Acquisition Channel Opportunities: Yelp, TikTok, YouTube Audio
Want to get more paying users? I've analyzed over 1300 tech & marketing articles over the past week, trying to identify the most relevant user acquisition opportunities for indie hackers. Here are the top 3:
1. Yelp will allow you to advertise software to their audience
Previously, Yelp allowed only brick and mortar businesses to reach their audience. This is now changing.
The news: Yelp has announced Yelp Audiences, a way to "retarget" people who searched on Yelp on other platforms.
An example: Let's say you offer dog subscription treats like BarkBox. You aren't allowed to advertise on Yelp because you're not a brick-and-mortar business.
However, with Yelp Audiences, you now appear when someone on Yelp who searched for pet-services visits X.com. Yelp will collaborate with many networks so you can show your ads on as many websites as possible.
The opportunity: A new way to reach high-intent audiences. If you have a gym app, for example, you can appear in front of people who searched for gyms on Yelp, etc. and according to Yelp 90% of people make a purchase within a week after visiting the platform.
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2. TikTok is growing like crazy. Smart indie hackers are growing with it.
The stats: TikTok recently became the first non-Facebook mobile app to reach 3 billion downloads globally. Also, TikTok is the most downloaded app according to SensorTower, a company which enterprise-level data on the global app economy, for the fourth month in a row.
Are you missing out by not being on TikTok? Personally, I'm seeing digital SaaS/apps being advertised on the platform.
Example: There are influencers who make short videos about cool things you can do with software. For example, if you provide a personal background check app, someone could make a short video with a joke saying something like: "Did you know that you could find your neighbor criminal record online?".
The opportunity: When you've been long enough on TikTok, you've seen plenty of videos like these. If you sell a B2C product or to certain professions, then definitely take a look at this app because at the moment it's growing like crazy.
3. YouTube Audio Ads Work (an experiment)
This was the conclusion behind the experiment of Creatopy, an ad design platform.
The experiment: Creatopy spent almost $7k on promoting their software on YouTube. Half of it was spent on video ads, half on audio ads (which are still in BETA).
The results: Audio ads brought them 6 view-through conversions, a new type of conversion tracking which measures how many visitors saw your ad but did not click, compared to 3 conversions via video ads. So audio ads worked twice as well as video ads. Also, twice as many people saw the audio ads for the same budget.
The opportunity: YouTube Audio Ads are quite new, but they're starting to show results for founders. If you're an indie hackers (which you are), you're always looking for low-cost promotion methods, and Audio Ads might be something you want to consider.
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How do audio ads work? And how exactl does Youtube measure " a view". I'm a little confused by the comparison you've made here. Can you ellaborate?
I think you're confused by the term "view-through conversions". Here's an explanation of it: https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/7320922?hl=en
Anyone advertise a SaaS on TikTok, how is the performance? Thanks!
Wasn't aware of Yelp :O That's what I love about this series, you uncover new acquisition channel sources we weren't aware of.
Thanks!
Thanks for all of the amazing weekly posts in this series. Really appreciate it!
Glad you liked it!
It's pretty interesting how conversion rates were higher for youtube vs. audio ads. If they didn't use an attribution method that doesn't require click (view-through conversions), they'd reach a wrong conclusion. Just goes to show how important attribution is in marketing.
Totally agree
Wonder what will be the CPM of these Linkedin Audience Network ads. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this like Google allowing you to re-target people who typed a certain keyword into their search engine?
Usually the CPMs for highly targeted audiences are higher than say, cold audiences like someone browsing their FB news feed randomly.
Gen Z = TikTok. But it's about to change in 3-4 years IMO. We'll see yet another app that FB will buy for $3 bil.
Doubt FB will buy TikTok. It stinks like a monopoly and with China x US tensions it’s unlikely that Chinese gov will let it
Not totally true. TikTok started with Gen Z, but now "older" people are on the platform as well: https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/tiktok-provides-insights-on-how-older-users-are-engaging-on-the-platform/598237/
Same thing was with Facebook.
Woah, didn't know about YouTube Audio Ads. Pretty interesting. Also haven't heard about view-through conversions.
There's been many studies where they demonstrated that people don't have to click to convert. With audio/podcast ads I think that will prove even more true.
Tired of everyone saying, no clicks = no conversions.