Solved: Beta Testers with No Geo Focus (Data Inside)

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out! I've had a look at your situation with acquiring beta testers. It's a common hurdle, and that feeling of not knowing where to start with targeting when you could technically sell to anyone is a classic one. The good news is the problem isn't your lack of a geographic focus; it's that we need to define your audience by their problems, not their location, and then build a compelling reason for them to sign up.

I'm happy to give you some initial thoughts and guidance on how I'd approach this. This is the same process we use for our B2B software and app clients to find their first users and scale from there.

Your ICP is a Nightmare, Not a Demographic

Right, let's get this sorted first because it's the foundation for everything else. You said you have no geographic focus, which makes you feel lost. Tbh, that's a symptom of a different, deeper problem: you haven't defined your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) by their pain. Forget the generic stuff like "small business owners in the UK" or "millennials interested in tech". It's useless. It leads to bland, generic ads that nobody clicks on because they speak to no one.

You need to become an obsessive expert in your customer's specific, urgent, and expensive nightmare. What is the problem that keeps them up at night? What's the thing that's costing them time, money, or even their reputation at work? Your product is the solution to that nightmare.

Let's make this real. Imagine you've built a new project management tool.

• Bad ICP: "Marketing managers at companies with 50-200 employees."
• Good ICP (The Nightmare): "A marketing manager named Sarah who is constantly getting blamed for missed deadlines because her team's tasks are scattered across emails, Slack, and three different spreadsheets. She's terrified of the upcoming Q3 product launch because she has zero visibility on who is doing what, and she knows the CEO will hold her personally responsible if it's delayed."

See the difference? We're not selling Sarah a "project management tool"; we're selling her confidence, control, and the ability to look good in front of her boss. The ad creative and copy writes itself from there. You talk directly to that frustration.

Once you've isolated that nightmare, your targeting becomes much clearer. Where does Sarah hang out online? She probably listens to marketing podcasts, reads industry newsletters, and is a member of certain Facebook or LinkedIn groups for marketers. She might follow specific influencers in her space. Those are your targeting interests. You're no longer advertising to a faceless demographic; you're finding Sarah where she already is.

We'll need to look at your offer...

Now, let's talk about what you're asking people to do. "Sign up to be a beta tester" is one of the weakest offers you can make. It sounds like you're asking them for a favour. You're asking for their valuable time to help you find bugs in your unfinished product. It’s a high-friction, low-value proposition for them.

You need to delete the "beta tester" concept from your vocabulary and replace it with something that offers immediate and undeniable value. Your offer's only job is to create an "aha!" moment that makes the prospect sell themselves on your solution. It's about them, not you.

Instead of "Become a Beta Tester," try framing it differently:

• The Exclusive Early Access: "Be Among the First to Solve [Nightmare Problem]. Get free, exclusive access to [Your Product Name] before we launch to the public. Limited spots available." This creates scarcity and positions it as a privilege.
• The Founder's Circle: "Help Shape the Future of [Your Industry]. Join our Founder's Circle for free access and have a direct say in the features we build next." This appeals to people who want to be influential and have their voice heard.
• The Special Launch Offer: "Get Lifetime Access for Free. Sign up for our early access program now, and you'll get a free account for life when we launch." This is a powerful incentive, especially for a paid product. We've seen this work incredibly well for B2B SaaS clients, one of whom generated $30k in sales just from a lifetime deal offer to an early audience.

Look at what your competition is doing. Are they offering free trials? Demos? Freemium plans? You need to offer something that feels more valuable or less risky than what they offer. For a new product, a completely free trial or a freemium plan (with no credit card required) is the gold standard. Let them use the actual product. Let them feel the transformation. When the product itself proves its value, the sale becomes a formality.

You probably should rethink your campaign objective...

Here’s a piece of advice that might seem contrarian, but it will save you a lot of money. Do not, under any circumstances, run "Brand Awareness" or "Reach" campaigns on platforms like Meta (Facebook/Instagram). It's a trap that so many new advertisers fall into.

When you tell the algorithm your goal is "Reach," you are giving it a very specific command: "Find me the largest number of people for the lowest possible price." The algorithm is incredibly good at its job, so it will seek out the users inside your targeting criteria who are the least likely to click an ad, the least likely to engage, and absolutely, positively the least likely to ever sign up for anything. Why? Because those users aren't in demand. Their attention is cheap. You are literally paying the world's most powerful adverstising machine to find you the worst possible audience for your product.

From day one, your campaign objective should be **Conversions**. You'll need to set up a conversion event on your website (e.g., for a successful waitlist signup). This tells the algorithm, "Go and find me more people who look and act like the people who have already signed up."

Yes, in the beginning, the cost per conversion might be high as the system learns. But you are feeding it the right data. You are training it to find you customers, not just passive viewers. Awareness is a byproduct of having a great product that solves a real problem and running ads that get people to take action. It is not a prerequisite for making a sale or getting a signup. One of our software clients saw their cost per user acquisition drop from over £100 to just £7 when we switched them from poorly targeted campaigns to a conversion-focused strategy. That's the power of telling the algorithm what you actually want.

I'd say you need to choose the right playground...

Okay, you know who you're targeting and you have a compelling offer. Now, where do you find them? The platform you choose depends entirely on your ICP's behaviour. Are they problem-aware and actively looking for a solution, or are they solution-unaware and need to be educated?

A) When they are actively searching for a solution → Google Ads

If your product solves a problem that people are actively typing into a search engine, Google Search ads are your best bet. The intent is incredibly high. You're not interrupting them; you're helping them at the exact moment they need it.

• Keywords: Think about what your ideal customer would search for. Don't just target broad terms like "project management software". Get specific. Target long-tail keywords that show buying intent, like "best software for marketing team tasks", "how to fix chaotic project workflows", or even "[competitor name] alternative".
• Ad Copy: Your ad copy needs to mirror their search query and speak directly to their pain point, then present your strong offer. For example: "Chaotic Marketing Projects? - Get full visibility on all tasks. Try [Your Product] free for life. Sign Up Now."
• Apple Search Ads: If you have a mobile app, this is a must. You can target people searching for keywords directly in the App Store. It can be very effective. We've managed an app growth campaign that drove over 45,000 signups using a mix of platforms, and Apple Ads was a key part of that for iOS users.

B) When they aren't searching for a solution → Meta & LinkedIn Ads

If your product is innovative or solves a problem people don't know they have (or don't know there's a software solution for), you need to get in front of them. This is where social ads shine.

• Meta (Facebook/Instagram): This is usually the best place to start for B2C and many types of B2B products. The targeting options are vast. You can build audiences based on the 'nightmare' profile we defined earlier: interests (e.g., people who like certain software, follow industry leaders), behaviours, and job titles (though these can be a bit broad). You can then create lookalike audiences based on your initial signups to find more people like them. We've acquired over 5,000 software trials for a client at just $7 per trial using highly targeted Meta Ads.
• LinkedIn Ads: If your ICP is defined by a very specific job title, company size, or industry (e.g., "CTOs at fintech companies in Europe with 50-200 employees"), then LinkedIn is your platform. It's more expensive, but the targeting is laser-focused for B2B. You can get really granular. We've run campaigns for B2B software clients that brought in leads from decision-makers for as low as $22 per lead, which is excellent for this platform.

You'll need a way to measure what matters...

The real question isn't "How cheap can I get a beta tester?" but "How much can I afford to pay to acquire a valuable early user who might become a paying customer?" To answer that, you need to understand a metric that most early-stage founders ignore: Customer Lifetime Value (LTV).

Even if your product is pre-revenue, you can estimate this. What do you *plan* to charge per month? What do you *anticipate* your profit margin will be? And how long do you *expect* a customer to stick around (or what's a typical monthly churn rate in your industry)? Calculating this gives you a North Star for your ad spend.

Here's the basic formula:

LTV = (Average Revenue Per Account * Gross Margin %) / Monthly Churn Rate

A healthy business model often aims for an LTV to Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) ratio of at least 3:1. This means if your LTV is £3,000, you can afford to spend up to £1,000 to acquire a customer. This simple calculation transforms your perspective. Suddenly, paying £20 for a quality beta signup who is highly likely to convert doesn't seem expensive; it looks like a bargain. It frees you from the trap of chasing cheap, low-quality signups.

I've included an interactive calculator below so you can play with your own numbers and see what's possible.

This is the main advice I have for you:

Getting this right from the start is about discipline and focus. Don't try to boil the ocean. Start small, validate your assumptions, and scale what works. I've broken down the exact steps I'd recommend into a table below. This is the framework we apply to all our new software and app clients.

This process can feel like a lot to take on, especially when you're also trying to build a product. Getting the foundations wrong with paid ads can be a very quick way to burn through cash with nothing to show for it. It's not just about setting up an ad; it's about the deep strategic work on audience definition, offer creation, and methodical testing.

That's often where working with an expert can make a huge difference. We can help you shortcut the painful and expensive learning phase, implement this entire process for you, and ensure that every pound you spend is working intelligently to find your first crucial users.

If you'd like to chat through your specific product and goals in more detail, we offer a free, no-obligation initial consultation where we can give you some more tailored advice. Just let me know if that's something you'd be interested in.

Hope this helps!

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh