For our product, we know that there is commitment to cash for this category of products, because there are other products in that area which do well as far as we know. What we don't know is whether people pay $X for exactly our product. We have pondered a lot over the free 30x500 course materials, but haven't got around to join the course. We did not spend much on Adwords (< $100) and we did already gather some addresses. But it's hard to estimate the actual conversion rate without asking people to really pay money for it, and without screenshots and the like.
So, yes, we thought we could validate the idea with an Ad campaign, but we did not do it right, I think. We did not measure anything significant at all, and what we did is gather an "I'm interested" list. You are right that perhaps the best ways to validate a product is to ask real people - like asking quite bluntly "Would you pay $30 per month for this product, with this certain USP?", or even "Would you pay me $100 upfront to build this product?". That takes a lot more guts than just setting up a landing page and an adwords campaign, but I see that we should do it.
You are right that perhaps the best ways to validate a product is to ask real people - like asking quite bluntly "Would you pay $30 per month for this product, with this certain USP?", or even "Would you pay me $100 upfront to build this product?".
That's not what I said. Ensuring commitment the way you mentioned doesn't quite work because of divergence between what people say and what people do. The latter is by far the more reliable, agreed?
The 30x500 course teaches advanced 360-degree market study where you learn what people actually do and what they so badly wished they were doing instead. (So yes, you'll learn how to read between the lines, among other things.) The results of that market study forms the most robust foundation to building a value offering that has buy-in baked-in.
p.s. The above is why you'd never hear about the need to "validate a product [idea]" among 3x5ers. The assumptions behind that expression are just wrong to begin with.
So, yes, we thought we could validate the idea with an Ad campaign, but we did not do it right, I think. We did not measure anything significant at all, and what we did is gather an "I'm interested" list. You are right that perhaps the best ways to validate a product is to ask real people - like asking quite bluntly "Would you pay $30 per month for this product, with this certain USP?", or even "Would you pay me $100 upfront to build this product?". That takes a lot more guts than just setting up a landing page and an adwords campaign, but I see that we should do it.