In February, the NYT’s “You’re the Boss” blog published a post about the pros and cons of using Google AdWords for small businesses. The author interviewed a few business owners who said they were bypassing AdWords, at least for now, citing concerns over its expense and what they considered its return on investment.

What can one take from the post itself? Well, honestly, not much. It’s not an in-depth article. It’s a post with a narrow focus, providing the perspective of a few businesses in which the owners didn’t feel AdWords was necessarily right for them. And that’s fair, of course: Not every marketing avenue is right for everyone.

However, companies Ring Ring Marketing has worked with have seen remarkable growth in traffic, leads, customers and revenue thanks to AdWords campaigns we’ve managed.

A good marketing company understands the specific situation of the business it’s working with and designs a campaign to fulfill those needs and provide maximum return on investment. That’s especially true with us, because we don’t make money if you don’t make money. It makes no sense for us to incorporate tools into the campaign that won’t be beneficial.

In the NYT post, one startup founder claimed the costs of running an effective AdWords campaign were prohibitive, but the post never explained how much time (if any) the founders put into researching keywords that would result in higher conversion rates from the outset, or search terms that similar businesses were using.

Another business owner freely acknowledged that the business was bombarded with inquiries thanks to an AdWords campaign, indicating that the problem isn’t with the platform itself, but how that particular business managed it.

And that’s the root of the issue: Like anything else you do to promote your business, it’s not simply what you’re using — it’s how you use it. If you could press a big red button that would suddenly make your business outpace all your local competition, everyone would use the big red button.

In reality, you need the people who run your AdWords campaign to know what they’re doing. It’s not a switch you simply flip and walk away from. That’s why we’ve taken so much time at Ring Ring Marketing to understand how to create, monitor and regularly customize AdWords campaigns. That’s where the success lies.

A lot of businesses attempt to utilize AdWords without really knowing what they’re doing, which is a recipe for disaster. It’s a surgical tool, not a blunt instrument.

On the other hand, that’s something you can use to your advantage. Because the bar set by these AdWords advertisers is very low, even a fairly well-managed campaign can make a huge difference and put you well ahead of your competitors.

To understand just how Google AdWords can provide an excellent return on investment for your business, call Ring Ring Marketing. We’ll explain how it can work best for you.