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The ads paid for are text ads that appear next to Google's search results, in the far right hand column and are labeled "sponsored links". Your ads are only shown to users searching for specific words you have placed a bid on. With Google's syndication program your ads will also appear on their partner sites, Earthlink and Sympatico. This is Google's first syndication advertising relationship and it may give Overture (formerly Goto.com) some sorely needed competition. Earthlink had been an Overture client but decided not to renew their contract, going instead with Google.

Registration is simple: it costs just $5.00 (US) to open an account. You will have to surrender your credit card information for future billing. If you were an original Ad Words customer you'll need to re-register in order to become a "Select" customer. In fairness to the original "Ad Words" CPM clients, "Select" customers cannot purchase keywords unless their CPC rate is comparable or higher than what is currently being paid for the same keywords by Ad Words customers.

Before choosing your key-phrases you'll need to write your ads. Titles can be up to 25 characters and you get 2 lines of text at 35 characters each -- plus your URL. No images or offensive language are allowed in your ad copy. Each ad is called an "ad group". An ad group is defined as a set of ads that appear for the same keywords and share the same CPC. You can create multiple ads within each ad group and they will be rotated in use. Ads that receive the most clicks eventually get shown more often and rise in position. Changes can be made to your ad copy at anytime.

Upon setup you select the countries and language markets that you want your ads displayed to. You can target more than 250 countries and up to five languages: English, French, German, Italian and Spanish.

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After setting up your ads you'll need to select the key words or phrases you wish to bid on. You'll want to choose words users are most likely to type into Google's search box when looking for your products/services. Options can be set for when your ads will appear, depending on what the searcher types in. For example, if you only wanted your ads to appear when someone types in "ezine advertising" and not "free ezine advertising", you will need to surround your key phrases with square brackets like this {ezine advertising}. This tells Google it must be an exact match for your ad to appear.

You're in charge of how much to pay per click with $0.05 being the minimum you can bid. Their "Ad Words Discounter" ensures you never pay more than is necessary. If the cost per click you picked is higher than what is needed for your ad to keep its place, the CPC you're charged will be automatically lowered. You'll never pay more than one penny over what your competition pays. This is unlike Overture, where you constantly have to monitor and re-adjust your bidding.

Also, unlike Overture, where you must bid a set amount on each keyword/phrase, with Ad Words Select you set a "maximum cost per click" which applies to all of your keywords. If you want to assign different amounts to them you'll have to set up a separate "ad group" and set a different maximum cost per click. There are no monthly minimums and you set the maximum daily amount you wish to spend.

The position of your ads on the search results page is based on two things; the maximum CPC you bid and your ads' clickthru rate. Both of these factors together will earn you a higher position. Keywords will be disabled if their click rate falls below 0.05%, so you'll want to make sure your ad copy pulls. If some of your key phrases get deactivated, you can make changes to your ad copy and reactivate them again. There is another charge if this happens more than once. Reports on your ads' activities can be viewed online by logging into Google at anytime.

From what I've seen, Google's new Ad Words Select Program has a lot of potential and great features that should make Overture sit up and take notice. Between the "Ad Words Discounter" and the no minimum monthly to spend, I think Google may just become a major player in the pay per click field.

For more information or to open an account go to....(no pun intended) Adwords.google.com