Launch post-mortem
In the first post, Estipad: Fast and easy project estimates, I talked about what Estipad is and how it works. Today I present the results from the launch.
There were no sign-ups on day one. There was only one signup in the first two weeks.
However, Estipad allows you to create a project without signing-up. I guess that some people tried it out and never registered because they didn’t need to save their test project. Hopefully, some of those users will return when they need to create a real estimate.
Getting people to sign up is hard, so the poor performance in the first days doesn’t discourage me. It motivates me to find out what I can do to get them to sign up.
Launch plan
I launched Estipad by writing posts on the following sites:
Apart from social news sites, I spent a small amount of money to test Facebook ads.
Social news
Unfortunately, getting noticed on social news sites is a bit of a gamble. Post at the wrong time, and it will go unnoticed for long enough that it will get pushed down the new list by newer posts before it gets any votes.
To avoid this, I did some research on the best times to post. Although it’s hardly conclusive, the consensus seems to be: mid-week, late afternoon.
The problem arises if your target audience is in multiple time zones. I decided to post around 4pm UK time, thinking that I would get a few upvotes to keep the post relevant until US readers catch up.
Unfortunately, the post didn’t get any votes, and it sank quickly to never be seen again. Was timing bad? Maybe. Maybe not. All I know is I’ve posted less interesting stuff before, and I had better response.
Side note:
It looks like most visitors had an ad blocker that blocked Google Analytics. How do I know? I use chat software called Crisp. It logs every visitor, even if they don’t start a chat. The number of visitors reported by Crisp is at least 300% larger than that reported by Google Analytics. The visitor numbers presented below aren’t adjusted for this.
The numbers speak for themselves. Even if I account for analytics blockers, the social news sites brought little traffic and few interactions.
Facebook Ads
I wanted to test Facebook ads mainly because it allows me to target a particular audience. Facebook has a lot of data about users, so I was able to advertise to people whose job or interests relate to freelancing and software development.
Initially, I targeted the UK only. It turned out that my audience was way to narrow even for my measly budget. That resulted in high frequency (same users seeing the ad multiple times), which leads to lower CTR and higher CPC. In other words: either people are interested in what you’re advertising, or they’re not. Showing them your ad multiple times isn’t going to make them click it. On the contrary, it will annoy them.
To rectify, I’ve included the USA in my audience. This should bring frequency down from 10 to around 3. Hopefully the CPC will go down slightly and, of course, I’ll be able to reach far more people for the same price.
I initially ran an ad that consisted of a static image:
I thought it was quite eye-catching. So it surprised me that an ad I hurriedly created using a random stock image, performed better overall:
It’s not exactly a fair comparison as I did change the copy as well. However, it shows you have to test variations of your ad to find one that performs best. In my case, it turned out to be a carousel:
The moment you’ve been waiting for — the numbers:
The £95 I spent didn’t lead to a single sign up. Again, this may be attributed to the fact that you don’t need to register to try Estipad.
What’s next
Content marketing
I’ll continue writing about my side project journey in an attempt to bring some traffic to Estipad. I’m also planning on picking up other topics: more technical pieces and, of course, some on the dark art of software estimation itself.
Follow this publication to stay in the loop.
Facebook Ads
I’ll keep spending “coffee money” on Facebook Ads and keep testing variations. And I’ll keep learning to improve results (and post my findings here).
Google Ads
I would like to find some time to start advertising on Google. I need to research keywords which is what’s holding me back. Hopefully I’ll find time to do that soon.
Conclusion
Not a great start but one that I was prepared for. There’s much to learn and I hope you’ll come along with me on this journey.
If you’d like me to focus on a specific subject in the future, or have any questions or suggestions, please leave a comment.
In the next blog post…
… I will talk about improvements I made to the website and how they affected conversions.
