Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

We Wasted $50K on Google Ads So You Don't Have To (2019)

indiehackers.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 211 posts

Re: We Wasted $50K on Google Ads So You Don't Have To (2019)

#51

Post by DrNuke »

trimboffle wrote: post #38
michaelbuckbee wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like this a really uncharitable reading of the article. This is a real business that has built itself up from nothing to $100,000 per month in revenue (which is important as it means they aren't just burning VC cash in random acts of marketing) and they're speaking in precise terms about specific actions they've taken and the results they've gotten. I've no doubt that if you're unfamiliar with marketing that t…

Michael .... it’s really bad writing. You can’t say “hey ordinary person I’ll save you wasting $50k on AdWords” then instantly drop straight deep into the most arcane of mumbled, cryptic, faded rune digital marketing magic speak. Refer to the comment below from HN user 83457 who explains same but in English.

It is not aimed at ordinary person, though... it is a technical post-mortem for digital marketing insiders.

Re: We Wasted $50K on Google Ads So You Don't Have To (2019)

#52

Post by stef25 »

franciscop wrote: post #47
shripadk wrote: post #43

Left a comment on the IndieHackers page. Keeping a copy here for those who aren't reading the comments section. I have noticed this a lot in various websites I have helped in ad campaigns. Their biggest problem is their landing page. Just like this article uses lots of jargons to explain simple concepts, their landing page reflects the same. For those of you wanting to know more about landing page optimization just w…

As someone who is trying to learn and some day launch something like this, thank you so much for this advice! I've been known to complicate descriptions on my OSS packages but still achieved moderate success, so I'm thinking on how to convert this knowledge into revenue and these comments are super helpful. Question: how do you manage to both keep it simple but relevant for SEO? Isn't SEO a lot about keyword stuffing…

Keywords rarely involve complex jargon. The search volume for "Full stack adaptive delivery" is probably 0

Re: We Wasted $50K on Google Ads So You Don't Have To (2019)

#53

Post by dangerface »

Op had some good tactics but an ass backwards strategy. Should have let the agency do the thing they where paid to do.

> Lesson #1: Test and trim keywords sets before hiring an agency to scale things

This isn't how agencies work. You did the keyword research and testing yourself and then paid some one else to do it again.

I work in an agency, I won't work with you if you do this, because you will get the same results and blame me.

> Lesson #2: Focus on page quality and CTR when doing paid tests

Nope don't do this. When testing ads you should focus on the ads you are testing.

Make as many as you can, test, review and reduce to the winning ads then repeat. When you have found the ads with good CTR it's time to start working on page quality (making your page relevant to the ad).

> Lesson #3: Stick to keywords that you have landing pages and content for

Again no don't do this, write ads to test your keywords build pages for the ads that work, not the other way around this isn't SEO.

> Lesson #4: Don’t assume organic conversion rate will hold true for paid

Different ads target customers at different stages of the buying journey, ads don't dump to the top of your funnel they dump to landing pages designed to convert that demographic.

> Lesson #5: Analytics will save (some of) your bacon > Lesson #6: Revisit your awareness ladder often to validate and update it

Winner winner chicken dinner, some good advice.

Re: We Wasted $50K on Google Ads So You Don't Have To (2019)

#54

Post by shawabawa3 »

83457 wrote: post #28
trimboffle wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>> Thanks to developers’ trust in our core infrastructure and their recommendations, we’re fortunate to have a constant and growing inbound flow of leads and net negative churn, meaning the value of usage-driven upgrades outweighs the loss in revenue from subscription cancellations. I’m glad they clarified what “net negative churn” means, that really cleared things up.

They are getting more new customers (edit: others have pointed out it also includes increased revenue from existing customers), thanks primarily to personal recommendations (word of mouth), than they are losing customers.

That's not true

They are getting more increased revenue from existing customers than they lose from cancelling customers, which is very different

Re: We Wasted $50K on Google Ads So You Don't Have To (2019)

#55

Post by ses1984 »

shripadk wrote: post #43

Left a comment on the IndieHackers page. Keeping a copy here for those who aren't reading the comments section. I have noticed this a lot in various websites I have helped in ad campaigns. Their biggest problem is their landing page. Just like this article uses lots of jargons to explain simple concepts, their landing page reflects the same. For those of you wanting to know more about landing page optimization just w…

On the other hand, if I saw "file system as a service" I would also bounce immediately becuase who needs that?

I have a file system, it comes included in every/any os that matters. How does filesystem as a service help me?

Re: We Wasted $50K on Google Ads So You Don't Have To (2019)

#57

Post by shripadk »

franciscop wrote: post #47
shripadk wrote: post #43

Left a comment on the IndieHackers page. Keeping a copy here for those who aren't reading the comments section. I have noticed this a lot in various websites I have helped in ad campaigns. Their biggest problem is their landing page. Just like this article uses lots of jargons to explain simple concepts, their landing page reflects the same. For those of you wanting to know more about landing page optimization just w…

As someone who is trying to learn and some day launch something like this, thank you so much for this advice! I've been known to complicate descriptions on my OSS packages but still achieved moderate success, so I'm thinking on how to convert this knowledge into revenue and these comments are super helpful. Question: how do you manage to both keep it simple but relevant for SEO? Isn't SEO a lot about keyword stuffing…

> As someone who is trying to learn and some day launch something like this, thank you so much for this advice!

Thank you. Just sharing what I learned from the masters in the field. The best of which is Isaac Rudansky. Marketing is made unnecessarily complex these days. It is not rocket science. Anyone can do it.

Re: We Wasted $50K on Google Ads So You Don't Have To (2019)

#58

Post by shripadk »

ses1984 wrote: post #55
shripadk wrote: post #43

Left a comment on the IndieHackers page. Keeping a copy here for those who aren't reading the comments section. I have noticed this a lot in various websites I have helped in ad campaigns. Their biggest problem is their landing page. Just like this article uses lots of jargons to explain simple concepts, their landing page reflects the same. For those of you wanting to know more about landing page optimization just w…

On the other hand, if I saw "file system as a service" I would also bounce immediately becuase who needs that? I have a file system, it comes included in every/any os that matters. How does filesystem as a service help me?

Yes I am not saying it is the best. But it is better than "Full stack adaptive delivery". Can it be improved? Surely. But does it need to be complicated further? Definitely not.

Re: We Wasted $50K on Google Ads So You Don't Have To (2019)

#59

Post by TeMPOraL »

ses1984 wrote: post #55
shripadk wrote: post #43

Left a comment on the IndieHackers page. Keeping a copy here for those who aren't reading the comments section. I have noticed this a lot in various websites I have helped in ad campaigns. Their biggest problem is their landing page. Just like this article uses lots of jargons to explain simple concepts, their landing page reflects the same. For those of you wanting to know more about landing page optimization just w…

On the other hand, if I saw "file system as a service" I would also bounce immediately becuase who needs that? I have a file system, it comes included in every/any os that matters. How does filesystem as a service help me?

You're probably not a target audience. A "file system as a service" is a thought that would probably pop in your head if you faced the problem they're trying to solve.

Re: We Wasted $50K on Google Ads So You Don't Have To (2019)

#60

Post by ryanwaggoner »

trimboffle wrote: post #32
83457 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are getting more new customers (edit: others have pointed out it also includes increased revenue from existing customers), thanks primarily to personal recommendations (word of mouth), than they are losing customers.

You sir, should have written the article.

Except that this rewritten version is not correct!

They aren’t necessarily getting more new customers than old customers cancelling, but the combination of revenue from new customers and added revenue from upgrades from existing customers is more than the revenue lost from customers who cancel.

Which, btw, is exactly what they say, using standard industry terms, and it’s not ambiguous. It just wasn’t written for you, that’s all.

Post reply on HN