The U.S. Census Bureau reports that approximately 400,000 new businesses are started every year in America. But according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, only about half of them survive more than five years. And the Small Business Administration estimates that 50 percent of new businesses actually fail during their first year, alone.

There are a lot of reasons why businesses, especially new ones, don’t make the grade. But it is safe to assume that one major reason is simple enough to deduce: not enough customers. It’s no secret that in order to get those customers a business must advertise – and a new business must advertise even more intelligently, if not more extensively, because . . .well, it’s new. Nobody yet knows that it’s out there.

One challenge for any new business is that it is likely competing with more established operations that are more well-known and more experienced in the advertising side of things. Another challenge is monetary; start-up costs often eat up a large percentage of a new business’ budget and there may be scant funds left over for a major marketing campaign.

The good news, though, is that today, the internet has helped level the playing field. And one of its best tools is Google AdWords. Whenever a prospective customer is looking for a product, service, promotion, or anything from anywhere in the world, they’re likely going to search for it on Google. And Google AdWords can get a business found. With Google AdWords, on even a moderate budget, a new business can compete on the same level as the more established firms, no matter how long it’s been around.

When a business buys an ad on Google AdWords, with a link to its website or other content, and the chosen keywords match what people are looking for, the ad appears on Page One, above or alongside the organically ranked websites in the same category. That means it gets seen. But more importantly, it gets seen only by potential customers who are already interested in what that business is selling or offering.

In addition, unlike other marketing strategies, the business only gets charged when people click on its ad. That makes Google AdWords extremely cost-effective. That’s especially important to a new business because it can determine how much it wants to spend – a budget can be set from ten dollars to thousands of dollars a day.

Google AdWords also gives a business targeting options, so a locally-based business, (such as a neighborhood restaurant), a regional company (such as a state bank), or even an e-commerce site (with, say, country shipping restrictions), can geo-target its most promising, potential customers. And it’s not wasting ad dollars on those who aren’t in its area. By using Google Places in conjunction with AdWords, a business can even show a map of its brick-and-mortar shop, if it has one.

And since new businesses, in particular, have to watch every penny spent, with Google AdWords, every single aspect of a marketing campaign is measurable – right down to the number of clicks, the number of impressions, the click through rate (CTR), the number of conversions, the conversion rate, the cost per click (CPC), the cost per acquisition (CPA), etc. So it’s very easy to measure the return on investment (ROI).

Google AdWords also helps with follow-up. When interested visitors have clicked on an ad and visited a new business’ website, they get a cookie from a code that exists on the site’s back end. When they leave, the ad can be targeted to follow them on the Google Display Networks, or Google search.

With all of its advantages – its relatively low cost, its potentially wide reach, and its broad menu of options – Google AdWords can be a hugely successful method of driving traffic and gaining new customers. Which is why every new business should consider using it – especially if it wants to wind up in the 50 percent range of those businesses that ultimately do get to stick around.