I'd have to say that my personal experience of adwords has been a good one. With a recently started property company website it was nigh impossible to get traffic through search engines, and money for advertising was very tight... a shoestring would have given us more bargaining power. But adwords gave us our very first leads and got things rolling.
I agree with you.. its helped my sites a lot as well... increase in long time visitors which come back often to check on updates and use the site..
That is great to see somebody post something positive about Adwords. I also use PPC with great success. I theorize at times that people successful using Adwords do not post often about it. Why would they? It only brings more competition the way I look at it. So many people complain about "click fraud"...just turn off content network! That is where 99% of any fraudelent clicks come from. But again, I wonder with all of the PR that "click fraud" gets how many competitors it has kept out of the markets I am in. Travis
The cost depends on many vairables; your market, your audicence, your competition, the effectiveness of your web site (how many visitors will convert to customers), etc. PPC is trial and error, but with the right business, web site, need, and audience, it can be well worth the investment. I have been using AdWords since the inception of my site, and have found it an invaluable resource for targeted traffic.