4 Tips To Validate A Startup Idea With Google AdWords

 

Whether it’s a product, service, solution or event, Google AdWords is the ideal platform to validate it.

There are many reasons why and these include:

 

⁃ There’s significantly more traffic on Google and partner sites to reach a wide audience than with competitors
⁃ Target people who are searching for something similar and are good prospects for your idea
⁃ Use banner display advertising to raise awareness with potential audience
⁃ AdWords is affordable and you pay only what you can afford
⁃ It is easy and quick to launch and you can be live within a few hours
⁃ Within a few hours you can know if your idea is viable or not

 

Download Free Google AdWords eBook To Learn About AdWords

 

So here are 4 tips to help validate your idea with Google AdWords:

 

Start with keyword research

There are a number of places to find keywords. These include:

 

⁃ the keyword planner tool- this tool is free and available in AdWords and is a primary resource to find out what people are searching for. It helps you to asses the possible demand for your idea. And the keywords you find can be added in their own campaign and ad group with related Ads to validate your idea.

 

⁃ Third party keyword research tools are available like Wordtracker. These aren’t free however and provide monthly and yearly packages to suit your requirements. Tools like Wordtracker aggregate Search data from a number of Search engines including Google, Bing and Yahoo. And you can see the competition level of the keywords you’ve chosen.

 

⁃ Check similar websites for potential keywords. You can do that by adding their website in the keyword planner tool and it will search their site for keywords.

 

Use the keywords you find to create a campaign and ad groups. The keywords you find such be closely related to your offer and should be in the phrase and and exact match types to begin with

 

Create a landing page
The landing page is where you’ll send AdWords traffic. It should provide detailed information about your product or service and what action your visitors should take.

 

The landing page should also include some of your primary keywords. This helps with landing page experience and boosts your quality scores.

 

You should avoid sending visitors to your homepage. The homepage is often too generic and isn’t focused on the product or service that is related to the keywords, and that’s why bounce rates tend to be high when visitors are sent to the homepage.

 

Test different features and benefits in Ads
Every ad group should have 3-5 Ads with different features and benefits for testing purposes. This helps you to test your idea in the market to see what people respond to.

 

Look at key metrics like Click Through Rate (CTR) and conversions to see the best performing Ads and keywords. The results can help you decide if your idea is viable and if you should go ahead with it.

 

Launch a Display Advertising Campaign
A display campaign is the channel to use to raise awareness for your idea. The difference with a Search campaign is that people aren’t searching for your solution, but are potential customers for it. They’ll be visiting websites that are part of the Google Display Network (GDN) and this is where you can target them.

 

First you create banners and ads that highlight your idea. Next, you use the Display Planner, a tool that’s similar to the Keyword Planner tool, but instead looks for websites to advertise on and not keywords.

 

And then you create your display campaign and ad groups to advertise on these third party websites

 

Testing an idea with Google AdWords is possible and using the features listed above will help you decide if it’s viable or not.