Ask HN: Product Hunt or Paid Ads?

[cloudguruab]

I'm trying to determine the best channel for a soft launch, I've been working on https://luna.apolloapi.io - I'm currently on the fence with Product Hunt, a lot of outbound to date has been through LinkedIn so I'm wondering how I should quantify my approach here. For those who've done PH launches what are some early tips/tricks? For those running LinkedIn ads, anything useful I should know before diving in?

[rozenmd]

If you have the money to burn (and if you're early stage, you will be burning), ads can quickly tell you a lot about whether people are attracted by your ad copy and landing page.

They work particularly well after speaking to lots of users (or reading their interactions on forums), to see the language they use when discussing the problem your solution fixes (and using that language in your copywriting).

For most products, Product Hunt is a waste of time. On the other hand, if you're a top 3 product that day, you'll get a steady stream of signups for months, if not years.

[cloudguruab]

I can see that, its good to know positioning/alignment is strong but at such an early stage I'm starting to think its probably useful to dig deeper into a sales journey rather than paid ads! Great knowledge tho, thanks for sharing

[Pinkthinker]

I’m struggling with the same problem. I think it depends on who you audience is. LinkedIn might get you to potential customers in your domain, but product hunt would get you to more techie people. My product (check out www.ac28r.com) is a software invention, so my initial target would be techies who understand it; hopefully a good reaction might help with the hard work of selling.

[noop_joe]

As others have said, it depends a lot on the product. A lot of the people on PH are other people building stuff, if it makes sense to launch there, join some PH communities on LI. The more you're already engaged on PH, I think the better off you'll be.

I've found it's harder to read signals from ads for early stage releases. You need something to compare to... Then again, maybe a super narrow target with a very clear conversion might yield some useful engagement.

GL!

[cloudguruab]

This makes sense, thanks for the insight!

[vimy]

Product Hunt is a strong backlink that will improve your SEO. That’s reason enough to launch on it.

[brudgers]

Who are your current users?

What channels do they use?

Do you want more users like them?

Can you gain users one by one using manual methods?

How much runway do you have?

Is there something you could do right now that would gain users?

Are you not doing it because it is harder than paid ads and/or Product Hunt?

One advantage of paid ads and/or Product Hunt is they allow the creation of after-the-fact narratives for unsuccessful products. Being very easy is another. Throwing things over the wall is always easier than sales because sales is hard work.

Good luck.

[cloudguruab]

Love this, sales cures all - appreciate it!

[bschmidt1]

Product Hunt is paid ads too, they make money by promoting posts (they're like "no gimmicks!" but nope - gimmicks)

I would only use Product Hunt if you're targeting Silicon Valley audiences. In general even with physical ads consider the network/reach/visibility and who the audience is.