Solved: Marketing a Waitlist Landing Page for an Unvalidated SaaS

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out! Happy to give you some initial thoughts and guidance on your SaaS waitlist launch. I've had a look at your post and your landing page, and I've got quite a bit of experience with this sort of thing, especially with B2C software.

First off, congrats on getting the landing page up. That's a big first step. You're right to try and validate the idea before you sink months or years into building something nobody wants. The market for 'tracker' apps is pretty crowded, so getting this part right is absolutely massive. It's a tough gig, but definately doable if you approach it the right way.

I've broken down my thoughts into a few areas. Hope it's helpful for you.

I'd say you need to nail the waitlist strategy first...

A waitlist page is a good start, but it's more than just a place to collect emails. You need to think of it as the very beginning of your relationship with your first potential customers. Right now, you're asking for their email, but what are they getting in return? Just a notification? That's not a very compelling deal.

You need to give them a real reason to sign up and, more importantly, a reason to stay interested until you launch. Here's what I'd be thinking about:

-> The Offer: You should tie the waitlist to a special, exclusive offer. Something like "Join the waitlist for 6 months free access at launch" or "Get a lifetime 50% discount as a founding member". This creates scarcity and makes people feel like they're getting in on the ground floor of something special. It transforms it from a simple notification list into an exclusive club.

-> The Timing: You mentioned you're still developing the app. That's fine, but you need to be careful about when you start pushing hard for signups. I've seen founders burn a lot of money and energy promoting a waitlist way too early, and by the time the product is ready, the list has gone cold. People forget they even signed up. I wouldn't start any serious promotion (especially paid ads) until you're closer to a key milestone. This could be:

• When you have a working MVP and you're trying to gauge real demand before building out more features.
• When you're about to start accepting a small group of beta testers.
• When the full launch is just a few weeks away.

-> Engagement is Everything: This is the bit most people get wrong. Once you have their email, you can't just go silent. You need to nurture that list. Send them regular updates, maybe once a fortnight. Show them sneak peeks of the UI, share a short video of a feature you've just finished, ask them for their opinion on your logo or a new feature idea. Make them feel part of the journey. These are your potential first evangelists; treat them like gold. This is how you build a community, not just an email list.

We'll need to look at your landing page...

Right, let's talk about the website. I've had a look at remitcache.com. The design is clean and modern, which is good. It doesn't look amateurish. But honestly, I can see why you might struggle to get people excited enough to sign up, and it'll probably struggle to convert traffic from ads.

Your headline is "The all-in-one tracker for your digital assets." It's descriptive, but it doesn't sell me a dream or solve a burning pain. What's the *benefit*? Does it save me money by finding forgotten subscriptions? Does it save me time by putting everything in one place? Does it prevent the panic of a domain expiring? You need to lead with the value, not just the function.

Here are a few observations from my experiance:

-> The Copy Needs Work: The copy is very feature-focused ("Track your subscriptions," "Manage your domains"). People don't buy features; they buy solutions to their problems. You need to get inside the head of your ideal customer. What keeps them up at night? Are they worried about losing track of spending? Are they overwhelmed by digital clutter? Your copy needs to speak directly to those pains. Some professional copy could really go a long way here. We often use specialist copywriters for our SaaS clients because it makes such a huge diffrence to conversion rates.

-> Where's the Trust?: As a visitor, I'm landing on a page for a product that doesn't exist yet, from a company I've never heard of. Why should I trust you with my email? You need to build some trust and credibility. Right now, there's no 'About Us', no face to the name, no social media links. Even just a small section about you, the founder, and why you're building this can help massively. People connect with people. If you have any testimonials from early testers (even friends), add them. Trust badges, links to a personal Twitter or LinkedIn, anything to show there's a real, passionate human behind this project.

-> Show, Don't Just Tell: A landing page for a piece of software without any visuals of the software is a tough sell. I know it's not built yet, but you need to help people visualise it. Can you get some high-fidelity mockups or prototypes designed? Or even better, a short animated explainer video showing how it will work? A lots of the other tracker apps already have this, and it would make you look much more proffessional and legit. It shows you're serious and have a clear vision for the product.

Just to give you an idea, here’s a quick before-and-after of how you could reframe your messaging from features to benefits:

See the difference? One describes *what it is*, the other describes *what it does for me*. That's what gets people to convert.

You probably should think about your promotion channels...

You asked specifically about Facebook ads. It's a valid question, but I'd urge you to hold off on spending money on ads just yet, especially with the landing page in its current state. Driving traffic to a page that doesn't convert well is like pouring water into a leaky bucket. You need to fix the bucket first.

When you are ready to promote, you have a few options, both free and paid.

Organic / Free Channels (Start here!):

-> Launch Directories: Get your landing page listed on sites like Betalist, Product Hunt, and Indie Hackers. The audiance on these sites are early adopters who are actively looking for new tools. It's a great way to get your first batch of signups and some invaluable, honest feedback. This should be your first port of call.

-> Communities: Are there any subreddits, Facebook groups, or Slack communities for people who would be your ideal customers? People interested in personal finance, productivity, digital nomads, solopreneurs? Don't just spam your link. Become part of the community, offer value, and then when the time is right, share what you're working on and ask for feedback. It's slower, but it builds a much higher quality initial user base.

-> Content & PR: You could try writing a few blog posts about the problem your app solves. Or reach out to bloggers and journalists in the tech or productivity space and see if they'd be interested in your story. This is a long shot, but a single article on the right blog can send a flood of relevant traffic.

Paid Channels (When you're ready):

-> Meta Ads (Facebook/Instagram): You asked about this. Yes, it can work for a B2C SaaS. We run lots of campaigns for software clients on Meta. In fact, we recently helped an app grow to over 45,000 signups at under £2 per signup using a mix of platforms including Meta. However, it's generally better for products with a strong visual appeal and an impulse-buy nature. For a waitlist, it can be expensive because you're paying for clicks without any immediate return. You'd need a really compelling offer and fantastic ad creative to make it work at this stage.

-> Google Search Ads: I'd seriously consider this channel, perhaps even over Meta initially. Why? Because you're capturing people who are *actively searching for a solution*. They are already problem-aware. Someone typing "how to track all my subscriptions" or "best app to manage domains" into Google has a much higher intent than someone scrolling through Instagram. The traffic is more expensive per click, but it's often much higher quality. For one SaaS client, we acquired 3,543 users at a cost of just £0.96 each using Google Ads. That's the power of getting in front of people with intent.

-> Apple Search Ads: Since you're building an app, this is another one to keep in mind for your launch. It lets you place your app at the top of the App Store search results for relevant keywords. It's a brilliant way to capture users right at the point of download.

You'll need a solid plan for your paid ads...

Let's imagine you've polished your landing page and you're ready to dip your toe into paid advertising. Just turning on an ad campaign isn't enough; you need a proper structure and a testing methodology.

If you were to go with Meta ads, for a new account, you can't just jump to the fancy stuff like Lookalike audiences. You have no data yet. You'd have to start with what's called 'cold' traffic, using detailed targeting.

Picking your starter audiences is everything. You need to think deeply about your ideal user. It's not just "someone with subscriptions". That's everyone. You need to get more specific. What kind of person is so organised (or wants to be) that they'd seek out an app for this?

• Interests: You could test audiences interested in productivity software (like Notion, Asana, Trello), personal finance gurus (like Martin Lewis in the UK or Dave Ramsey in the US), or competing apps. Maybe people interested in 'digital nomad' lifestyles who have to manage lots of digital tools. The key is to pick interests that are more likely to contain your target audience than not. Targeting something broad like "Technology" would be a waste of money.
• Behaviours: You could look at things like "early tech adopters" if that's available in your region.

The goal of this initial phase isn't nessesarily to get thousands of cheap signups. It's to gather data. You want to find out which audiences and which ad messages resonate. Every pound spent is buying you information. Once you have a hundred or so signups, you can start building Custom Audiences (e.g., people who visited your site but didn't sign up) for retargeting, and Lookalike Audiences (people who are similar to those who *did* sign up). This is where Meta's algorithm really starts to shine, but you need to feed it good quality data first.

And then there's the creative. You can't just run one ad. You need to be testing multiple images, videos, and headlines. We've found that for SaaS clients, authentic, user-generated-content (UGC) style videos often outperform slick, corporate-looking ones. A simple video of you talking to the camera about why you're building the app could work wonders.

I'd say you should set realistic expectations for costs...

This is a big one. It's impossible to give you an exact number, but I can give you a ballpark based on the thousands of campaigns we've run. For a 'conversion' like a waitlist signup in a developed country like the UK or US, here's what the maths typically looks like:

-> Cost Per Click (CPC): You'll likely be paying somewhere between £0.50 and £1.50 for each person who clicks your ad.

-> Landing Page Conversion Rate (CR): A decent landing page might convert 10% of its visitors. A really good one might hit 20-30%.

So, your Cost Per Signup (or Cost Per Acquisition - CPA) could be anywhere from £1.60 (£0.50 CPC / 30% CR) to £15.00 (£1.50 CPC / 10% CR). That's a huge range, and it shows just how much your landing page and ad quality matter. If your page only converts at 5%, that £15 CPA suddenly becomes £30. This is why you must fix the landing page first.

Seeing a cost of, say, £4 or £5 per signup would be pretty normal. The question is, can you afford to pay that for an email address for a product that doesn't exist yet? This is why starting with free channels is almost always the better route to get your first 100 or 500 users.

My main recommendations for you

Okay, that was a lot of information. To make it a bit more digestible, I've put the main actionable advice into a table for you. This is what I would focus on right now if I were in your shoes.

As you can see, it's not just about setting up an ad and hoping for the best. It's about having a coherent strategy that covers your offer, your messaging, your website, and your promotion channels. It's a lot to juggle, especially when you're also trying to, you know, actually build the app.

Getting these foundational pieces right before you start spending money is the difference between a successful launch and a frustrating, expensive failure. Getting professional advice can make a huge difference here. An expert can help you avoid common pitfalls, set up campaigns correctly from the start, and provide insights that you might not have thought of, ensuring every pound you spend is working as hard as possible to grow your user base.

If you'd like to chat through this in more detail, we offer a free, no-obligation initial consultation where we can take a deeper look at your plans and give you some more specific advice. Feel free to get in touch if that sounds useful.

Either way, I hope this has been helpful for you. Good luck with the launch!

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh