 3-5 business days.

• AdWords’ accounts are activated via credit card after they are completely set

up. In other words, you can proceed to set up an entire campaign, and only

activate it if you like what you see.

• The AdWords program allows you to display and link to two different URLs. As

an affiliate, you could promote your merchant partner's Web site without

displaying your affiliate code. This is a moot point, since affiliates do have to

identify themselves in the AdWords text