As an AdSense publisher, writing this article is probably shooting myself in the foot – as I do profit from the program. However, as part of my objective "Garontee", it’s only fair to evaluate what AdWords really is.

AdWords (http://google.com/adwords) is the sister program of AdSense (http://google.com/adsense) which delivers “relevant text ads” on websites. Ads will also appear in result pages on Google, and other search engines. In addition, Google displays AdWords ads within its new Gmail service. (http://www.w3reports.com/item/324)

Advertisers pay for each click, in the same way they would in a PPC Search engine. Advertisers pay a one-time $5 activation fee, and then an assigned fee for each click.

The signup process includes assigning the amount of money a user would like to spend on each click. Users have an option of paying anywhere from 5 cents to $50 a click. Google claims the higher the amount assigned for each click, the better chances the ads will be clicked. (Or, higher placement on publishers’ pages)

The main advantage for most to a system like AdWords is precise visitor targeting. Meaning, if I run a website that sells a specific product, I can target visitors who are viewing pages that relate directly to my product. Such as, a fishing-rod dealer can target visitors directly from pages that discuss fishing rods.

The downside is the costs. Assuming I assign a prudent $.50 cents a click, and allow 20 clicks a day, after 2 days I’ve racked up a $25 bill with Google. I highly doubt 40 visitors will generate a decent amount, if any, customers. For the same price, I could receive 25 thousand broader-targeted visitors from a pop-under advertising agency.

I should add though, there are some very practical applications for AdWords. Public announcements are a great example. Microsoft has used AdWords in the past to post security updates. For a brief time, when users queried “Sasser” into Google, a sponsored link to Microsoft appeared. Google demonstrates the same application. In a recent controversy over the results that appeared after the word “Jew” was entered into the search engine, Google posted a sponsored link to an informational page regarding the issue. (See: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&safe=off&q=jew)

In the end, as I’ve said, it depends on the application. However, I’d say, in general, AdSense is too pricey for most of us.

For more information on Google’s AdWords program, visit http://www.google.com/adwords.