Although Google is known the world over for its search capabilities and the belief that the site is responsible for over 80% of the searches made on the internet, the fact remains that Google's main source of income derives from the AdWords facility. Google AdWords provides pay-per-click (PPC) or cost-per-impression (CPM) advertising as well as site-specific advertising for both text and banner advertisements, with the program being capable of being tailored to provide local, national and international distribution methods.

The amount of people that use Google as their main search engine makes it the most important search engine to be found on the web and explains why firms are extremely interested in Google AdWords. If competitors are being found on Google search engines when you are not, then the results could be disastrous. No other search engine comes close to having the amount of daily users that Google achieves so if the business plans for your company requires being found on the internet, you need to make sure you will be found on Google.

Given the popularity of Google, it is likely that everyone has seen the paid ads on the Google search results page that appear to the right hand side or above the organic search results. The resulting ads are placed there due to a combination of how much the advertising company is willing to pay and the matching keywords with the information being searched for by the user. Some excellent articles have been written on maximizing profits using AdWords while reducing cost per click.

The advertising firm is able to specify the words that are used to relate to their advert as well as submitting the maximum price they are willing to pay to Google for each click that they receive. The ranked order that the paid ads appear on the screen is determined by the amount that the company is willing to pay for each click or impression and by measuring the quality score of each ad. The quality score attempts to rank the ads by relevance as well as taking into account previous click-through scores. The specific calculation that is used to determine the overall rankings is flexible and allows Google to alter or re-shape the basis upon which they rank ads, which maintains their balance of power and prevents external agents from cracking the code to receiving top ranking every time from Google. Extensive research has allowed many firms to believe they have worked out how Google determines its ranking system and these can be easily found through a quick internet search.

Like all innovations on the internet, many firms have found ways to offer additional services or provide a review of an existing Google AdWords account in an attempt to improve the profitability of the account. These measures don't come for free and the decision to employ an external agent to run your AdWords account must be balanced with the cost implications of this decision.

As you would probably expect when dealing with the market leader, a good return on Google AdWords can introduce your product or service to huge market potential but bear in mind it can be a costly affair depending on how often your advert is clicked so its important to work out the top price you can afford to pay daily and to be sure that you stick to it before submitting your AdWords ads.