Hi there,
Thanks for reaching out! I saw your post and it's a really common challange, especially for a new SaaS product. Getting those first signups for a waitlist can feel like shouting into the void. Happy to give you some initial thoughts and guidance based on what we've seen work for other software clients.
Honestly, when ads aren't working at all (0 signups), it usually points to a handful of things that need fixing before you even spend another pound on advertising. Let's break it down a bit.
First, we'll need to look at your landing page and offer...
This is the absolute foundation. You can have the best ads in the world, pointing the most perfect audience to your site, but if the page itself doesn't convince them, you'll get nothing. Since you're getting zero signups, my first guess is there's a problem here. I haven't seen the page, but here's what I'd be looking for.
Your value proposition, "give back your time spent on email by automating redundant tasks," is a good start, but it's a bit vague. Tech savvy professionals have heard promises like that a million times from other productivity apps. You've got to make it more tangible and hit them with the specific pain points they feel every day. What *exactly* are the redundant tasks? How does the AI work? You need copy that makes them go "Ah, yes, I hate doing that, and this solves it."
Think about things like:
- -> "Tired of writing the same follow-up email three times a day? Our AI learns your style and does it for you."
- -> "Get instant summaries of long, messy email chains. Never read a 20-reply thread again."
- -> "Our AI drafts replies to common questions, so all you have to do is click 'send'."
See how that's more specific? It's about translating the feature ("automating tasks") into a real-world benifit that your audience feels. A good copywriter can be worth their weight in gold here, we use one for all our SaaS clients because it makes such a difference.
Then there's the offer itself. Just asking people to "Join the waitlist" is a bit of a weak call to action. Why should they? What's in it for them? You need to make it an irresistible deal. Maybe something like:
- -> A lifetime discount for early adopters (e.g., "Join now for 50% off forever").
- -> Guaranteed first access before anyone else.
- -> Free access to premium features for the first 6 months.
This creates urgency and a clear reason to hand over their email address right now, rather than thinking "I'll check back later" and then forgetting all about you. Your landing page needs to be a single, focused sales pitch for this one action. No distractions, just a clear headline, compelling benefits, and a big, obvious button to sign up.
I'd say you need a proper pre-launch strategy...
A waitlist isn't just a list of emails you sit on untill launch day. It's your first community. You've got to nurture them. Once you've fixed the landing page and offer to actually get people signing up, you need a plan to keep them warm.
Email them regularly. Not spam, but genuine updates. Show them behind-the-scenes mockups, ask for their opinion on a feature, share a short blog post about productivity hacks. Make them feel like insiders who are helping to shape the product. When you're ready for beta testers, they should be the first people you invite. By the time you launch, they should be chomping at the bit to use the product and tell their friends.
And before you even think about scaling up paid ads, there are places you should be promoting your waitlist to get those crucial first users. These are platforms where tech savvy early adopters hang out:
- -> Product Hunt: This is a big one. A successful "Upcoming" page launch on Product Hunt can bring in hundreds or even thousands of signups from exactly the right kind of people.
- -> Betalist: Similar to Product Hunt, it's a community for discovering new startups. Great for getting in front of an engaged audience.
- -> Indie Hackers: If you're building in public, sharing your journey here can attract a lot of interest from fellow builders and potential users.
You could also try reaching out directly to tech blogs and journalists who cover productivity software. A single article on the right blog can be more powerful than weeks of advertising. This is all about building initial momentum and gathering feedback before you pour serious money into ads.
You probably should re-think your paid advertising channels...
Okay, so let's talk about the ads. You said you've been "paying for X ads". The choice of platform here is massive. For a B2C SaaS product targeting professionals, you've got two main routes, and they work in very different ways.
1. Search Ads (Google Ads): This is for capturing people who are *already looking for a solution*. They're typing things like "best email client for productivity" or "ai email assistant" into Google. The intent is super high, so conversion rates can be great. The downside is that for a new concept like an AI email client, the search volume might be low. People might not know to search for it yet. Still, it's a channel you must test. I remember one client, a software company, where we ran a campaign on Google Ads and got them 3,543 users at just £0.96 per user because we targeted the right intent-based keywords. For you, this would be about finding those problem-aware people actively seeking a fix.
2. Social Ads (Meta, LinkedIn, etc.): This is for finding people who *aren't* actively looking, but who fit your target audience profile. You're interrupting their scrolling with an ad that needs to grab their attention and convince them they have a problem you can solve. This is likely where you'll find the most scale, but the targeting and creative have to be spot on. Given your audience of "business professionals," Meta (Facebook/Instagram) and LinkedIn are your main options.
The fact you got 0 signups suggests either your targeting was way off, your creative was weak, or (most likely) a combination of that and the landing page issues we already discussed. You can't just boost a post and hope for the best; you need a proper campaign structure.
You'll need to get your targeting right on Meta...
Let's assume you were using Meta ads. Targeting "business professionals" is incredibly tricky. A common mistake is using broad interests like "Business" or "Technology". These audiences are massive and full of irrelevant people, so you just waste money. You need to get much, much smarter and more specific.
You need to think about the digital breadcrumbs your ideal customer leaves. What pages do they follow? What software do they use? What publications do they read?
Here's a better approach to building an audience on Meta:
Audience Layering Example:
- Layer 1 (Interests): Start with interests that are highly specific to tech savvy people. Think `TechCrunch`, `Wired`, `The Verge`, or interests in competitor/complementary software like `Slack`, `Asana`, `Notion`, `Superhuman`.
- AND Layer 2 (Demographics/Behaviours): Then, you need to narrow that down to professionals. You could layer in "Job titles" that contain words like `Manager`, `Director`, `Founder`, `Consultant`. Or you could use behaviours like "Small business owners" or "Business page admins".
This way, you're not just targeting everyone who likes technology; you're targeting people who like technology AND are likely to be business professionals. It creates a much more refined, relevant audience.
Once you have some data (after a few hundred signups), you can then move into more powerful audiences. This is the kind of structure we'd typically build, prioritising the audiences most likely to convert:
| Funnel Stage | Audience Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Top of Funnel (ToFu) - Cold Traffic | Detailed Targeting | The layered interest/behaviour audiences we just discussed. This is for finding new people. |
| Top of Funnel (ToFu) - Cold Traffic | Lookalike Audiences | Once you have 100+ waitlist signups, create a 1% Lookalike Audience. The algorithm finds new people who are statistically similar to your existing signups. This is often where the real scale comes from. |
| Middle/Bottom of Funnel (MoFu/BoFu) - Warm Traffic | Website Visitor Retargeting | Anyone who visited your landing page but didn't sign up. You show them different ads, maybe highlighting a different feature or showing a testimonial, to bring them back. This is critical and often the most profitable part of a campaign. |
Getting this structure right is how we've achieved things like getting 45k+ signups at under £2 per signup for an app client. It's a methodical process of testing and optimisation, not just a single ad set.
I'd seriously consider LinkedIn for your audience...
While Meta is great, your target audience of "business professionals" lives on LinkedIn. Advertising here is more expensive, there's no way around that, but the targeting quality is unmatched for B2B or prosumer products.
On LinkedIn, you don't have to guess with interests. You can directly target people based on:
- -> Job Title: Target specific roles like "Marketing Manager", "Software Engineer", "Sales Director".
- -> Industry: Focus on industries that feel the most email pain, like "Information Technology and Services", "Marketing and Advertising", "Financial Services".
- -> Company Size: You could target people at SMEs (e.g. 50-200 employees) who might be more agile in adopting new tools.
- -> Skills: Target people with skills listed on their profile related to productivity or specific software.
The best ad format to start with is usually a Sponsored Content ad (a simple image or video in the feed) that drives to your waitlist landing page. The ad copy here should be very direct and professional, focusing on business outcomes like saved hours, increased efficiency, and better communication.
You should expect a higher Cost Per Lead (CPL) here. I remember for a B2B software client, we were seeing a $22 CPL for decision makers on LinkedIn. While that sounds high compared to Meta, the quality of the lead was so much better that it was easily worth it. You might pay more for a signup, but that person is far more likely to be a serious, paying customer down the line.
We'll need to set some realistic expectations for costs...
It's vital to have a rough idea of what a waitlist signup "should" cost. It's not a fixed number, it's a range that depends on your targeting, creative, landing page conversion rate, and the platform.
Let's do some back-of-the-envelope maths based on typical performance in developed countries like the UK or US.
Your Cost Per Signup is basically your Cost Per Click (CPC) divided by your Landing Page Conversion Rate (LP CVR).
Cost Per Signup = CPC / LCVR
Here are some rough ranges we see:
| Metric | Low End (Good Performance) | High End (Poor Performance) |
|---|---|---|
| Cost Per Click (CPC) on Meta | £0.50 | £1.50 |
| Landing Page Conversion Rate (LP CVR) | 30% | 10% |
| Resulting Cost Per Signup (Low) | £0.50 / 30% = £1.67 | |
| Resulting Cost Per Signup (High) | £1.50 / 10% = £15.00 | |
As you can see, the range is huge. If your ads, targeting, and landing page are all poor, you could easily be paying £15 for a single email address, which is unsustainable. If everything is optimised and working well, you could be getting them for under £2. Your job right now is to fix the fundamentals to move from that high end towards the low end. Your current cost is infinite because you have 0 signups, which tells us the problem is in the core components, not just the ad budget.
This is the main advice I have for you:
I know that's a lot to take in. To make it clearer, I've broken down my main recommendations into a table. This is the step-by-step process I would follow if we were tackling this project.
| Area of Focus | Recommendation | Why It's Important |
|---|---|---|
| Landing Page & Offer | Overhaul the copy to focus on tangible benefits, not vague features. Introduce a compelling, time-sensitive offer (e.g., lifetime discount) to drive immediate signups. | This is the foundation. If this page doesn't convert, no amount of ad spend will help. You have to give people a powerful reason to act now. |
| Pre-Launch Promotion | Create a launch plan for Product Hunt and Betalist. Start building in public and engaging with potential users on social media and in communities like Indie Hackers. | This builds free, organic momentum from a highly relevant audience of early adopters. It validates your idea and provides crucial feedback. |
| Nurture Sequence | Set up an automated email sequence to keep your waitlist engaged with updates, behind-the-scenes content, and requests for feedback. | An un-engaged list is a dead list. You need to build a relationship so they are excited and ready to convert when you finally launch. |
| Paid Channel Strategy | Pause all current ads. Start with a small budget on Google Search for high-intent keywords, and set up properly structured Meta & LinkedIn campaigns. | Stop wasting money on what's not working. A multi-channel approach captures different types of users and diversifies your risk. |
| Ad Targeting | On Meta, use layered audiences combining specific tech interests with professional demographics. On LinkedIn, target by specific job titles and industries. Avoid broad categories. | Precision targeting is the only way to profitably reach your niche audience on social platforms and avoid burning cash on irrelevant clicks. |
| Ad Creative | Test multiple ad creatives (images and short videos) that clearly show the problem (email overload) and your solution (a specific AI feature) in the first 3 seconds. | Your ad has to stop the scroll and communicate its value almost instantly. Generic ads get ignored. |
Tackling all of this can be a massive task, especially when you're also trying to build the product itself. It involves copywriting, strategic planning, technical ad setup, and constant analysis – it's a full-time job in itself. This is often where businesses decide to bring in an expert.
Trying to figure all this out through trial and error can be incredibly expensive, not just in wasted ad spend but also in lost time. With our experience running hundreds of campaigns for software and app clients, we can skip the costly mistakes and implement a proven strategy from day one, getting your cost per signup down and building a quality waitlist much faster.
If you'd like to have a more detailed chat about your project, we offer a free initial consultation. We can go through your current setup together and map out a proper growth strategy for you. Feel free to get in touch if that sounds helpful.
Hope this helps!
Regards,
Team @ Lukas Holschuh
