🙅‍♂️ Don’t DO ADS. Or risk losing your start-up.

As simple as that.

Why?

Ads cover up how weak your product is.

Thing is, ads bring you traffic, ads bring you engagement.

Ads promise you complex algorithms that will find the ideal customer for you.

They get you thinking the only reason someone isn’t coming to you is that they simply can’t find you.

So why not do a campaign with us?

We’ll bring them right to your doorstep, and magic will happen. Trust us.

You launch a paid campaign.

Boom.

Traffic. Engagement. Perhaps a couple of sales.

🙌 That initial spurt of “success” makes you think that your product is working.

You’ll tell yourself:

“People are discovering me, metrics are good, soon (very soon), the organic discovery channels will accelerate, as people rave about this great new product they found.”

You push more money into ads.

Ads lull you into thinking your are successful.

“I’ve hit PMF you guys!”

But you did not.

⚡ Your product is on life support, only kept alive with ad money.

You’re just not seeing it yet.

A year goes by, 93%+ of your traffic is still from ads.

Where are all the organic visitors?

Where are all the brand advocates that I paid so much to acquire?

You then become a hostage to paid media, and the way out is almost impossible.

Believe me.

You’ll eventually need money.

You will then either:

(1) 💸 dump more money into ads to continue growing. This is where you frantically run to new investors for cash.

(2) ⏸️ plateau. One of the worst things that can happen to a startup. If you’re not a growth engine, two years into it, then you’re in a TOUGH spot.

(3) ⛔ pause ads and see 90% of your traffic disappear as you run out of money. You might not have the resources, finances, (or willpower) to bounce back.

You decide, obviously, to go to investors, tell them you need $XM.

They will ask you what do you need this money for.

You will say it is for paid acquisition (Among other things. Just to save face).

((Paid acquisition = the facebook ads you have been surviving on)).

But they’ve seen this too many times.

💰 A startup built on paid media now running out of cash. Never ends well.

Good luck getting that money.

Turn off the ads? Say goodbye to all these “amazing” metrics.

Say hello to going back 18 months in terms of performance.

So trust me, DON’T DO ADS.

Not at the start.

What should you do?

(1) 🛠️ Spend the right amount of time making sure your product works.

Your product needs to be desirable, discoverable, and somewhat spreading on its own already.

(2) 🍃 Make sure to activate organic channels first.

• Using your network
• Leveraging friend of friends
• building a powerful referral program
• hustling in forums
• focusing on content
• building an owned audience
• pushing your personal brand on social media
• and more

(3) 🤍 Build an audience, listen to them, use their feedback to enhance the product.

• What do they think of your product? What’s appealing to them?

Do more of that.

• Are they coming back? Do they become loyal customers?

Build for that profile.

• Are they leaving? Why?

You’re still not where you need to be.

• Why is there no “magic” for them?

Look at the gaps. Improve your value prop.

(4) 🔁 Rinse and repeat. For a few months at least.

Eventually, this feedback loop will close and accelerate.

You’ll hit your stride, and you’ll see you are on an upward trend when it comes to revenue.

THEN.

And only then, do ads.

Ads are there to boost something that is already working.

They are not there to revive a dead product.

(5) 👍 When you’re already in a growth phase, STRATEGICALLY invest in paid media.

That doesn’t mean “open the flood gates!”

Do experiments, be careful where your money is funneled, and make sure paid media always remain one part of a healthy mix of acquisition channels.

Do this.

And avoid being torn between figuring out how to stay alive or shutting down your business.

🚀 Onwards and upwards,
Majd

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