Hi there,
Thanks for reaching out!
Finding product-market fit in a new market is a classic startup challange, especially when what worked elsewhere just falls flat. Stockholm's tech scene is sophisticated but also quite tight-knit, so a brute-force approach rarely works. The key isn't to find a magic "Stockholm strategy," but to build a system for rapidly testing your core assumptions until the market itself tells you what works.
I'm happy to give you some initial thoughts based on my experience helping tech startups use paid advertising not just for scaling, but as a lean, mean validation engine. Forget trying to get massive sales from day one. Right now, your only job is to use ads to learn faster than your competition.
TLDR;
- Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) isn't a demographic like "tech companies in Stockholm"; it's a specific, urgent, and expensive nightmare that a specific person is having. Identify that first.
- Stop selling features. Your ad copy and messaging must speak directly to that nightmare, using frameworks like Problem-Agitate-Solve to create an emotional connection.
- The "Request a Demo" button is killing your chances. You need a high-value, low-friction offer like a free tool, a freemium plan, or a valuable resource to earn trust and gather data.
- Use paid ads as a scientific tool for testing, not a megaphone for shouting. Structure small-budget campaigns to validate your ICP, message, and offer systematically. This article includes an interactive calculator to see how your offer impacts lead cost.
- The most important piece of advice is to understand your numbers from the start. We've included an LTV calculator to help you figure out how much you can actually afford to spend to acquire a customer, which is the key to sustainable growth.
We'll need to look at your ICP... Your ICP is a Nightmare, Not a Demographic
Right, let's get one thing straight. The reason your old strategies are failing is likely because you're targeting a spreadsheet entry, not a person. "Tech startups in Stockholm" is not an ICP. It's a category. It's useless for advertising because it tells you nothing about motivation, pain, or urgency. You end up with generic ads that speak to precisely no one.
To stop burning cash, you have to define your customer by their pain. What is the specific, urgent, expensive, career-threatening nightmare that keeps a specific person in a specific role awake at night? Your ICP isn't a person; it's a problem state.
Let's make this real. Instead of "tech companies," let's imagine your product helps with engineering team productivity. Your ICP isn't "CTOs in Stockholm." It's "Anna, the Head of Engineering at a Series B FinTech scale-up in Södermalm, who is terrified of losing her two best senior developers to Klarna because they're fed up with a clunky, slow internal deployment process."
See the difference? We've gone from a vague demographic to a person with a visceral, expensive problem. Anna doesn't care about your 'synergistic platform'; she cares about not having to explain to her CEO why their product roadmap is delayed again. She cares about keeping her best talent.
Once you've isolated that nightmare, you can find where these people actually live online. Where do they get their information? It's probably not generic tech news. Are they listening to Swedish-language tech podcasts like 'Digitalpodden' on their commute? Are they members of a private Slack community for Swedish CTOs? Do they follow specific local tech leaders on LinkedIn? This is the intelligence that forms your entire targeting stratgey. Do this work first, or you have no business spending a single krona on ads.
Broad Demographic
Tech Companies in Stockholm (Too Vague)
Specific Role
Head of Engineering / CTO (Better)
Problem Context
At a Series B Scale-Up (Getting Warmer)
The Nightmare!
Losing top developers due to workflow friction (Now we're talking!)
I'd say you need to nail your message... A message they can't ignore
Once you know who you're talking to and what their nightmare is, you have to craft a message that resonates. Most tech startup ads are a laundry list of features. Nobody cares. Your ad needs to enter the conversation already happening in your prospect's head.
The easiest way to do this is with a classic copywriting framework: Problem-Agitate-Solve (PAS).
- Problem: State their nightmare back to them, clearly and concisely.
- Agitate: Poke the bruise. Remind them of the consequences of inaction. What happens if this problem continues?
- Solve: Introduce your product as the clear, obvious solution.
Let's go back to our CTO, Anna. A feature-based ad would say: "Introducing DevFlow 2.0 with AI-powered deployment pipelines and synergistic integrations." Anna would scroll right past that. It means nothing to her.
A PAS-based ad would say:
(Problem) "Losing your best engineers to the big Stockholm tech firms? It often starts with a slow, frustrating deployment process."
(Agitate) "Every minute they waste waiting on builds is a minute they could be browsing job ads. Your product roadmap slips, and your talent advantage disappears."
(Solve) "Our platform streamlines your entire dev workflow, cutting deployment times in half. Give your team the tools they deserve so they can focus on building, not waiting."
This ad isn't selling software; it's selling talent retention and peace of mind. It shows you understand their specific world. Tbh this is the kind of messaging that gets clicks from the right people. It pre-qualifies them. Anyone who doesn't have this problem will ignore the ad, which is exactly what you want. You're paying for clicks, so you only want clicks from people who feel that pain.
| Messaging Angle | Feature-Based Ad Copy (Ineffective) | Pain-Based Ad Copy (Effective) |
|---|---|---|
| Headline | Our New AI-Powered Platform | Is a Slow CI/CD Pipeline Costing You Talent? |
| Body Text | Experience the future of development with our synergistic toolchain, offering 99.9% uptime and scalable architecture. | Your best engineers want to solve hard problems, not fight with deployment scripts. We help you cut build times in half. |
| Call to Action | Learn More | See How [Competitor] Retains Their Devs |
| Result | Ignored by your target audience. Clicks from irrelevant people. | Resonates with your ICP's deepest fears. Attracts qualified clicks. |
You probably should rethink your offer... Delete the "Request a Demo" Button
Now we get to the single biggest failure point for early-stage B2B startups: the offer. I can almost guarantee your website has a "Request a Demo" or "Contact Sales" button as its main call to action. You have to understand that this is perhaps the most arrogant CTA ever invented.
You are an unknown startup with no track record. You're asking a busy, important person in Stockholm to give up 30-60 minutes of their time to be sold to. It's an immediate turn-off. It's high-friction and, from their perspective, low-value. It screams "I want to sell you something" instead of "I want to help you."
Your offer's only job at this stage is to deliver an "aha!" moment of undeniable value that makes the prospect sell themselves on your solution. You must solve a small, real problem for free to earn the right to solve the whole thing.
What does a better offer look like for a tech startup?
- A Freemium or Free Trial: The gold standard. Let them use the actual product (no credit card required). Don't just generate a lead for a salesperson to chase; create a Product Qualified Lead (PQL) who is already convinced because the product has proven its own value. For one B2B SaaS client, we ran a campaign on Meta Ads that generated 5,082 software trials at just $7 per trial, showing how effective a strong, frictionless offer can be.
- A Valuable Tool: Can you bottle a piece of your expertise into a free, interactive tool? For our CTO Anna, this could be a 'Developer Attrition Cost Calculator' that shows her exactly how much money her slow pipeline is costing her. It provides instant value and perfectly tees up your solution.
- A High-Value Content Asset: Not another fluffy ebook. I'm talking about a 'State of Stockholm DevOps Report' with benchmark data, or a detailed case study on how a similar (but non-competing) company solved the exact problem. Something that makes them feel smarter and better equipped to do their job.
The goal is to lower the barrier to entry so you can start a conversation and, more importantly, collect data. Which offers are people responding to? That data is gold. It tells you what part of your value proposition actually resonates with the market.
You'll need a proper testing framework... The Scientific Method for PMF
Okay, so you have a hypothesis for your ICP's nightmare, your pain-based message, and your high-value offer. Now you need to test it without blowing your entire seed round. This is where paid ads become your laboratory.
First, a critical mistake to avoid. Do not run "Brand Awareness" or "Reach" campaigns on Meta or LinkedIn. When you select these objectives, you are explicitly telling the algorithm: "Please find me the cheapest possible eyeballs within my target audience." The algorithm dutifully finds people who never click, never engage, and certainly never buy anything. Their attention is cheap for a reason. You are literally paying to reach the worst possible prospects. Awareness is a byproduct of successful conversion campaigns, not a prerequisite for them.
Instead, you will run conversion-focused campaigns with a small, controlled budget. The 'conversion' is whatever your low-friction offer is: a free tool usage, a report download, a freemium signup. Your goal is not ROI in cash, but ROI in learning.
Here’s a simple testing structure:
Campaign 1: Validate the ICP (The 'Who')
- Objective: Conversions (e.g., Freemium Signups)
- Budget: e.g., 500 SEK/day
- Ad Set 1: Targeting Heads of Engineering at FinTech companies in Stockholm.
- Ad Set 2: Targeting CTOs at SaaS companies in Stockholm.
- Ad Set 3: Targeting VPs of Product at eCommerce companies in Stockholm.
- Ads: Use the same 2-3 ads (your best message/offer combo) in all ad sets.
After a week, you'll see which audience is giving you the lowest Cost Per Conversion. That's your signal. The market is telling you which group feels the pain most acutely. Double down there.
Campaign 2: Validate the Message (The 'What')
- Objective: Conversions
- Budget: 500 SEK/day
- Audience: Use the winning audience from Campaign 1.
- Ad 1: Focuses on the pain of talent retention. (Our "Anna" example)
- Ad 2: Focuses on the pain of slow product velocity and missed deadlines.
- Ad 3: Focuses on the pain of unpredictable infrastructure costs.
Again, the data will give you the answer. Whichever ad gets the best conversion rate is hitting the rawest nerve. That becomes your core messaging.
This approach transforms advertising from a guessing game into a systematic process. You're not just 'running ads'; you're asking the Stockholm market direct questions and getting clear, quantitative answers back. I've seen startups that were completly lost find their footing in a matter of weeks using this exact method, simply because they stopped assuming and started testing.
You'll need to understand the numbers... So You Know What a 'Good' Result Looks Like
The final piece of the puzzle is knowing how much you can actually afford to pay for a lead or a trial user. The real question isn't "How low can my Cost Per Lead (CPL) go?" but "How high a CPL can I afford to acquire a great customer?" The answer lies in calculating your Customer Lifetime Value (LTV).
This simple calculation changes everything. It moves you from short-term cost-cutting to long-term value investing.
- Average Revenue Per Account (ARPA): What you make per customer, per month. Let's say it's 5,000 SEK.
- Gross Margin %: Your profit margin on that revenue. Let's say it's 80%.
- Monthly Churn Rate: The percentage of customers you lose each month. Let's say it's 4%.
The calculation is: LTV = (ARPA * Gross Margin %) / Monthly Churn Rate
So, in this example: LTV = (5,000 SEK * 0.80) / 0.04 = 100,000 SEK.
Each customer is worth 100,000 SEK in gross margin to your business over their lifetime. A healthy SaaS business often aims for a 3:1 LTV to Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) ratio. This means you can afford to spend up to 33,333 SEK to acquire a single customer.
If your sales process converts 1 in 10 qualified trials into a paying customer, you can afford to pay up to 3,333 SEK per qualified trial. Suddenly, a 500 SEK CPL from a LinkedIn ad targeting a CTO doesn't seem expensive, does it? It looks like a bargain.
This is the maths that unlocks aggressive, intelligent growth. It frees you from the tyranny of chasing cheap, low-quality leads and allows you to focus on acquiring customers who will actually build your business.
I've detailed my main recommendations for you below:
To summarise, finding product-market fit in a new market like Stockholm isn't about guesswork; it's about a rigorous process of testing and learning. By focusing on the real pains of a well-defined customer and using paid advertising as your validation tool, you can get the answers you need much faster and more efficiently than your competitors.
| Step | Action | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Define the Nightmare | Move beyond demographics. Identify the specific, urgent, expensive problem your ideal Stockholm customer faces. | This ensures your entire marketing effort is focused on people who have a powerful motivation to buy. |
| 2. Craft a Pain-Based Message | Write ad copy using the Problem-Agitate-Solve framework. Speak to their pain, not your features. | Your message will cut through the noise and resonate emotionally, pre-qualifying prospects before they even click. |
| 3. Create a High-Value Offer | Replace "Request a Demo" with a low-friction offer like a free tool, a freemium plan, or a valuable content asset. | This lowers the barrier for engagement, allows you to collect valuable data, and builds trust by providing value upfront. |
| 4. Test Systematically | Run small-budget conversion campaigns to validate your ICP, message, and offer hypotheses. Let the data guide you. | This replaces expensive guesswork with a scientific method for finding what the Stockholm market actually wants. |
| 5. Know Your Numbers | Calculate your LTV to understand what you can afford to spend on customer acquisition (CAC). | This allows you to make informed decisions about your advertising budget and focus on acquiring high-value customers profitably. |
I know this is a lot to take in, and implementing a framework like this can be daunting when you're also trying to build a product and a company. It requires a specific kind of expertise to set up the tests correctly, interpret the data, and iterate quickly without wasting money.
This is where expert help can make a huge difference. An experienced partner can help you build and execute this validation engine, helping you find product-market fit in months, not years. We offer a completely free, no-obligation initial consultation where we can take a closer look at your specific situation and give you some more tailored advice.
Hope this helps!
Regards,
Team @ Lukas Holschuh
