How to market tech startups. Week 3: Ads

If I was asked what one of the biggest challenges of an early startup is, I would say it's bringing relevant traffic to your site. Even more so—traffic that converts. But let’s start from the very basics. There's a great product ready to launch, and there's a website. You’ve launched your product and got your first subscribers. But then the early wave subsides, and you're left with a dilemma: what can you do to bring in steady, qualified traffic that converts?

I’ve already mentioned this, but I’ll repeat it many times over because it’s super important—right after you’ve made your site public, connect GA4, Google Tag Manager, and your CRM - see my previous post about it.

What to do next:

1. Optimize your site.
Even though people say that SEO is dead, it’s really not. With AI search modes and AI in our daily lives, SEO is transforming - sure. Just like all the other marketing tactics we use. But that doesn’t mean site optimization - internal and external - is no longer valid.

1. Make sure your metadata is in order - titles, alts, etc.
2. Add a blog to keep content indexed and aligned with your specific semantics. Do semantic search tools like SE Ranking can help you collect your core keywords and monitor performance.
3. Create company/product listings on all relevant platforms - from Capterra to Google Business listing.
4. Build a backlink portfolio.
5. Monitor your site religiously - GA must be your best friend from the get-go.

Growth byte:: If lead generation is the biggest and brightest goal of your marketing strategy, create comparison landing pages - those usually convert best. Set custom triggers in GTM (like click_cta), and regularly check in GA where your converting traffic comes from. Here’s what we can see in GA for calljmp when analyzing conversions.

1. Run Google ads In the early days of traffic acquisition, simple search ads can play a big role. If you need a better understanding of how to set your ads, use tools like the Advertisement Overview from Semrush or similar to get inspired by what your competitors are doing. The tool also shows you how much they’re paying per click for certain search terms and how much paid traffic those ads generate. This is very valuable info when setting your max budget and keywords. Some tools can even generate ads for you— - at the very least, it’s a good source of inspiration as well.

Here’s a preview of what ads could look like for calljmp:

Growth byte:: Make sure the search term matches the landing page - this significantly impacts your ad rank, which in turn affects impressions and visibility. Also, send them straight to your gated pages - catch the intent right where it is. Some studies suggest that leads in the early stages of their customer journey (those who enter more general queries and looking for an educational content) are now covered by AI overviews. So, bring in the ones with high buying intent. A possible variation (for calljmp) could be: “backend for my mobile app.”

1. Consider Reddit ads

Depends on the product, of course, but I’m an advocate for Reddit ads for a few reasons:

1. The audience on Reddit is alive and engaged.
2. Subreddits are highly segmented based on interests.
3. Reddit hates links so ads might be your only way to redirect traffic to your product.

Growth byte:: Use the names of your well-known competitors in your ad copy to grab attention. I used to think it wasn’t ethical, but remember where Burger King is always found - right across from McD... so. Also, make sure your ads align with your website in terms of creatives and messaging. Above is a sample of a banner I’m currently running for calljmp.

Thoughts?