As a marketing person I had to do a double-take when I read this: > The conclusion I’ve drawn from this is that paid advertising, even highly targeted paid advertising, is no match for actual user outreach. What you did was not "highly targeted." Nor does it make sense to draw a conclusion about an entire form of advertising from a single attempt. Paid advertising works very well for some companies (I've run them doz…
True on both counts. I should have qualified that statement by 1) removing highly (would you at least spot me "barely targeted"? and 2) added "in the ultra-short term" to the end of that sentence. If I'd have known I'd be on the front page of HN all day I'd have toned down the hyperbole. Lazy writing on my part, mea culpa.
If you have any budget for marketing, I do recommend you give paid advertising another shot. Just not Reddit. Try AdWords, but do some basic reading about it first to increase the likelihood of a decent first campaign.