AdWords is Google’s primary source of revenue. To give you an idea of how much money we are talking about, Google totaled advertising revenues of $21 billion dollars in 2008. AdWords offers a pay per click advertising system to businesses and individuals using both text and banner picture ads. This program allows users to target local and global markets by using a bidding system for what the ad is worth per click. AdWords, however started from humble beginnings before it turned into the massive money making juggernaut that it is today.
The original idea of AdWords was invented by a man named Bill Gross from Idealab, who borrowed it from the Yellow Pages. Google tried to buy the idea from Bill Gross but they were unable to ever settle on a deal to make it work. Google Still launched AdWords in 2000 and followed Bill Gross’s model to an extent. After the launch, Google and Idealab settled the legal dispute and AdWords was off and running without any strings attached.
When it first started, users would pay a monthly fee and Google would set up and manage their campaign for them. In order to help cater to smaller businesses, Google came up with the AdWords self-service portal so that an individual could run their own campaign catered to their small business. In 2005 Google provided a campaign management service called Jumpstart to help advertisers in setting up their own campaigns with many customizable features. This service ended and is no longer available since the Google implemented its Google Advertising Professional program in 2008, which provides a way for students to be certified in order to be hired out by companies to run their AdWords campaigns.
In 2009, Google updated and revised the AdWords interface to make it easier to use. They also added Local Business Ads for Google Maps and Video Ads to cater to a larger market and to keep up with the technological advances of marketing. As you can see, Google AdWords has become a thriving marketing beast, and if you have a business, it’s a no-brainer to get started as fast as you can. But it is one of the easiest ways to advertise and the greatest part about it is that everything can be customised such as the ad, budget, and how much you want to pay per day to show the ads, not to mention that you can select when are where to show the ads. If you are looking to jumpstart your business or get your name or product out there, Google’s PPC system has proven itself as an extreme force that is highly effective, and it will definitely help you with the marketing process.