Following my recent article “Using PPC and SEO in harmony” I will now look deeper into exploring the various ways PPC can be used for niche market research.

Google’s Adsense is probably the best way for using a PPC campaign due to its high traffic volume, but not because of its Adsense system. No, indeed similar systems can be found at abundance throughout the web. Google hosts millions of searches each day, meaning that any PPC campaign is bound to find a few customers amongst such numbers.

The chronological way for using such system would be to bid for your primary keyword, specially if your site isn’t organically in the first page of Google and I can be certain that indeed most of you aren’t even close, which is why you are using PPC. Using PPC for your primary keyword is all good and well, but have you noticed how many other websites are bidding in vein for the exact same keyword? You are not the only one using PPC and if you don’t have a certain strategy in doing so you might not even get any results from such system, even though you are paying!

The most popular keywords for a given theme are competed for fiercely. So how do you go about bidding low and minimizing competition for maximum results? Well, you need to focus your campaign on niche keywords.

What do I mean by “niche keywords”? Niche keywords are words and phrases that relate to your site but are undisputed for because they are very specific. For example, if you had a website that sold second-hand furniture in New York City, instead of bidding for “second-hand furniture” or “used furniture” you can be more specific by using “second hand furniture in New York” and even “furniture New York”. How about “New York furniture” or “furniture delivery in New York”? These keywords are very specific and will generate fewer clicks, but they are QUALITY clicks. These clicks are far more likely to turn into paying customers than people who click on “used furniture”, because people who search for such general phrases could be anywhere in the world and are out of your business range, but they could also just be fishing for prices or undergoing some research. Competing for very general keywords is unwise and unprofitable.

When someone searches for “second-hand furniture New York” you immediately know they are within business range because they live in New York. Making this person far more probable of being a potential customer. Not only are they in New York but they are looking for second-hand furniture within their city, bingo!