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Burning money on paid ads for a dev tool – what we've learned

posthog.com

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Re: Burning money on paid ads for a dev tool – what we've learned

#41

Post by SOLAR_FIELDS »

dale_glass wrote: post #18

> This is why we ask all users where they heard about PostHog whenever they sign up or book a demo – it's a simple (optional) free text field. Enough of our users say 'ad on Google' or similar that we know paid ads do actually reach a large chunk of them. You have to be careful with how you word questions. If you ask how I first noticed that something exists, then yes, an ad may well be it because ads are so in your…

Yeah, I agree about positive discussion in technical space. Even if it’s just the founder coming on a Reddit thread and shilling their own stuff while still providing value by comparing it to other products.

Example: I was interested in looking more into Dremio the other day but couldn’t really find any good positive technical discussion about it on HN or Reddit so I just… stopped looking into Dremio

Re: Burning money on paid ads for a dev tool – what we've learned

#42

Post by weinzierl »

wantsanagent wrote: post #36

I was surprised youtube channel sponsorships didn't make this list, at least for consideration. I have multiple specialized adblockers installed (as I'm sure many here do) and so the only ads I encounter are baked into content I'm otherwise interested in. Currently vpn products and tutorial sites dominate these channels and so I'd almost welcome something else.

I'm the same and I think it's more like a vpn product, a tutorial site and a certain website builder, where we all know which specific companies I mean.

Re: Burning money on paid ads for a dev tool – what we've learned

#43

Post by gbillig »

wantsanagent wrote: post #36

I was surprised youtube channel sponsorships didn't make this list, at least for consideration. I have multiple specialized adblockers installed (as I'm sure many here do) and so the only ads I encounter are baked into content I'm otherwise interested in. Currently vpn products and tutorial sites dominate these channels and so I'd almost welcome something else.

Check out SponsorBlock for skipping YouTube ads that are baked into the video

Re: Burning money on paid ads for a dev tool – what we've learned

#44

Post by Lutger »

dale_glass wrote: post #18

> This is why we ask all users where they heard about PostHog whenever they sign up or book a demo – it's a simple (optional) free text field. Enough of our users say 'ad on Google' or similar that we know paid ads do actually reach a large chunk of them. You have to be careful with how you word questions. If you ask how I first noticed that something exists, then yes, an ad may well be it because ads are so in your…

I believe ads work by making a brand name familiar, which helps you recognize it in the sea of information. And that makes it automatically somewhat more attractive and reputably. You can be entirely unaware of this and it still works.

Maybe the ad is not what convinced you, not at all, but it did prompt you to wonder if this LaunchDarkly thing is any good. Youtube kept spamming it in your face and you kept ignoring it, but of course the name stuck and now there are talking about it on HN so you decide to read "that" thread and not the other one about unleash or something you never heard of.

Re: Burning money on paid ads for a dev tool – what we've learned

#45

Post by MaKey »

wantsanagent wrote: post #36

I was surprised youtube channel sponsorships didn't make this list, at least for consideration. I have multiple specialized adblockers installed (as I'm sure many here do) and so the only ads I encounter are baked into content I'm otherwise interested in. Currently vpn products and tutorial sites dominate these channels and so I'd almost welcome something else.

SponsorBlock (https://github.com/ajayyy/SponsorBlock) to the rescue!

Re: Burning money on paid ads for a dev tool – what we've learned

#47

Post by YetAnotherNick »

dale_glass wrote: post #18

> This is why we ask all users where they heard about PostHog whenever they sign up or book a demo – it's a simple (optional) free text field. Enough of our users say 'ad on Google' or similar that we know paid ads do actually reach a large chunk of them. You have to be careful with how you word questions. If you ask how I first noticed that something exists, then yes, an ad may well be it because ads are so in your…

Could you list down some non popular digital service you pay for(i.e. not google workspace, AWS etc.) and how you heard about it?

Re: Burning money on paid ads for a dev tool – what we've learned

#48

Post by doggerel »

SOLAR_FIELDS wrote: post #41
dale_glass wrote: post #18

> This is why we ask all users where they heard about PostHog whenever they sign up or book a demo – it's a simple (optional) free text field. Enough of our users say 'ad on Google' or similar that we know paid ads do actually reach a large chunk of them. You have to be careful with how you word questions. If you ask how I first noticed that something exists, then yes, an ad may well be it because ads are so in your…

Yeah, I agree about positive discussion in technical space. Even if it’s just the founder coming on a Reddit thread and shilling their own stuff while still providing value by comparing it to other products. Example: I was interested in looking more into Dremio the other day but couldn’t really find any good positive technical discussion about it on HN or Reddit so I just… stopped looking into Dremio

Totally agree. Value is the most important thing if you are going to talk about yourself. It's not even like it's that hard to just try to be excellent to people and to users and share something worthwhile. But time and again, this is where people fall down.

Weirdly, google ads and GA4 are great examples of not providing value and not treating people or users well. And yet they cling on.

Re: Burning money on paid ads for a dev tool – what we've learned

#50

Post by sakerbos »

Relying on an ad to convert a user is a big ask. Another approach could be to offer something high value to your target market in exchange for their email which you could then use to slowly raise awareness and convert users over a series of emails that offer even more value to them. That way you're greatly increasing the surface area of interactions with potential users while still genuinely helping them.
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