is google adwords simply the best bang for your buck when trying to spread the popularity of your website? would you think buying traffic direct to deliver more but unspecific traffic would be a better use of your funds? or maybe just craigslist ads or banner ads? or buying links to increase your pageranks!? let me know the SINGLE best thing you can do ( cuz i know all of em combined is the regualr answer!)
that entirely depends on your skill and knowledge. some do SEO and do a very good job with it without having to promote their sites any other ways. others think SEO is a waste of time and they start making money using adwords from day 1. however, adwords ad will not make your site popular as they are sponsored results. those sites are designed to SELL only
PPC program becomes best for you, when you start having high, positive ROI It can't be best for you, if you are not making money...
Paying for untargeted traffic is a complete waste of money! People hate banner ads and rarely click on them unless they target exactly what they are in the market for! Buying irrelevant links will do very little for your ranking, google only considers relevant links coming from same themed websites, these kind of links are hard to find, also if google catches on that you are buying links they will penalize your site For quick ROI, adwords (ppc) is the way to go Enter adwords with caution though, make sure you know what you are doing or you could wind up losing money
I like it because of the democratic effect. Every advertiser has the same power to have ads displayed as the next and so its the great equalizer. I have had great success with it. Word of advise: tailor the landing page to the search terms and create a clear call to action to help convert your users to buyers or registered users or email subscribers or whatever your mission is.