People searching on Google are actively seeking something that will help them get a job done. You don’t have to convince them they need what you are planning to build. Also, when someone clicks on a Google ad, they don’t know that your product is still under development or “coming soon.” They’re not telling you what they think they would do if your product existed; they are acting on their belief.
Take a look at Steve Blank’s definition of an “earlyvangelist“:
Someone using Google Search is already up to level 3, and you can screen potential customers for levels 4 and 5 through:
the keywords you include and exclude
for example, someone who includes the keyword “free” in their search doesn’t have a budget
how you write your ad
you can include a price point in the ad copy to discourage casual clicks
the landing page a person sees once they click your ad
Even if your product isn’t ready yet, you can ask for permission to contact the customer later and perhaps even obtain a commitment from a customer to buy once the product is ready
Using Google AdWords can help you discover which customers have the most burning need. So how can we use Google AdWords to help define a Minimally Viable Product (MVP)?
While we as entrepreneurs typically have a vision of what a finished product might accomplish, we need to test that vision and figure out which parts of the finished product, if any, we are going to create first. To do this:
Discover keywords that customers might be using right now to search for a solution.
If we have this problem right now, how would we start to look for an answer?
Since we are too closely attached to our problem, ask people who are unfamiliar with the idea to do a web search and then observe how they search.
Do the keywords people use start to change as they get closer to a solution? Take notes on how they change and which ones they used once they get close to a solution.
Analyze competitors’ websites and webpages that people in our target market read. What keywords do other people use to describe the problem we are solving?
Set up a Google AdWords campaign with the correct campaign structure.
Make sure your ad campaign runs only on Google Search for now.
While displaying ads on other websites might help to drive sales in the future, for MVP testing we want to focus only on those people actively searching to solve a problem.
Create several groups of ads. Each group will attempt to sell a different benefit the finished product as envisioned would provide.
Each ad group should have at least two ads within it, so that we can test which ad performs better
Each ad group should use different sets of keywords (no overlap). Writing ads that closely relate to each keyword increases the chances that people will click on our ads.
Adjust your Google AdWords campaign settings to display ads evenly, so that each ad group (and ad within each group) has roughly the same chance of being seen and clicked.
Make sure your landing page has web analytics installed.
In order to learn the most from the web visitors you attract, we will want to have Google Analytics, Clicky, or similar web analytics software running on our website. This will tell us where our visitors are coming from and how they found us. Google Analytics works best in this case since you can easily connect it to AdWords to analyze campaign data.
If you want results fast, set your campaign to maximize clicks and geographic reach.
If you’re trying to run your test rapidly (such as for Startup Weekend or a 3 Day Startup), then maximizing clicks will get you more data to learn from in less time.
If you’re less time constrained, you’ll get much more mileage for your AdWords dollars by manually setting your own bids for clicks, limiting your geographic reach to customers your business can serve, and only serving ads during the times of day your best prospects are likely to be online.
After a while, one ad group will probably collect significantly more clicks than the others. The benefit that ad group addresses solves the need customers care about most. Try to satisfy that need first. Find the simplest way you can think of to demonstrate a solution to that need, and that solution might very well be your MVP!
If you’ve read this far, you’re probably highly motivated If you could help me a bit by tweeting this page, I’d like to give your testing a head start by sending you a $100 promo code to open a new AdWords account! Tweet
Use Google AdWords for MVP testing
Posted by leobooth in AdWords, earlyvangelist, Google, lean, lean startup, minimally viable product, MVP
Why use Google AdWords for MVP testing?
People searching on Google are actively seeking something that will help them get a job done. You don’t have to convince them they need what you are planning to build. Also, when someone clicks on a Google ad, they don’t know that your product is still under development or “coming soon.” They’re not telling you what they think they would do if your product existed; they are acting on their belief.
Take a look at Steve Blank’s definition of an “earlyvangelist“:
Someone using Google Search is already up to level 3, and you can screen potential customers for levels 4 and 5 through:
After a while, one ad group will probably collect significantly more clicks than the others. The benefit that ad group addresses solves the need customers care about most. Try to satisfy that need first. Find the simplest way you can think of to demonstrate a solution to that need, and that solution might very well be your MVP!
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