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.