Please roast my idea: IP-based redirect as a service. Would it work?
Hi everyone. I am working with a client who has several dedicated e-commerce websites (on different subdomains) for different regions - US, AU + NZ, EU etc.
For their Facebook ads they need a single URL where all the traffic will land, and based on visitor's IP, will be then redirected to the corresponding regional website.
There is at least one service that does exactly this and a few more if you are okay with achieving the same outcome a bit differently. Also there are tons of platform-specific (WP, Shopify, etc) apps that do this, but their offering differs from what we're after: fast, under-the-hood, "invisible" redirect.
So I am currently building this as a custom mini service just for my client. But I wonder if I should make it into a product instead. This is what it would do:
- You create a redirect project
- It gives you a dedicated link for it
- You say where this link should redirect visitors from which countries
Do you think I will get any clients apart from my current one? Are there any tools like link shorteners that have this as a minor feature and do much more? Is this against Facebook ads policy anyway? Will this screw up the space-time continuum? I want to know!
All feedback welcome and highly appreciated.
Yo, @mzrnsh!
A quick DuckDuckGo search tells me that there are other companies already doing this.
I'd do a bit more competitor research on any other companies doing this and how successful they are. If other companies have already seen success in this space, lucky you! Not as much need to prove the concept since they already have.
The challenge is to make what you offer unique from the others, do a better job solving a specific pain point the other companies don't, etc.
Honestly, this is how I started my company. Saw others in the space, knew there was a market and went for it. The rest is history :)
Thank you @joehhoward 🙏🏻