In my experience (this is something I'm in the midst of and still working on), the key to early low-budget marketing is establishing a feedback cycle. More impo

In my experience (this is something I'm in the midst of and still working on), the key to early low-budget marketing is establishing a feedback cycle. More important than reaching large numbers is gauging the reaction across a reasonable cross-section of the market. Apart from figuring out what's working and what isn't, it's also critical for zeroing in on who your early adopters will be. Ads are an anonymous and low-touch acquisition channel, making them great for growing once you've got product-market fit, and (mostly) terrible before that point. If you're really clever with AB testing, analytics, lifecycle emails, etc., you may be able to get some useful info out of an ad campaign, but I think it's unlikely to be cost effective compared to higher touch options like networking, cold emails, posting on forums, meetups, conferences, etc. where it's easier to establish a line of communication and find out what people really think. I don't think this is something you can hire for. Honestly, while it has its moments when things are going well, overall it's just not very fun work. It's tedious, frequently discouraging, and puts you in a lot of uncomfortable situations. It takes founder-level motivation to push through. Once you've done the hard work and have the machine running, there are tons of people who will be happy to scale and optimize it for money. Before that, I think a co-founder is probably the only realistic option if you're looking for someone to completely own early-stage marketing.