Google announced yesterday that for business owners signing up for Adwords Express by December 16th, they will match Adwords spending in January for free.
"Select a business category, write an ad, and set your budget. AdWords Express will automatically manage where and when your ads will appear."
Adwords Express is not meant to be a substitute for a full-fledged Adwords campaign and it's not for everyone. But for many small business owners it's a reasonable alternative. You can start and stop any time. Just visit www.google.com/awexpress to get started.