Solved: Finding People and Publishing Products Is Not OK

Hi there,

Thanks for getting in touch. Happy to give you some initial thoughts and guidance based on your questions about finding people for your new product and the costs involved. It's a common spot to be in, so don't worry. You've got the programming side sorted, now for the bit that trips a lot of people up – the marketing.

We'll need to look at validating your idea first...

Before you even think about spending serious money on ads or even finishing the app, you've got to figure out if people actually want what you're building. This is the market validation stage, and it's something you can't afford to skip. I've seen too many people build something amazing, only for it to launch to the sound of crickets because they never checked if a market existed.

So, where do you find these first people? You mentioned indie hackers, which is a great start. I'd also be looking at places like Product Hunt, Betalist, and any specific subreddits or online communities where your ideal user hangs out. These places are full of early adopters who are often happy to try new things and give you some brutally honest feedback. This feedback is gold, it'll help you shape the product into something people will actually pay for.

What I'd recomend doing is setting up a simple landing page. It doesn't need to be fancy. Just a one-pager that clearly explains what your app does, who it's for, and what problem it solves. Show off the key features, use some mockups if you have them, and get the copy to be as exciting as possible. The main goal of this page is to collect email addresses for a waitlist. You could offer a special launch deal, like a lifetime discount or a few months free, for anyone who signs up early. This creates a bit of urgency and makes people feel like they're getting in on the ground floor.

You then promote this landing page in those communities I mentioned. Don't just spam the link, though. Get involved in conversations, be helpful, and then mention you're building a solution when it's relevant. You'll need to keep this email list engaged with updates, maybe ask them for feedback on feature ideas, and give them a sneak peek. This builds a small community before you've even launched. Tbh, this is about gauging real demand. If you can't get a few dozen people to sign up to a waitlist for free, it's going to be a massive struggle to get them to pay for an app later. It's a tough pill to swallow, but finding this out early saves you a ton of time and money. It's a much safer bet than building the whole thing in the dark.

I'd say you need to understand where ads fit in...

You asked if running ads is a "must". The simple answer is no, it's not a must. You can definitly grow organically through content, SEO, and community building. But, and this is a big but, those methods are slow. Really slow. It can take months, sometimes years, to see significant traction from content and SEO. It requires a huge amount of consistent effort with no gaurantee of a payoff.

Paid ads are the complete opposite. They cost money, yes, but they give you results and feedback almost immediately. You can turn on a campaign and within 24 hours, you'll know if your messaging is resonating, if your landing page is converting, and if you're targeting the right people. It's the fastest way to get your product in front of a specific audience and test your assumptions. When you're just starting out, this speed is incredibly valuable.

I'd see ads not as a "must", but as an accelerator. They speed up the validation process we just talked about. Instead of waiting weeks for a post on a forum to get noticed, you can spend a small budget to drive a few hundred targeted visitors to your waitlist page and get your answer in a few days. If it works, you can scale it up by adding more budget. If it doesn't, you pause the ads, tweak your offer or landing page, and try again without having wasted months of your time.

You probably should focus on the offer, not just the app...

This brings me to your question about the cost to build a "good enough app". Tbh, you're asking the wrong question. It's not about how complex or feature-rich the app is. It's about how good your *offer* is. I've worked on campaigns for B2B SaaS companies, and the ones that succeed almost always have a completely irresistible, no-brainer offer to get people in the door.

You're selling a software product. This means you're asking businesses or individuals to change their habits, learn a new tool, and potentially switch from something they're already using. That's a huge ask. For example, trying to sell a new accounting system is a nightmare. Businesses only switch if they absolutely have to, because the effort is massive. To overcome that inertia, your offer needs to be incredible.

This usually means a free trial. Not a demo, a proper, no-strings-attached free trial where users can get in, use the product, and see its value for themselves. Who is going to pay for a new app without at least trying it out first? Your competition is almost certainly offering free trials, heavy discounts, and long onboarding periods. You have to compete with that.

So instead of worrying about building the "perfect" app with every feature imaginable, focus on building a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) that solves one core problem really, really well. Then wrap it in an amazing offer, like a 14 or 30-day free trial. Your entire advertising effort should then be focused on getting people to start that trial. The "good enough app" is one that delivers on the promise of the trial and convinces people to stick around. One of our clients tested their entire software concept with just a landing page and an ad campaign before a single line of code was written for the final product. They gathered waitlist signups to prove demand, then built the MVP for those initial users.

You'll need a clear strategy for your first campaigns...

Okay, so you've got an MVP, a strong offer, and a landing page built to convert visitors into trial signups. Now it's time to run some ads. Here’s a basic approach.

First, you need to pick the right platform. This depends entirely on your target audience.
-> Are people actively searching for a solution like yours? If so, Google Search Ads or Apple Search Ads are your best bet. You bid on keywords people are typing in when they have a problem, like "project management app for freelancers". This traffic is usually high quality because they already know they need help. Apple Search Ads in particular can work really well for getting app installs directly.
-> Are people *not* aware they have a problem, or not actively looking? This is where social media ads, particularly Meta (Facebook & Instagram), come in. You're not capturing existing demand; you're creating it. You have to interrupt their scrolling with a compelling ad that makes them stop and think, "Huh, I need that."

For a new app, I'd probably start with Meta ads because the targeting is so powerful. You can get really specific. But you gotta get the targeting right. Don't just target broad interests like "software". Think deeply about your ideal user. What other tools do they use? What influencers do they follow? What publications do they read? Target those specific interests. For a new account, you'll start with this detailed targeting to gather data. Once you have at least 100 trial signups, you can then create lookalike audiences, which are often your best performing audiences long-term.

In terms of cost, it varies massively. For B2C app signups, you could be looking at anything from £1-£5 per signup. For B2B, it's a lot more expensive. I recall one campaign where we drove 45k+ app signups for under £2 each using Meta Ads, Tiktok Ads, Apple Ads and Google Ads. It all depends on your niche, targeting, and how good your ads and landing page are. I'd suggest starting with a small daily budget, maybe £20-£50 a day, and focus relentlessly on the cost per trial signup. If an audience or ad isn't working after a few days, turn it off and test something new.

This is the main advice I have for you:

As you can probably tell, it's not a simple process and there are a lot of moving parts. It's very easy to waste a lot of money on ads if you don't have the right strategy or you're not tracking the right metrics. Getting professional advice can make a huge difference, helping you avoid common mistakes and get to profitability much faster.

If you'd like to go over your project in more detail and see how we could help you build and execute a proper launch strategy, feel free to book in a free, no-obligation consultation with us. We can take a proper look at your plans and give you some more specific advice.

Regards,
Team @ Lukas Holschuh