Note: Please read the Introduction, Step 1 and Step 2 before you read this.

Google provides great services for an entrepreneur looking to gauge a particular consumer base.

One of the most important ways to gauge your market is through a survey. There are many ways to do this. You could simply go to a coffee shop and ask people about their tastes and preferences for a particular product related to coffee. But, in our Internet-savvy world, there is a much better way to gauge your audience.

In this section, I will outline a 3-step method that will allow you to validate whether people are interested in the product or service that you are about to develop. By following this 3-step method, you will see if your business is viable.

A brief overview of the 3-step method:

1. Using Google Sites, set up a landing page, which describes your product or service, has at least three survey questions on it and has a contact email address.
2. Using Google Adwords, make at least three ads that contain catchy descriptions of your product and have a link to your landing page created in Google Sites.
3. Using Google Analytics and data provided in Google Adwords, analyze the data and results to see whether your business is viable.

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Step 3: Google Analytics

Now that you have your Google Site prepared and your Adwords ad campaign set up, we can now proceed to Step 3, Google Analytics.

Google Analytics is the enterprise-class web analytics solution that gives you rich insights into your website traffic and marketing effectiveness. Powerful, flexible and easy-to-use features now let you see and analyze your traffic data in an entirely new way. With Google Analytics, you’re more prepared to write better-targeted ads, strengthen your marketing initiatives and create higher converting websites.

In order to begin, visit http://www.google.com/analytics/.


Note: If you choose to, you can set up Google Analytics through Adwords. Go to the Reporting tab and click the “Google Analytics” tab. Follow the onscreen instructions, and continue. If you choose not to do this process through Adwords, you will have to connect Analytics to Adwords. Simply go to the “Reporting” and then “Google Analytics” tabs and follow the on-screen instructions.

You should see this page:

Click the “Access Analytics.” On the next page, put in your Google account information. Then, on the next page, click “Sign Up” (unless you have previously used Analytics). Put in the URL for your Google Site. It will look something like this: http://sites.google.com/site/dogtoysinc/. Then put in your Acount Name and the next appropriate information. Click continue when you have finished.

Proceed to the next pages. You will put in your contact information and accept a user agreement. At the last page, there will be tracking code.

For a Google Site, you will not use this tracking code. However, if you would like to track another website, put this code immediately before the </body> tag. Ask your webmaster for more information.

Since you are using Google Sites, click finish without copying the code.

Your Analytics is setup. However, you must connect Analytics to Google Sites.

As you might see, there will be a yellow triangle with an “!” in it. This is because your Sites and Analytics have not been connected yet.

Go to your Google Site.

On the top right hand corner, click More Actions. Then, in the drop down menu, click “Manage Site.” You will be taken to a page that has recent
site activity. In the left navigation bar, click the “General” tab. In the Statistics box, click the checkbox that says “Enable Google Analytics for this site.” Then, go back to Google Analytics in a new window.

Next to your website URL, there will be a number that starts with UA-XXXXXXX-X. Copy that into the Googe Site box that we talked about before. Click save. It will take 24 hours for your Analytics to start tracking your website. If you have not already done so, make sure you  have connected your Adwords to your Analytics in order to receive the best data for your website. Go to the Reporting tab in Adwords and then Analytics and follow the on-screen instructions.

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How to Analyze your results (after two-three days)

Your setup is now complete. You have your Google Site connected to Adwords, and you have Analytics tracking your website visits.

After three or four days, you will begin to see your website’s results. Firstly, check your email and see the results from the survey that you posted on your website. This has valuable information that you can use for your product’s development.

I will now teach you how to interpret your data.

Go to Adwords. After signing in, you will be taken to your Snapshot page. This will have your campaign performance as well as your best performing keywords.

You should see something like this:

As you can see, 17 people click my ads in three days. On this day in particular, 6 people have clicked my ads. Obviously, my daily budget was quite low and this led to fewer clicks. Nevertheless, even with such a small budget, I still managed to have more than 17 people visit my site. Click the “Campaign” tab. Each tab will have important data. Click the keywords tab.

My best performing keywords were dogs, toys, and technology. Thus, people were interested in finding more about this combination of high-tech dog toys.

Click your ads tab.

The results show that people were greatly interested in finding a dog toy that tracks their dog’s behavior.

Now, let’s see how many people actually visited your website. Click the Reporting tab and  check your Google Analytics. Google Analytics takes longer to update than your Adwords account. There will be some discrepency.

Analytics tracks everything from how many people visited your site to what browser they were using and where they are living. This can be useful to see how many people actually had interest in your website and product.

Click the “Traffic Sources” tab and then Adwords to see the appropriate Adwords information.

Now that you have your data on hand, you must determine whether or not your business might be viable online. Just because you received low clicks and visits does not mean your business will fail. Remember that the number of visits is determined by many variables, including how much your daily budget was and how well you displayed your ads. Your business also might not work online but could very well work through non-online sources like coupon books.

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Now you have completed the 3-Step Method for Market Research. Hopefully these 3 Step Guides helped you in your business venture. Business is a difficult field to expand in. Sometimes doing research and surveys can save you time and anguish. I strongly urge anyone that is considering to start a business to do his or her research before even the product development stage.