Is it possible to distribute in a FB free world?
Hello Indiehackers,
After defeating my anxiety demons, I finally decided to write my first post here.
I am currently validating an idea of a consumer app around mental health and performance.
Apart from building the product, I am toying with an idealistic goal of marketing (paid) the app without using any of Facebook's ad machinations.
I wanted to know if you think I should stop being delusional or if there is something to this. I am an IH on a savings budget, so channel efficiency and predictability is going to be very important.
Some channels that I feel could work for a consumer app in my category are listed below (in no particular order). Your ideas would be very very welcome
- Podcast Advertising
- Reddit Ads
- Advertising on category leading content sites
- Apple search ads
- Twitter Promoted Posts
- Google Search Ads
- Short video feed based ads (TikTok, SNAP)
Hi rishikar,
Perhaps ads in general aren ot the right answer for your business. I have no idea what you are building, so I may be wrong.
Perhaps the answer is to try to get some coverage for your product? If you are building a tool for kangaroo owners: ask a blogger in the space if they would like to try your product (for free) or if you could write a guest post?
Or if you are making a dating app for turtle owners, maybe try to get the local market on board first: try to get some local newspaper writing about your product.
Hope this helps!
Hi Guido,
Thanks for your suggestion. Coverage and finding bloggers is a legit path.
I am currently led to believe that unless there is a huge push by an influencer with a strong engaged audience, it is going to be very hard to distribute a consumer app without paid marketing.
I was wondering if it is absolutely necessary to use FB and Instagram, since these are often the channels that work the best for consumer apps.
I think if you're early in your product, I would caution putting much into FB and Google Ads and paid ads in general as a means for initially starting to fill your sales funnel. Those paid ads are usually high cost to low conversation unless you have a pretty tight sales pipeline and proven marketing already in place. You can always come back to them later, or not, once you've tested out your marketing and sales pipeline in more organic methods.
Similar to @guido 's point, often a better starting point is finding where your potential customers are already gathering. In addition to influencers look for communities you can join in on the conversation, websites you may be able to guest publish on, podcasts you can appear on.
To come back to your actual question, there are many successful companies not using Facebook ads so it is definitely possible.
Agree with @Guido. In addition to bloggers and podcasters, consider YouTubers as well.
ALl the best!
When it comes to ads for consumer apps it can 100% work. It requires clear understanding of funnel dynamics, but ultimately it's all about CAC>LTV (customer acquisition cost to lifetime value).
If you can acquire customers for less than your LTV, you can grow your business. If you can't you'll go out of business. That simple. Ideally a 3x CAC>LTV is the benchmark for something viable.
The keys of course are knowing each value. With ads, CAC will break down to some component of CPA (cost per acquisition) and conversion rate. Happy to go into more detail here if it's helpful.
All of these channels you mention should provide the level of detail and attribution for you to determine CAC. So yes they can work. For RockMyRun we experimented with many of these channels at one point. We've found search ads to be the most cost effective though scale was limited.
@ChiefRocker3 Thanks for sharing what worked for RockmyRun. I will definitely prioritize organic marketing and product driven growth options but I also do believe that to reach a certain level of awareness in consumer health and wellness category, there has to be a healthy component of paid channels.
Agreed. I would also emphasize that paid channels should only be pursued once you're sure you don't have a "leaky bucket", i.e. that your D1, D7, D30, M1 etc. retention levels are adequate.
Otherwise, as the analogy goes, you'll be pouring liquid (users acquired via paid channels) into a bucket that wont be able to hold them (poor retention)