You don't need a course in how to use Google Adwords because using Google Adwords is easy. I mean, do you? All the information you need about using Google Adwords is available on the Google Adwords section of the Google website. Any other article or website purporting to offer wisdom about using the advertising system is merely regurgitating this information.

The number of domain names containing the word "adwords" is frankly baffling, considering that everything you need to know about this foolproof, user-friendly advertising program can be found on the Google website. You would think that there were a thousand IT guys out there who make a living solely by being a Google Adwords expert. I don't think this is true and I really hope not. I will give humanity the benefit of the doubt and assume it is not; but if you ever want a good laugh, take a look at some of these sites.

One such webpage article, for example, went on for 1500 words about click-thru-rates (CTR), return on investment (ROI), cost-per-clicks (CPC) ad copy optimization, and keyword research ("Hi, I'm a keyword researcher"). Finally, at the bottom of the page almost as an afterthought, the budding Adwords Master got to the bit about budget. How much do you want to spend each month? Funny, because that is really the only question which matters. If you have a budget and you reach that budget each month, then CTRs don't matter a tinker's cuss. Enter your maximum budget, enter the maximum amount you are willing to pay per click and Google does the rest.

As for tracking ROI, Google does not not have a shopping cart facility which links up with its advertising program, and the shopping carts which I am familiar with do not have such a facility either. Google does not put a cookie on your website of offer any other means of tracking the visitor. Google will tell you about your CTR which will tell you how attractive the ad is to the Google searcher, but it doesn't tell you whether the clicker turns into a customer. You can use a tracking URL for the Adwords ad, but that won't tell you any more than Google does. The tracking URL will appear in your visitor stats, but the stats won't tell you if the person with that entry URL went on to make his credit card payment.

In any case, all talk of maximizing the return on your "advertising dollar" is bogus. Google makes it easy for you to see where your ad will appear at the maximum CPC you have chosen and Google automatically adjusts the cost of a click so that you never have to pay more than necessary to maintain that position - a drastic improvement on Overture which made it a full time job to keep adjusting the CPC so you didn't end paying more than necessary. For your Google Adwords account, you have a maximum advertising budget. If that budget is not being reached and you want to reach it, increase the maximum CPC for you ad campaign or add more keywords.

Apologies to all you Google experts out there, but Google Adwords is designed for the least web savvy to use with ease and, guess what, it comes with instructions. It's a great system and it is guaranteed to bring more traffic to your website - if you read the instructions. How much traffic you get depends upon one thing and one thing only: your budget. Oh, and if you have a professionally made website that works, and a valid product, then the more traffic you get the more you will sell.