[coliveira]

Google adwords is not for small advertisers. Period. It may work fine if you spend millions of dollars or if you have so much time and experience in your hands that losing money is not a problem, but it doesn't work for the general population.

[simonbarker87]

We find Google adwords an invaluable way of backing up our TV ad campaigns and we are a fairly small start up. I've spoken to a number of Google reps and they were all really bothered about making sure that as a small business we were able to get up and running quickly because they "know we don't have a big ad department" - so from my experience, Google absolutely wants small businesses using them.

Thinking about it, with Google's push to make you add your business location to maps etc they are really starting to compete with the Yellow Pages which was/is basically 100% small to medium businesses - I guess it's a market where the combined long tail is much bigger than the big players.

[Silhouette]

We find Google adwords an invaluable way of backing up our TV ad campaigns and we are a fairly small start up.

I think if you're running TV ads, it's a given that you aren't a small advertiser in the sense that 'coliveira probably meant.

[rcarrigan87]

Size of business really isn't important, life time value of a customer is really the primary metric when evaluating whether or not a paid channel will work for your business.

If you can convert a lead profitably then it makes sense to advertise in that channel.

If you spend $400 per lead and you convert 1 out of every 10 leads to a paying customer, then it costs you $4,000 to acquire that customer. If the life time value of the customer is $10,000 with a 50% profit margin ($5,000), then you just profited $1K!

PPC is really a game of arbitrage. Where it gets hazy is calculating correct LTV (considering customer turnover, referrals, etc.) and properly tracking conversions. It's not an exact science but good advertisers can get accurate enough.

[rfergie]

The key difference for small businesses is that the fixed costs of learning and managing the system can skew these numbers.

For bigger advertisers these costs are insignificant in comparison to the media bill

[JonLim]

I'd count us as a relatively small advertiser, but it works perfectly well for us. Since I've taken over our accounts, I've made quite an impact in terms of traffic and conversions, and we don't spend that much compared to big brands.

That, and I've gotten them on the phone for support a few times already, answering random questions I have, pretty satisfactory.

[rbinv]

This is absolutely not true.

[damoncali]

My experience is very much the opposite. Large companies tend to overspend on adwords due to agency interference, ignorance, apathy, and organizational dysfunction.

Small businesses, like doctors, for example, can make a mint with AdWords. If you sell the right kind of product, it works exceedingly well even at tiny scales.