Google AdWords - The Road Ahead

By : Denny Smith

There is no doubt that Google AdWords has made a lot of people a lot of money and continues to do so even today. However, the real question today is not about the past but rather the future.

Competition on Google AdWords is growing rapidly and that competition is of such a nature that a newbie or even an intermediate affiliate marketer is going to find the going exceedingly difficult and costly. The price of keywords has shot through the roof. One no longer is in competition with just another individual but often with corporations and small businesses employing internet marketing AdWords experts.

And, whether you know it or not, most of those who are considered internet marketing gurus have a staff working under them. There may not be many of them but they are professionals - professionals in sales copy, web design, product research, product development, keyword tracking, and all the technical aspects of how to do this, how to do that. Often work is hired out to professionals.

All of this is important with Google AdWords because they are no longer concerned just with the quality of your ad and keywords but your site as well. They are looking for more and more professionally done sites (called landing pages by Google) all of the time. How is your web copy, your design, your content, your relevancy as Google determines it?

It is also readily apparent to about every newbie that Google does not encourage you but rather discourages you. Keywords are a great example. Find a keyword that no one is using for an AdWords ad. You do a Google search and go to the results page and you do not find a single ad listed. Okay, you ought to get the keyword cheap, right? Sorry!

Here is a case history of my own. Under just such a scenario as I have mentioned I set up an ad and bid the minimum to get it going. Okay, I thought the minimum would be 5 cents. I bid that. But, no, they come back saying it will be 15 cents. Okay, we will try that. That lasted all of 4 impressions, impressions mind you, not clicks, they then want to double the price to 30 cents to show the ad on my keyword. And, yet, there was not an AdWords ad on the page.

It is as if Google is no longer interested in small chump change or the little guys that built the company with their advertising dollars in the early days when Google was a nobody. It is almost as if they have hung out a newcomers are not welcome sign. I do not say that is their intent but only the result of what they are doing.

Now what does this bode for the future of Google AdWords? What does it mean? It means the days of the little guy are over. The days of the professionals has arrived. The day of big businesses has arrived on Google. It means Google is not the vehicle to success it once was for the guy starting out. Whatever you think about this article every person who has attempted to do AdWords will tell you it has become increasingly more and more difficult to succeed.

For the future I am wondering what is going to replace Google AdWords for the small guys just starting out? What is the next Google AdWords going to look like? What name will it have? Is it already here online but just going unrecognized? Time will tell.