stopped spending on ads, focused on being everywhere instead - heres what happened

· noise r/entrepreneur · ↑ 126 · 💬 76 · 2026-03-10 · kw: better way to · open on reddit ↗

Tool

none

Issue

Founder stuck at $800/mo revenue for 6 months with low visibility; burned $2k on Google Ads with minimal ROI (340 visitors/mo, 12 signups/mo) because target market didn't know the product existed despite product quality being adequate.

Cost

$2000 wasted on ads; opportunity cost of 6 months stagnation at $800/mo baseline

Recommendation

none

Date context

2026-03-10; 90-day timeframe referenced; results shown 3+ months post-execution

extracted with

anthropic/claude-haiku-4.5 · 2026-05-08

Body

ok so this might be obvious to some of you but it took me way too long to figure this out i was stuck at like $800/mo for 6 months. kept thinking i needed to add more features or make the product better. classic mistake right? my buddy who does marketing was like "dude nobody knows you exist, thats your problem" and i was lowkey offended but he was right lol so heres what i actually did - instead of dumping money into google ads (which i tried, burned through like 2k with basically nothing to show for it), i just started showing up everywhere i could think of: - signed up for every free business directory i could find. took like 4 hours one saturday - started emailing small newsletter people in my space. not the big ones, the ones with like 500-2000 subs. turns out they actually WANT stuff to feature - wrote a few guest posts for blogs my customers read - set up a basic posting schedule across like 5 social platforms. nothing crazy just consistent the logic was pretty simple - if someone sees you mentioned in a newsletter, then sees you on linkedin, then sees a blog post about you... by the third time they actually trust you enough to click 90 days later: - went from 340 visitors/mo to about 2100 - signups went from 12/mo to 67 - hit $4200/mo revenue the wild part is some of this stuff keeps working months later without me doing anything. i wrote one blog post in like week 6 that still drives 15% of my traffic. try getting that from google ads lol biggest lesson: the market doesnt care whos best. it cares whos most visible. ive seen worse products than mine outsell me just because more people knew about them if your stuff is good but nobody's buying... its probably not the product. you just need more people to know about it anyway happy to answer questions about what worked. not selling anything just sharing what finally moved the needle for me

Top comments (8)

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[score=24] Real_Bit2928

Great reminder that distribution often matters more than features, because even a great product can’t grow if nobody knows it exists.

[score=14] Hot_Delivery5122

this is honestly a really underrated lesson tbh. a lot of founders spend months polishing the product thinking growth will magically happen after that. but distribution usually matters way more than people expect. if nobody sees the product it almost doesn’t matter how good it is. the “multiple touchpoints” thing you mentioned is real too. most people don’t convert the first time they hear about something. they see it a few times in different places and then it finally clicks. ngl your approach of smaller newsletters + guest posts + directories is actually smart. those audiences are usually way more engaged than big generic channels. also the compounding effect of content is huge. one decent blog post bringing traffic months later is basically free acquisition. feels like you just built a simple distribution engine instead of chasing quick ad wins. probably the more sustainable path long term.

[score=7] fnworksdev

The 500 to 2000 subscriber newsletter angle is a strong callout because those editors usually reply. One thing that can push this further is adding a simple where did you first hear about us field at signup so you can see which directory or guest post brings paid signups and which one only brings curiosity clicks.

[score=5] RyanBuildsSystems

Visibility > Quality is a bitter pill to swallow, but it’s 100% facts. You can have the best product in the world, but if you’re invisible, you’re out of business. Quick question on the 'posting schedule across 5 platforms': did you use a tool to automate that or were you manually tailoring the content for each? Managing 5 platforms consistently sounds like a full-time job on its own.

[score=6] flowerbomb92

These are the kinda posts we need!

[score=3] Dangerous-Junket4136

Sounds like marketing and ads are interchangeably

[score=3] Hopefully-Hoping

The directories and social posting probably did almost nothing here. Guest posts and the small newsletter outreach are what moved the needle because you're borrowing someone else's audience instead of building from zero. "Be everywhere" is catchy advice but in practice most people spread across 10 channels, do all of them badly, and quit after 3 weeks. Pick the 2-3 channels where your actual customers already hang out and just be consistent there.