AdWords

Google's advertisement and link auction network. Most of Google's ads are keyword targeted and sold on a cost per click basis in an auction which factors in ad clickthrough rate as well as max bid. Google is looking into expanding their ad network to include video ads, demographic targeting, affiliate ads, radio ads, and traditional print ads. AdWords is an increasingly complex marketplace. One could write a 300 page book just covering AdWords. Rather than doing that here I thought it would be useful to link to many relevant resources. See also: Google AdWords - sign up for an advertiser account Google Advertising Professional Program - program for qualifying as an AdWords expert Google AdWords Learning Center - text and multimedia educational modules. Contains quizzes related to each section. AdWords Keyword Tool - shows related keywords, advertiser competition, and relative search volume estimates. Google Traffic Estimator - estimates bid prices and search volumes for keywords. Free PPC tips [PDF] - my ebook offering free pay per click advice. Andrew Goodman's Google AdWords Handbook - costs roughly $75, but is well worth it

Google's CPC (Cost Per Click) based text advertising. AdWords takes clickthrough rate into consideration in addition to advertiser?s bid to determine the ad?s relative position within the paid search results. Google applies such a weighting factor in order to feature those paid search results that more popular and thus presumably more relevant and useful. Google has also started taking into account the quality of the landing page and applying a quality score to the landing pages.