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Acquisition Channel Opportunities: Live streaming, Influencer Marketing, Microsoft Ads

Here are the top three opportunities for indie hackers that I discovered while reading through 4300+ marketing/tech articles last week:

1. Live streaming: Your next big revenue source?

Some data: Live streams are driving the most spending in social apps. People want to tip their favorite creators while they're live.

B2B platforms are experimenting with live streams as well:

The opportunity: The livestreaming space is moving fast and more and more people make money with it. Can you utilize this for your own niche?

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2. Want to try influencer marketing? Here's how much influencers expect from you

Intellifluence, an influencer marketplace, polled 1,249 influencers from the US, Canada, and the UK on how much they expect to be paid.

The results:

  • 70 percent of influencers expected a combination of free products and cash. 24.8 percent wanted cash only, and 5.7 percent wanted to be compensated with a product alone.
  • The more followers an influencer had, the more money they expected. Instagram influencers with little to 1,000 followers expected around $193 per post, while those with over 80k charged over a grand.
  • Not all platforms were the same. Influencers on Instagram expected the most, followed by Facebook and then Twitter.

The opportunity: In my Zero to Users research on acquisition channels, I've discovered that founders have success with "micro-influencers", that is, influencers with small but engaging following.

Furthermore, given that the majority of you have digital products, I'd anticipate Twitter to be a viable acquisition channel. Fortunately, Twitter influencers, on average, have lower $$ expectations than Instagram or Facebook influencers.

Combining these two factors (micro-influencers and Twitter), can you find Twitter micro-influencers relevant to your niche? This way, you can spend less while still having a high potential ROI.

3. Microsoft Ads: Better than Google Ads for indie hackers?

If you want to try advertising as an acquisition channel, you probably don't have thousands of dollars to get started like funded companies. You're on a tight budget, and using expensive ad networks like Google Ads is out your reach

The solution: Try "second-tier" ad networks (in terms of popularity). For search and display traffic, that's Microsoft Ads. Yes, they have way less traffic than Google, but the cost-per-click can be up to 70% lower.

The news: Microsoft has just released 2 new ad formats. One of them is Video Ads for their Audience Network. In case you missed it, Microsoft acquired LinkedIn and are now using their data fo better ad targeitng

Microsoft is the only platform with access to Bing search intent data, as well as LinkedIn profile data on video assets — this means your video ads on the Microsoft Audience Network work harder to drive deeper connections and deliver you performance across the funnel.

The opportunity: Costs are typically lower for new ad formats like these because few founders are aware of their existence. Combine that with the fact that Microsoft is a "second-tier" (in terms of popularity) ad network where costs can be much lower than Google, and we're getting close to a situation where Microsoft ads may become something that an indie hacker like you can afford.

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  1. 2

    Wasn't aware live streaming is such a big part of monetizing social media. I can see many TikTokers, for example, live streaming and getting "flowers" (i.e. money) all the time.

    1. 2

      Same with YouTube, popular YouTubers streaming and getting big gifts from their fans, it's like they're competing who's the "biggest fan".

  2. 1

    It would be nice to compare how much influencers expect vs. how much they get. These things can be different when you take negotiation into play :))

    1. 1

      Yep, would be interested in this as well. If anyone has such data, let me know!

  3. 1

    Microsoft to the rescue u say hmm… 🤔

    1. 1

      Second-tier ad platforms with real traffic in general.

      1. 1

        Any other examples? Also, did you do any research on Reddit Ads and Twitter Ads? 🙏

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