The best way for most web apps to start is by creating online ads. You can easily make them and around a fixed small budget. You just have to pay for the leads and most probably you might know or have knowledge regarding validated learning by testing viable product features with adverts: Effective call to action, language people respond to etc. These ads come in different formats, sizes and payment models:
- Cost per mille (CPM). Here, one pays for each impression or view of your advert, irrespective of the fact if the user does really notice or click. It is measured per thousand impressions. As you start choosing higher positioned, interactive and larger adverts on popular websites, the rates tend to increase. These are the best option for businesses that are willing to create awareness through increasing the frequency of the ad, so not really a great one for small web apps with low budget.
- Cost per click (CPC). Every time a user clicks on your ads, you pay for it.
- Cost per acquisition or action (CPA). In this case, you have to pay every time the user clicks and performs a call to action, be it downloading a case study, making a purchase or signing a trial. Though, it might seem as a great option for a web app but you won’t find any established or reputed offering it. That is due to the high risk factor.
For start-ups short on budget or time, text based CPC adverts are the best option. Two of the largest networks offering Text CPC ads are Facebook and Google ads, each with a different feature:
Bid model is used by both the networks. The more you are ready to pay, more prominently your ad will feature. With little competition, it won’t cost you much. For competitive demographics on Facebook or competitive keywords, the cost might increase per click
Facebook Ads are actually cheaper than Google AdWords, but it becomes very difficult to compare both directly due to the difference in their targeting features. The reason behind this difference is the difference in the purpose of using them as well as the intention. For information, we use Google and for socialising, it is Facebook. Hence, we can pick a general target market for each ad.
