The Beginner’s Guide to Pay-Per-Click Part II

Last week, we highlighted some of the basics of PPC, so this week we’ll take things a step further and talk about some of the ways you can leverage PPC to improve your business.

Use PPC to test your product ideas

Remember that old saying ‘build it and they will come?’ Yeah, that’s not true. I mean if everyone who ever owned a business instantly got paid because they had a product, we’d all have billion dollar-plus valuations and you wouldn’t be here and we wouldn’t be writing this.

Sad to say, but great products don’t build great companies. Go to any market in Asia, Australia or South American and you’ll find things there you can’t find anywhere else in the world, but then again – you can’t find them anywhere else in the world. To get products off the ground – you’ll need to ASK people if they’d use your product first.

PPC can help you conduct real, meaningful market research on your product to see if A.) There’s a demand for your product and B) if people would be interested in signing up to test your product.  Gaining this information will help you pivot and adjust your offerings to better meet the needs of your audience.

Make sure you’re not a victim. Find your audience first, then launch the product second.

PPC for Nonprofits

Yes, political people figured it out, too….

Now that we’re done with the buzz kill, politicians are important to watch – not just for the obvious reasons – but also for how they raise money. Those implications are broad for nonprofit organizations who are always money-starved and looking for new ways to attract donors.

The one thing politicians have learned and leveraged well is that it doesn’t matter what kind of media people are using – if you can get in front of them, you can get your message out. Plain and simple. So if you’re a nonprofit, you need to tap into the minds of those who are already looking to hand you money.

PPC can help you get in front of those eyes and find the best ways to reach those who want to hand you money by targeting the right key words and phrases for your campaign. PPC simply gives you a cost-effective way to ask so that you can receive.

PPC to test advertising

Sounds dizzying, right? Advertising your advertising?

Remember the company HipChat? They were the company that used a popular billboard to advertise their site. They did well, got backlinks, free media mentions, PR, etc. but they also spent $7k to run the advertisement for four weeks.

So will you get the same results if you buy a billboard? Probably not! But the point here is that offline ads are really expensive. PPC can help you test out your messaging FIRST before you plunk down the big bucks for the traditional stuff. Not only can you see whether your ad will work, but you can also maximize its potential.

Use PPC to test titles

Ever wonder why some companies are successful and others just bust? How some conferences and events end up filled to the brim while others look like sponsored ghost towns? Sometimes, it has to do with something as easy as the title of an event.

Titles, product names, event descriptions – they can have a dramatic impact on your success or failure. They help garner buzz, interest and eventually – money – from your core demographics. PPC allows you test titles and product names to see which ones gain the most attention. It also helps you get over your own creativity. More often than not, the thing WE THINK is a great idea, isn’t. PPC can certainly humble you and in many ways – save you from yourself.