Marketing your Saas

There are good engineers and founders with super great products but stuck at marketing.

Here is a quick, short list of things you can do to kick off your marketing.

PS: I have scaled 5+ startups to 50k+ MRR and am currently working on an adtech product.

Before we start, here are some heads-ups.

a. All I am about to tell is my experience and what worked for me.

b. B2C is easy to scale compared to B2B.

c. Don’t try to make anything viral - It's not in your control.

d. Be willing to spend some money on ads.

e. Get ready to be embarrassed and look stupid - It's part of the game.

Step 1: Setting stage

  1. Find where your audience hangs out—this is very important for B2B products. Ask simple, common questions related to your niche/product to find out where they are. 6/10, you will land back here on Reddit. Check FB, LinkedIn, X, and other forums.

  2. Once you find out, ask questions, leave comments, and see how engaging the hangout space really is. Don’t sell - remember you are here to test the waters before fishing.

Example:

On Reddit, I will go to r/Entrepreneur, r/SideProject, and r/sidehustle to see how engaging the community is and ask closely related questions like "What are you using to create How-To guides for your product?" Remember, don’t sell—you are just gathering information.

On X, get X premium (it increases your reach) and use #buildinpublic and #indiehacker tags. Record a screen recording of how your product works and post it on X. Don’t bother asking questions - just show.

Step 2: Social Proofing is the best way to get initial traction.

  1. Get your co-founder, wife, girlfriend, bf, your cat, or anyone who will back you to comment, upvote, share, or do and get that first 10 upvotes and 3-5 comments. People engage with engaged content.

Here is what I did when I wanted to validate my idea on a niche subreddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/PPC/comments/yq44hn/building\_something\_for\_advertisers/?rdt=44312.

The first 10 upvotes and a few comments were from me, my friends, and my brother, lol. Then, it quickly gained traction, and people started engaging.

Share a mockup, design, screenshot, or video of your product in action to get some social proof and engagement.

Assess the engagement and traction.

  1. Evaluate the engagement - see how many comments and upvotes you get.

  2. You will get some good thrashing and downvotes - that's fine.

  3. Go aggressive - remember that aggression and spamming are neighbours. Share in as many channels as possible (Reddit, X, FB groups, LinkedIn groups, etc.).

If you do these right, you will have two things:

  1. General impression about your product

  2. Where people engage the most - this is what we want for the next stage.

If you fail, it’s best to keep looking until you find the right place. (This is especially true if you are B2B.)

For the next step, you will need to spend some money.

Step 3 - Paid ads.

If anyone tells you you can’t scale using paid ads, they didn’t do it right.

Shilling out on Google Ads and FB ads is not the way.

Setting up tracking -

When I take over an ad account, there is usually no tracking setup. Ads work not because of your product (it helps) but because of your tracking, which sends data to algorithms to find the right audience. If not server-side tracking, at least GTM tracking should be in place.

Choosing the right ad platform -

This is very important. This is where you use the knowledge you gathered in step 1. Choose the platform where your audience is. Find what your competitors are doing, their channels, etc.

Creating ads -

This is the last important thing—a working ad is an equation. Good product, Good targeting, and good creatives = Good results. It’s okay if any of these values are low, but you have to make sure none are 0.

Image ads very rarely work - I have had some really work, but they are the exceptions. What works most of the time is a video ad. Go see some ads and see how they are made. You can check out the ad library to see what your competitors are doing.

Facebook ad library - https://www.facebook.com/ads/library/?active_status=active&ad_type=political_and_issue_ads&country=CA&media_type=all

Tiktok ad library - https://ads.tiktok.com/business/creativecenter/inspiration/topads/pc/en?period=30&region=CA

Pay some influencer to make a video for you.

Ad budget

You will need to spend at least $1500 imo. Some argue you will need more, some argue less. From my experience, you will need to spend at least $1500 to get a good idea of your ads, audience, and results. Google and Reddit give ad credits. Use it.

Closely monitor your ads. I strongly recommend finding someone who can do this for you, someone who knows what they are doing. Trust me, these channels are designed to make you spend money—this is why many people fail and say paid ads don’t work.

Setup tracking -

  1. Setup Hotjar - so you can see how people use your product.

  2. Setup GA4 - so you can see how people are coming to your site.

Be super proactive and have your product ready.

When we launched Reddit ads, 200+ companies across the globe used our product in a week. I was overwhelmed with support tickets and emails, and I was not prepared for it. The product broke (I am good at selling, not building), and I had to pause ads.

Respond to emails and comments - comments on FB, Reddit ads, X, etc.

PS: while running ads on Reddit, disable comments.

These are the basics. This post is already long. Feel free to ask questions or DM me if you want tailored ideas for your product.

I hope this helps.