Recently I watched the  CNBC documentary about Google.  They talked about the Android phone, Google search, maps to help the first responders, privacy issues and, of course, how Google is the most successful company in the history of the world.  You know, little things like that. 

Although it was clear that Google believes the “next big thing” is mobile internet, the bigger take away (at least for businesses who need more sales right now) was their Adwords success story.

The show described a handmade cowboy boot company whose 93-year-old founder tried an Adwords marketing campaign  to increase sales.  Now the company has a 4 month backorder situation.  Pretty interesting stuff when the boots we’re talking about start at $500 a pair and the country is in the midst of the largest recession since the 1930’s.

Here’s an excerpt of the show on YouTube, in case you missed it: Inside the Mind of Google

Of course, Adwords is not new news. It’s just how the most successful company in the world actually makes its money.

What was of special interest to me in the Google Adwords section was that Marie Bartiromo reported on the adwords campaign like no one knew/knows what Adwords were or had ever used them before. 

Then again, maybe I’ve been focused on social media marketing and mobile marketing and all those things that are just emerging. Maybe the general public never thinks about Adwords, but to a marketer, it seems like Adwords are old news. In fact, Google estimates that 8 out of 10 internet users views Adword ads each month.

After all, my company has been offering Adwords campaign management services to our clients for five or six years now. Yes, it’s “easy” to do your own Adwords campaign. Just like it is easy to start a blog. Easy to write an article. Easy to send out a press release. Easy to record a company video and post it to YouTube. Or to record a podcast. Like any marketing project, it just takes a bit of time to get it set up. And then some time to tweak it.

If you’d like to run an Adwords campaign, here’s some links to helpful tutorials to get you started:

• The adwords blog
• Optimizing your Google Adwords Campaign with Google Analytics
• Google Adwords Help and Support

However, if you are not a do-it-yourself marketing type… or  if you have tried setting them up but find yourself a bit overwhelmed,  you might want to consider outsourcing the set up or the whole project of your adwords campaign to a marketing professional.

So, do you use Adwords? Is your Adwords campaign sucessful in driving traffic to your website? How is your campaign performing for you?