I have said it before and stand by it yet again. Google and its tools are probably the only tools that you will need to get started with an effective PPC campaign. Google Adwords keyword tool is so powerful that paid keyword subscription services can be in trouble unless they start innovating and offering features that are remarkably better than the ones offered by Google. What folks don’t understand is that Google loves us all. Google wants us all to throw our money to get traffic to our sites. That’s a big part of its business. That’s why Google offers these free tools.

But Google search can give you so much information about your niche, it’s not even funny. One of the fastest ways to get started in any niche is by looking at what others are doing. So let’s say you want to promote an offer using Google Adwords. The best way to do is by searching for a core keyword in that niche on Google. By looking at people who are advertising in your niche, you can find out a lot about the niche. For instance, if there are 4 pages of advertisers for your niche, then you can tell the market is a red ocean. By monitoring the ads on the first page for a week or a month, you can figure out who’s actually making money on Google. There are very subtle things, but at the same time are as powerful as any information you can get from paid tools.

So here is my recommendation for folks who are getting started with pay per click marketing: know you Google basics. It’s free, and there are plenty of online resources to learn from. And don’t forget to subscribe to Inside Adwords.