Google Advertising Tools

Preface

Google and the Web have changed the way the world publishes content and the way the world advertises. It’s now possible for anyone to publish a web site, and, if the content of the site draws traffic, to make money from Google’s AdSense program, all with almost no additional effort.

It’s easy to publish a web site. The ability to make money from any site that interests visitors makes self-publishing possible in a new and revolutionary sense. If something interests you, it is likely to be of interest to at least some other people—and you can get paid to follow your interests. For example, if you write a blog that people read, it’s now easy to get paid for blogging. All of this is possible with the AdSense program.

Google’s AdWords program and contextual and CPC advertising, in which the advertiser pays by the click, have also revolutionized advertising. Contextual means that ads are relevant to site visitors—a promise that is fulfilled as in no other advertising medium.

The AdWords auction mechanism makes targeted, low-cost advertising available to almost everyone and means that there is no need to hire a specialized advertising agency to place professional and effective ads (you do need to know your way around AdWords!).

One of the wonders of AdWords is that it provides reports and mechanisms, such as conversion tracking, for understanding how successful your ads are. It’s easy to create high-quality advertising campaigns using AdWords and to understand exactly what the return ...