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Who am I to question the Dropbox CEO, but... Even if the solution is new, if you're solving a real problem that people have (and if you're not, what's wrong?), can't you use the search terms around that? E.g., "how to recover lost files", or "increase disk space", or "share files", or whatnot... Just get people at the point at which they're experiencing the pain you're addressing... No?

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can't you use the search terms around that? E.g., "how to recover lost files", or "increase disk space", or "share files", or whatnot... Just get people at the point at which they're experiencing the pain you're addressing

I think the problem is that those searchers are likely just looking for free online tutorials, not a paid solution. They got plenty of clicks, but few sales. I ran into the same problem with my outsourcing company. Small businesses with 5-10 employees aren't searching for outsourcing on Google, big multinational companies are. But I don't have a 1000 seat call center, just a dozen guys who can do web design, data entry, etc. It turns out my target market was best reached through word of mouth among small business owners, not through Adwords.

Search ads are a double edged sword. They are good because you can advertise and deliver people exactly what they are looking for, but offer them something different and the conversion rate will plummet and Google will penalize you

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