Home > Paid Traffic Sources > Search / PPC (Adwords, Bing, etc.)

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How to Maximize Traffic Volume for a Micro Niche? (12)

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Hi, I have very limited experience with search engine PPC on Google and Bing, and no experience with display network PPC.

My niche is very targeted – how nurses can start a business (the product goes over businesses specific to their field).

In one sense the niche is large, because biz ops have mass interest.

Of course the factor that narrows it down substantially is that it's only applicable towards nurses. Even then, there are 2 or 3 million of them in the US alone.

But as search engine keyterm volume goes, there's no "obvious" traffic:




How would you guys begin to find search engine traffic for a targeted offer like this?

I know there's interest because the response on Facebook is decent, I just don't know how to ferret out traffic on the search engines when there are no obvious search terms for what I'm looking for.

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Put yourself in the mindset of your target consumer, or ask them what they search for.

On a slightly unrelated note, make sure you fully understand what is required for the numbers to back out for you.

Google/Bing is not child's play, and you can lose a lot of money very quickly if you don't know what you are doing. If you are paying $15 per click and 5% convert, that conversion cost you $300. $300 here, $300 there, and pretty soon that can add up to a lot of money and drain your wallet very fast.

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Thanks! After thinking through this some more, I did some quick brainstorming about what my target audience might search for:

Possible related interests:

- Working for themselves (relatedness: 4.5/5)
- Dealing with stress at work (relatedness: 2/5)
- Dealing with difficult bosses (relatedness: 3/5)
- Anger management (relatedness: 2/5)
- Seeking a promotion (relatedness: 3.5/5)
- Community service (relatedness: 2/5)
- Advancing into teaching/education (relatedness: 3.5/5)
- Advancing into management (relatedness: 4/5)

After checking all of these related interests, traffic for all those is low or zero.

What does get a lot of traffic is job related searches. There's definitely some crossover, starting a business and getting a job both make money, but I still wouldn't rate it more than a 3 out of 5.

Perhaps I need to create a product on how to boost a nurse's job prospects, and then soft sell the idea of working for herself in the product? Just thinking out loud here…

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Potentially ... but think about this. Your product is TARGETED at and RELEVANT ONLY to nurses. So suppose a welder or a waiter goes on Google, types in "deal with stress at work" or "starting an online business", sees your ad and clicks. Well you just paid Google $15 for a click that is pretty much worthless to you.

So if you are advertising on a PPC basis, you want to find ways to

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Yes I know exactly what you mean, I've run campaigns before ( although unprofitable) and have a pretty big list of negatives to filter out freebie seekers and other weird/undesirable demographics for most offers.

- When I said I saw a lot of job related traffic, I meant it was one of the few categories I saw a lot of nurse relevant traffic in (I don't think I'd bid on any key term that didn't specify nurse/nursing, at least not to start). The other big one is "becoming a nurse/degrees/schools" which I think has less relevance than the jobs.

- So I guess nurse job related traffic is a good place to start. Some of them are very specific and I think I can potentially create a bridge from the job market into starting a business.

- The main problem is the costs per click are so high then I'm not sure if going for an opt in, or low price info product sale can break even or even get close. Looks like the traffic is just too costly:

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I don't think doing search is your best bet here.

Generally speaking it's best to at least a rough idea of how you're going to get your customers... before creating the product you're trying to sell. "If you build it, they will come" doesn't really work in the online marketing world.

In any case, I'd not do search at all; do direct site media buys for nursing communities and such, or mail out to nursing lists that you rent or pay for access to (or, of course, build yourself in the best case).

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Mate, you are still not getting it.

These keywords are for people who want to become nurses.

Your product is for people who already are nurses but no longer want to be.

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As Josh said, I would move away from search.

You want nurses to get eyes on your product, and you are unlikely to find very good keywords that define that demographic.

Search is all about intent - so what do nurses want that they will search for that no one else will? You'll likely struggle to find much there... Discounts for nurses? Nursing union? Supplies of some kind that only nurses need?

I think you would be better off going to media buys on nurse-relevant sites i.e. that they use, emailing lists or something like Facebook where occupational targeting is viable.

At least with these approaches you are going to be speaking to the right audience.

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I don't mean to get argumentative, I just need to correct this factually. My product is for nurses who want to start nursing related businesses. This usually means they will continue to function as nurses in some capacity.


Agreed, it doesn't seem like search will be right for micro niche like mine. Not unless I find some way to profitably lead gen interest from bigger search terms into what I offer, which doesn't seem likely to be profitable given the high CPC costs.

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I see. Apologies in that case. That was my misunderstanding.

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What cmdeal said is quite valid, and it the first flaw in your strategy. I fixed it.

Here's what I'd recommend, and this is based on the success of multimillion dollar businesses I've seen:

Is your idea even viable? As much as we all hate to admit it, it may not be a good idea at all.

First, determine viability.

If you have big balls, go find some nurses in real life, pitch them your idea, and see how they react to it. "Hey, have you ever thought about starting your own business? I have a product that shows you just how. Would you ever buy this? How do you think nurses would react to it?"

If you have smaller balls and are lazy, go to online forums where nurses post, there are plenty. Ask your question there and see how the nursing population takes to it.

This isn't the end all be all, but it could save you thousands of dollars and a lot of time and effort.

Second, do a small market test, if you're still up for it.

Hire a cheap remote worker and have them collect emails of nurses, and email them an offer, or target nurses on Facebook, which will be a lot cheaper, as long as your stuff is legit and Facebook allows you.

You will probably skip step #1 and go straight to the market test, but then again, we all made that mistake. The first few thousand dollars you lose in the AM game is like the stock market, you're just paying tuition.

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Thanks and you're right, I'm on Facebook right now actually ;-)

I should note that I'm a freelance copywriter who's heavily research focused. Did extensive research and concluded this was a high probability offer, so long as I wouldn't have to pay a fortune to acquire a customer.

So far the numbers look good, I'm getting cost per lead under one dollar. My email script is having issues at the moment but once I fix that we'll see how well the list converts.

Just as you suggest, I'm running a dry test at the moment and will only build the product + upsell after seeing a cost per sale I can live with.

I can't be sure yet but I feel that more than half the battle is won just from the low cost per lead stat. I have a long-term asset that I can keep milking so long as I don't overdo it and maintain a good relationship. Word in the info marketer circles is that a well-maintained list is worth $1 per name per month, and business/financial niches can do even better than that.

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