Solved: Strategies Needed to Gain Traction for New Psychologist App

Hi there,

Thanks for getting in touch. I'm happy to give you some of my initial thoughts and some guidance on how you might go about getting traction for your new app. It's a classic problem, especially for a platform like yours that needs two different types of user to work. It’s a tough nut to crack but definately doable with the right approach.

I’ve run quite a few campaigns for SaaS and app-based businesses over the years, and the challenges are often quite similar at the start. I’ve broken down my thoughts for you below, hope it helps you get a clearer picture.

We'll need to look at the 'chicken and egg' problem first...

Alright, so the very first thing you need to sort out, and I can't stress this enough, is the classic two-sided marketplace problem. You've got users (people looking for help) and you've got professionals (the psychologists). You can't have one without the other, but one has to come first. In your case, it absolutely, 100% has to be the psychologists.

Think about it. If you spend a load of money and effort getting users to download your app, and they open it up to find only two psychologists listed, neither of whom are in their area or have availability, what happens? They'll delete the app within minutes and probably never think about it again. First impressions are everything, and an empty marketplace is the worst first impression you can make. It screams unprofessional and untrustworthy, which is the exact opposite of what you need in the mental health space.

So, before you even think about marketing to the general public, your entire focus should be on building a solid, credible, and reasonably populated supply side. You need a critical mass of professionals on the platform so that when users do eventually arrive, they have a genuine choice and can actually find the help they're looking for. This builds trust and makes the entire proposition viable. Getting this wrong at the start is probably the single biggest reason platforms like this fail, they burn through their initial cash getting users who have nowt to do on the app.

I'd say you need a solid strategy to get professionals on board...

So, how do you get the psychologists to sign up? This is your first major marketing challenge. They're busy professionals, and you're asking them to take a chance on a brand new, unproven platform. You need to make the offer irresistable.

Your Offer:
I remember working with a B2B SaaS client who was in a similar situation. They had a great product but struggled to gain initial traction. They created a "Founder Member" deal where the first 50 businesses to sign up received lifetime access for a small, one-off fee. This created urgency, provided valuable early adopter feedback, and generated positive word-of-mouth. You could consider a similar approach.

Since your app is free for them initially, you could offer the first 100 psychologists who sign up and complete their profile free premium placement for life. Or maybe a guaranteed top spot in search results in their local area for the first year. Whatever it is, it needs to be a proper no-brainer. This isn't just about getting sign-ups; it's about getting committed professionals who will build out their profiles and be active on the platform. Your goal here isn't just numbers, its quality.

Marketing Channels for Psychologists:
Once your offer is sorted, you need to get it in front of them. Manual outreach to professional bodies and on LinkedIn will get you started, but to really build momentum, you'll likely need paid advertising.

For this kind of professional audience, LinkedIn Ads are almost certainly your best bet. The targeting capabilities are exactly what you need. You can target people based on:

• Job Titles: "Psychologist", "Clinical Psychologist", "Therapist", "Counsellor", etc.
• Industries: "Mental Health Care", "Hospital & Health Care".
• Member Skills: "Psychotherapy", "Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)", "Mental Health".
• Company Size: You could target those listed as self-employed or working in small clinics.

This allows you to be incredibly specific and ensure your ad budget is being spent talking directly to the people you need on the platform. I remember a campaign we ran for a B2B software client where we achieved a cost per lead of just $22 by targeting specific decision makers on LinkedIn. This demonstrates the platform's effectiveness when the targeting and messaging are well-aligned.

Another project I worked on involved a medical job matching SaaS. They faced a similar two-sided challenge, needing both medical professionals and clinics. By refining their offer and using a mix of Google and Meta Ads targeting, we reduced their cost per user acquisition from £100 to £7. A significant part of that success was optimising the initial supply-side offer.

You probably should only start user acquisition once you have a decent base of professionals...

Okay, let's fast forward. You've got 100+ psychologists signed up across various locations. The app looks busy and credible. *Now* you can start thinking about attracting users.

Google Search Ads:
This should be your number one priority for user acquisition. People seeking therapy are often in a moment of need; they are actively searching for a solution. You need to be there when they search. You'd be running campaigns targeting keywords like:

• "find a psychologist near me"
• "online therapy UK"
• "counselling for anxiety"
• "book a therapist session"

The beauty of search ads is that the intent is already there. You're not trying to persuade someone they need help; you're providing the solution they are already looking for. For service-based businesses, we often see a cost per lead anywhere from £10 to £50, depending on how competitive the market is. I recall running a campaign for an HVAC company in a competitive area where leads cost around $60 each. On the other hand, for a home cleaning service, we saw costs as low as £5 per lead. Your costs will likely fall within that range, and the return from a new client should make it worthwhile.

Meta (Facebook & Instagram) Ads:
Social media ads are a different kettle of fish. Here, people aren't actively searching. You are interrupting their scrolling. This makes it more of a brand awareness and consideration play, at least initially. You can use it to reach people who might be thinking about therapy but haven't started looking yet. Targeting could be based on interests like 'Mental health awareness', 'Mindfulness', or followers of pages like Mind or the Calm app.

This is also where your app-focused campaigns can really shine. I remember one app growth campaign where we helped a client achieve over 45,000 signups at under £2 per signup using a mix of Meta, TikTok, Apple and Google ads. A key factor was a clear value proposition and continuous testing of creatives and audiences. For your app, the ad creative could feature short videos explaining how easy it is to find a verified professional. The goal would be app installs, optimising for that action directly.

You'll need a solid testing structure from the start...

Running ads isn't a 'set it and forget it' activity. You need a proper structure and a commitment to testing. This applies to getting both psychologists and users.

You need to split test everything:

• Audiences: On LinkedIn, test different job titles against each other. On Meta, test different interest groups.
• Creatives: Test different images, headlines, and ad copy. What message resonates most? Is it "Find a therapist today" or "Confidential online counselling"? You won't know until you test. A simple video ad can often outperform a static image, especially on social platforms.
• Ad Formats: For LinkedIn, you might test a simple image ad against a Lead Gen Form ad, which makes it super easy for a psychologist to show interest without even leaving the platform.

Your campaign structures should also be logical. For user acquisition, I'd have separate campaigns for Search (high intent) and Social (awareness/consideration). Within those, you'd have different ad sets for different audiences you're testing. And you must, must, must optimise for the conversion that matters. For psychologists, it's a completed profile. For users, it's probably sending that first message to a therapist. Don't optimise for clicks or impressions, that's just vanity. You need actions.

I've detailed my main recommendations for you below:

As you can see, there's a fair bit to get right, and it requires a methodical approach. The advantage of working with an expert or an agency is not just in the execution of setting up the ads, but in building this strategy, knowing which levers to pull, and avoiding the common, expensive mistakes that new apps often make. It's about knowing from experience what's likely to work and how to structure tests to find new winning strategies quickly, which saves a lot of time and wasted ad spend.

If you'd like to chat through this in more detail and have us take a proper look at your plans, feel free to book in a free consultation. We can walk you through how we'd approach this based on our experience with similar platforms.

Regards,
Team @ Lukas Holschuh