I've worked with different software companies and I can say that most of them use it, but is it that effective to hit your target audience and get them as actual conversions? Am not specialized in marketing after all. Marketing people often say that there's different major types of marketing your brand, either by paid ads service or having to get influencers to back you up, the other is manual marketing through community and social media. What do you prefer other than Google AdWords in this sense?