Vancouver Market Testing

Market Testing your new product, concept, or headline by putting your marketing toe in the water before jumping in: Use Pay-per-click (PPC) ads on search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN..

PPC ads - keyword-oriented ads that charge the advertiser a small fee each time a visitor clicks on them - give you a great way to gauge general consumer sentiment. It is fast, easy to track, and cost effective. Success can be measured by the number of clicks and conversions generated.

Simply stated, a "click" is when a consumer responds to your ad by clicking on it to get more information. The ad typically redirects the user to a "landing page" for a promo, special offer, or order form. A "conversion" is when that same user takes the next step and follows through by taking the action you want them to take. It could be purchasing your product, requesting more information, or signing up for a free report.

To run a Pay-per-click test, create several PPC ads for your product and make sure they all run during the same time period. Each ad should take a different approach. For example, one could tie into something that's in the news, and focus on facts and the features of your product. Another one could be more obviously promotional, and tap into your prospect's emotions and need for a solution to a problem.

After two to three weeks, see which ad generated the most clicks and conversions. That's the ad you will base your marketing campaign on.

If your click rate is high but your conversion rate is low, most likely your PPC ad is appealing enough to get users to click for more information - but your landing page copy is not attractive enough to move them to make a purchase. If that's the case, you should test your price point, guarantee, offer, and other elements of the copy on your landing page that may be keeping users from taking that next step.

If your click rate is low, either your PPC ad is ineffective or your product itself is of little interest to the general public. Retest both of these elements by refining and clarifying your ad headline and copy to go after the exact audience you're targeting.

Finished Results

Once you are satisfied with your Pay-per-click testing you can move on to the next step and take it the rest of the way.

If your click rate and conversion rate are both high, that tells you that you may have a winning product on your hands. At this point, you should continue testing by expanding on your best-performing ad with a mini-rollout. For example, if you had tested your ad on just one PPC channel, such as Google, you would "roll it out" to other PPC channels, such as Yahoo, AOL, or MSN.

Market Testing on Google or another PPC platform allows you to gauge general market interest in any given topic or product. PPC ads run 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and appear all over the country. You can't get a more objective, diverse audience than that.

In addition, PPC testing is a bargain. Depending on the keywords you choose, each click will cost you an average of 10 cents to $1 (though popular keywords could go for as much as $50 per click).

So before you spend a lot of time and money (on printing, production, and list rental costs) to put a promotion in the mail, test your concept online with PPC ads first.