Lean startups: beware of AdWords suspensions

One of the most popular startup methodologies of the last few years has been Eric Ries’ Lean Startup. The core concept: find out what people want before you start building a product based on false assumptions. Sounds sensible, no? But there are still many people today building stuff that nobody wants – and that’s death to a startup.

An easy way to do some quick customer research before putting pixel to paper is through off-the-shelf survey tools. And one easy way to see if people will even be interested enough to fill out your survey is Google AdWords. So, and I’m sure this exact process has been followed by plenty of customer development advocates – create a survey, put up a landing page, and run AdWords to drive traffic.

Except I’ve done just that (once for Founder Labs, and again for a second project idea that I wanted to test demand for) and gotten my account suspended.

Let this be a warning to fellow customer-developers. Read the ToS, especially the landing page and site quality policy. Avoid third-party-hosted sites where you and other users are all off the same URL — if another advertiser violates the terms, you’re likely to be in for it. And minimise – avoid if possible – collection of private user-identifiable information.

Finally, it seems that an ad that leads straight to a form is a big no-no. Don’t do it. Create a nice landing page and do it the proper way.

So the message to lean startups? Don’t be sloppy! Take the time to build out something genuine and original, and don’t just take out ads pointing to a SurveyMonkey form.

Note – the above does not reflect any knowledge, information or opinion in connection to my employer. I’m writing this entirely as an affected third party.