Solved: Beta Testers with Paid Ads in Austin (Data Inside)

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out!

Happy to give you some of my initial thoughts on how you can go about acquiring beta testers in Austin with paid ads. It’s a common hurdle, and it's easy to burn through cash without a solid plan. The key isn't just about picking a platform, but about building a system that attracts the *right* people who will give you the feedback you actually need.

There's a lot to unpack here, from your offer to your targeting and the ads themselves. I've laid out a pretty detailed roadmap for you below which should hopefully give you some clarity.

First things first... You'll need a solid foundation before you even think about ads

I see this all the time. Founders are eager to get their product out there, so they jump straight to running ads to a basic landing page with a simple "Join our waitlist" form. This is usually a massive waste of money. Before you spend a single pound on advertising, you need to be brutally honest about what you're asking people to do. You're asking for their time and their feedback, which are valuable. You need to give them a compelling reason to care.

Your landing page is your digital storefront. It needs to do the selling for you. You should have a page that clearly shows off the features, uses persuasive copy to get people excited, and makes it incredibly easy to sign up. This isn't just about collecting emails. It's about building a small, engaged community before you even launch.

I wouldn't start promoting a waitlist or beta signup unless you meet one of these criteria:

1. You're gauging demand for an MVP. You have an idea, maybe some mockups, and you want to see if people would actually use it before you build the whole thing. In this case, your landing page needs to be exceptionally good at selling the vision.
2. You're about to accept a cohort of beta testers. The product is functional, maybe a bit rough around the edges, but it's ready for real users to start providing feedback. There's a tangible product they can get their hands on soon.
3. Your full launch is imminent. You're building final hype and maybe offering a special launch-day deal to anyone who signs up early.

If you're not at one of these stages, your money is better spent on product development or getting a really professional landing page built. Advertising will only amplify what you already have. If you have a weak offer and a poor landing page, you'll just be paying to show more people how unready you are. It's a tough pill to swallow, but getting this right first will save you thousands down the line.

I've put together a simple flowchart to help you decide if you're actually ready to start running paid ads for your beta launch. Be honest with yourself as you go through it.

I'd say you need to define your customer by their nightmare, not their demographics

This is probably the single biggest mistake I see companies make. They create a sterile, demographic-based profile: "We're targeting marketing managers aged 25-40 in tech companies with 50-200 employees in Austin." This tells you absolutely nothing useful and leads to generic, ineffective advertising that speaks to no one.

To stop burning cash, you have to define your customer by their pain. You need to become an obsessive expert in their specific, urgent, expensive, and maybe even career-threatening nightmare. Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) isn't a person; it's a problem state.

Let's imagine your software helps with project management. Your ICP isn't just a "Project Manager". She's a leader who lies awake at 3 AM terrified that a critical deadline will be missed, that her best team members are burning out from disorganisation, and that her boss thinks her department is a chaotic money pit. Her nightmare isn't 'needing better organisation'; it's the professional and personal consequences of constant chaos.

Or maybe you've built a B2B SaaS for legal tech. The nightmare isn't 'needing document management'. It's a senior partner missing a critical court filing deadline because a document was mislabeled, exposing the entire firm to a multi-million dollar malpractice lawsuit. That's a real, visceral fear.

Once you've isolated that nightmare, everything else becomes clear. Where do these people go to find solutions? What do they read? Who do they listen to?

• -> Do they listen to niche podcasts on their commute, like 'This Week in Startups' or 'Acquired'?
• -> Do they actually read and trust industry newsletters, like 'Stratechery' by Ben Thompson?
• -> What software tools do they already pay for and live inside every day? HubSpot? Salesforce? Jira? Asana?
• -> Are they members of specific, private Facebook groups like 'SaaS Growth Hacks' or niche Slack communities?
• -> Who are the influencers they follow on LinkedIn or Twitter? People like Jason Lemkin or Sahil Bloom?

This isn't just market research; it's the blueprint for your entire targeting strategy. On Facebook, you can target people who are interested in Asana and also are admins of a business page. On LinkedIn, you can target people with the job title "Project Manager" at specific tech companies who also follow certain industry leaders. This deep understanding of their world allows you to show up in the right places with a message that resonates because it speaks directly to their pain. If you don't do this work first, you have absolutely no business spending a single pound on ads.

You probably should delete the "Sign Up for Beta" button

Okay, maybe not delete it, but you need to rethink the offer. We've arrived at the most common failure point in all of B2B and SaaS advertising: the offer itself. A generic "Sign Up for Beta" or "Request a Demo" button is one of the most arrogant Calls to Action you can use. It presumes your prospect is already sold on your solution and has nothing better to do than give you their email for a product they've never seen, or worse, book a meeting to be sold to. It's high-friction and low-value. It screams "I want something from you" instead of "I have something for you."

Your offer has one job: to deliver a moment of undeniable value. An "aha!" moment that makes the prospect sell themselves on your solution. You need to solve a small, real problem for them for free to earn the right to solve the whole thing for them later.

So, what does a better offer look like for a beta launch?

• If you're a SaaS product: The gold standard is the product itself. Can you offer a free, interactive demo on your website? Or maybe instant access to a sandboxed version of the tool with one or two key features enabled? Let them *feel* the transformation. Let the product prove its own value. I've seen some of our SaaS clients get incredible results by moving from a "book a demo" CTA to a "start your free trial" one, even for a beta. One campaign we ran for a B2B software generated 1,535 trials on Meta Ads precisely because the barrier to entry was so low and the value was immediate.
• If you're not a SaaS or the product isn't ready: You are not exempt from providing value. You must bottle your expertise into a tool, content, or asset that provides an instant win.
  • -> For a marketing tool, this could be a free, automated "5-Minute Website Audit" that shows them their top 3 SEO opportunities.
  • -> For a data analytics platform, a free "Data Health Check" that scans a sample CSV and flags the most common errors.
  • -> For a corporate training product, a free 10-minute interactive video module on a highly relevant topic, like 'How to give difficult feedback'.

For us, as an agency, our "value-first" offer is a free 20-minute strategy session where we audit failing ad campaigns. We solve a real problem for free, which builds trust and demonstrates our expertise far better than any sales pitch could. You need to figure out what your equivalent is. This is what will make people not just sign up, but actually look forward to hearing from you.

We'll need to look at your messaging... because it's probably not about features

Once you know your ICP's nightmare and you have a value-first offer, you need to craft a message they can't ignore. Your ad copy and landing page text should speak directly to their pain and offer a clear path to a solution. People don't buy features; they buy better versions of themselves and solutions to their problems. I like to use a couple of simple but powerful copywriting frameworks.

1. Problem-Agitate-Solve (PAS)

This is perfect for hitting an emotional nerve. You state the problem, you poke the wound to make them really feel it, and then you present your product as the logical solution.

Generic/Bad: "Our new AI-powered scheduling tool helps you manage your team's time more efficiently. Sign up for the beta."

PAS Version:

• Problem: "Another day of back-to-back meetings and your team is still asking 'who's working on what?'"
• Agitate: "You're drowning in status updates, critical tasks are slipping through the cracks, and your big project is drifting towards the rocks. The burnout is real."
• Solve: "Our new tool automates your team's schedule and surfaces roadblocks *before* they become disasters. Get early access and turn chaos into clarity. Join the beta."

2. Before-After-Bridge (BAB)

This framework paints a picture of their current frustrating reality (Before), shows them a much more desirable future (After), and positions your product as the bridge to get them there.

Generic/Bad: "Test our new cloud cost monitoring software. It has real-time dashboards and alerting."

BAB Version:

• Before: "Your monthly AWS bill just landed. It’s 30% higher than last month, and your engineers have no idea why. Another fire to put out."
• After: "Imagine opening your cloud bill and actually smiling. You see exactly where every dollar is going, and costly waste is automatically eliminated."
• Bridge: "Our platform is the bridge that gets you there. Be one of the first to try it and find your first £1,000 in savings. Get beta access now."

Notice how neither of these examples talks much about the 'how'. They don't list features. They focus entirely on the transformation and the emotional relief the user will experience. This is what gets clicks from the right people.

Okay, now we can talk about which ad platform to use...

With a solid foundation, landing page, ICP, offer, and message, *now* you can finally think about where to run your ads. The choice of platform should be a direct consequence of the homework you've already done on your ICP. Where do they hang out?

A) Google Search Ads: For when they're actively searching

This is for capturing intent. If your product solves a problem that people know they have and are actively looking for a solution to, Google Search is your best friend. The traffic is more expensive, but the quality is often unmatched because they are literally raising their hand for help.

• -> Keywords are everything. You need to think like your customer. What would they type into Google when they're feeling that "nightmare" pain? You'd want to target keywords that show they're looking for a solution, not just information. For example, instead of a broad keyword like "project management", you'd target "asana alternative for small teams", "software for team collaboration", or "how to fix project bottlenecks". These are "pre-qualified" searchers.
• -> Perfect for: Tools, B2B SaaS, and any solution where a clear alternative already exists. I remember one of our software clients got 3,543 users at just £0.96 per user from a highly-targeted Google Ads campaign because we focused on very specific problem-aware keywords.

B) Meta Ads (Facebook/Instagram): For when they're not searching

This is for generating demand. Your ideal beta testers might not know a solution like yours exists, or they might not be actively looking for one right now. Meta is brilliant at finding people based on their interests, behaviours, and similarities to your existing customers (once you have them).

• -> Targeting is based on your ICP research. This is where your deep dive into their world pays off. You can target people interested in competing software (e.g., Asana, Jira), people who follow industry influencers (e.g., Seth Godin), people who are part of certain groups (e.g., 'Small Business Owners'), or job titles.
• -> Start with conversion campaigns. This is a non-negotiable, and a mistake I see so many people make. They run "Reach" or "Brand Awareness" campaigns. Don't do this. You are literally telling Facebook's algorithm to find the cheapest people to show your ad to, who are by definition the least likely to click or sign up. Always, always run a "Conversions" campaign with your objective set to "Lead" or "Complete Registration" (for a signup). This forces the algorithm to find people who actually take action.
• -> Perfect for: Most B2C apps, many B2B SaaS products (especially those targeting SMBs), and any innovative product that needs to educate its market. We’ve had huge success here, like generating 5,082 software trials for a client at just $7 per trial, purely through clever targeting and compelling creative on Meta.

C) LinkedIn Ads: For hyper-specific B2B targeting

If your beta testers are professionals in specific industries with specific job titles at specific-sized companies, then LinkedIn is your platform. It's the most expensive on a per-click basis, but the targeting is surgical.

• -> You can target by job title, seniority, company size, industry, specific skills, and even specific company names. For example, you could target "Head of Engineering" at software companies with 50-200 employees in the Austin area. You can't get that granular anywhere else.
• -> Lead Gen Forms work well. LinkedIn's native lead forms pre-fill a user's profile information, which makes signing up almost frictionless. This often leads to a lower cost-per-lead (CPL), though you may need to do more work to qualify them afterwards. We've seen CPLs as low as $22 for highly qualified B2B decision-makers using this method for a software client.
• -> Perfect for: Enterprise software, high-ticket B2B services, and any product aimed squarely at a corporate decision-maker.

You'll need a way to measure your return... and it's not just money

You asked about ensuring a worthwhile return on your investment. For a beta launch, ROI isn't just about money. A successful beta test gives you three critical things:

1. Product Feedback: Finding bugs and getting suggestions for improvement from real users.
2. Market Validation: Proof that you've built something people actually want and will potentially pay for.
3. Initial User Base: A group of early adopters who can become your first case studies, testimonials, and paying customers.

The "cost" is your ad spend. The "return" is the value of this feedback and validation. So, your primary metric isn't Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) in the traditional sense. It's Cost Per *Active* Beta Tester. It's no good getting 1,000 signups if only 20 of them ever log in and use the product. You need to track the entire funnel.

I've built a small calculator for you below to help you estimate what this might look like. Play around with the numbers. You'll quickly see that improving your landing page conversion rate or your activation rate has a massive impact on your final cost, often more than just trying to get cheaper clicks.

I've detailed my main recommendations for you below:

There's a lot to take in here, I know. It's not a simple process, but doing it methodically is what separates the campaigns that succeed from the ones that just burn cash. To make it a bit more digestible, here is the step-by-step plan I would follow if I were in your shoes.

This whole process might seem daunting, and it requires a different mindset than just "setting up an ad". It's about building a predictable system for attracting the right people. It takes discipline and a willingness to test and be wrong. But when you get it right, it's not just about getting beta testers; you're building the engine for your company's future growth.

Getting expert help can often accelerate this process significantly. An experienced eye can spot opportunities or flaws in your strategy much quicker, saving you time and a considerable amount of ad spend that would otherwise be wasted on learning these lessons the hard way. We've worked on numerous software launches, reducing acquisition costs from over £100 down to £7 for one client, simply by applying these kinds of methodical principles.

If you'd like to chat through your specific product and goals in more detail, we offer a completely free, no-obligation initial consultation where we can take a look at your current setup and give you some more tailored advice. It might be a good next step to get some direct feedback.

Hope this helps!

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh