Adwords is designed to make Google rich, not you. That's why if you're not proactive and you don't know how the system works, you'll get badly burned. Google don't mind as it keeps the $ flowing for them, but here are 5 ways to transform your fortunes and beat the system:

1. Google's default setting for keywords (broad match) will lose you a lot of money if you're not careful. Check the search phrases your ads are being shown for--you'll probably see that Google is really pushing the semantic envelope on some of them. Adding negatives, phrase, and exact matches will ease your pain.

2. Don't be afraid to split your account into multiple campaigns. You can then sub-divide budgets by themes, easily see how groups of keywords are performing, and, most importantly, have a clear idea of where the volume is in your market.

3. Don't see high numbers of impressions as a good thing. If you're not getting the clicks, the branding impact is probably negligible. And vitally, high impressions with low click volumes badly hurt your CTR, which damages your quality score and CAUSES YOU TO PAY MORE FOR EVERY CLICK YOU DO GET.

4. The more targeted your adgroups, the more targeted your creative can be. This means you'll have a lower minimum bid, a higher CTR (as you're more relevant to the query), and thus a MUCH LOWER COST PER CLICK.

5. Drill down to keyword level. Instead of looking at your ROI and conversion rates at account level, at the very least drill down to theme level, or, better still, look at your conversion rates and ROI by individual keywords and match types. That's the only way you'll find the diamonds in the overwhelming rough of Adwords.

Adwords is a tough avenue to get right but persevere, don't let it slide, and you'll find your way.