3 builders who never spoke to each other

Do not bid against companies with more money

Three founders describe the same wall. One tried search plus three paid social platforms on mentors' advice: visitor numbers rose and spending stayed well above what the new users returned, and he now says to reserve the strategy for funded companies. Anything a competitor can simply outbid you on gets competed away, and promotions you cannot fund at scale return nothing at all.

The method

1. 01

   Broad paid advertising is the wrong channel for a bootstrapped company: you are bidding against companies with far larger budgets and the visitors cost more than they return.

2. 02

   Pick a channel that compounds as you grow. Anything a competitor can simply outbid you on, paid advertising above all, gets competed away.

3. 03

   Do not run promotions you cannot fund at scale. Without the capital to compete they return nothing.

What it returned

• Bugfender tried AdWords plus Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter ads on mentors' advice. Visitor numbers rose but spending stayed well above what the new users and purchases returned. The founder says to reserve that strategy for funded companies with a low barrier to acquisition.

• Friday paid for advertising at one point and the founder calls it a complete waste of money.

• The few promotions Howell Market ran had little success, which the founder attributes to lacking the capital needed to compete at a large enough scale.

Sources

• Bugfender: Scaling an Internal Remote Logger to €9,000/MonthJordi Giménez · failory.com · Which were your marketing strategies to grow your business? · undated
• Friday - From side project to raising $450kLuke Thomas · failory.com · Which were your marketing strategies to grow your business? · undated
• Howell Market: How Bad Partners Killed an e-CommerceCody Howell · failory.com · Which marketing strategies did you use to grow Howell Market? · undated