Google is implementing new features for its popular AdWords advertising system. Advertisers are now able to target both gender and age.

This feature adds to the demographic targeting that can be accomplished by advertisers. The more targeted the ads, the more advertisers can reach their ideal audience, and, hopefully, the less obtrusive ads will become.

Target racy t-shirts to college-aged individuals, and target a retirement community to older individuals. It makes sense.

This targeting, theoretically, also allows for better ad placement without having to fork over more dollars.

Other new features in AdWords include:

• A conversion tracking tool that lets customers measure how effective their paid links have been in generating site traffic and online transactions
• Expanded matching functionality--allowing advertisers to cash in on keyword searches related to the terms they have paid for
• An increased click-through threshold, meant to protect certain ads from the perception that they are less relevant than they might actually be

These new features were all introduced on Thursday.

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