Similar experiences here in the past as well. Plus some painful learning experiences with advertising. Had one product I spent several hundred dollars on Google

Similar experiences here in the past as well. Plus some painful learning experiences with advertising. Had one product I spent several hundred dollars on Google advertising. Product had zero sales. Then later I released a different product. Spent zero on advertising -- just some self-promotion, social media presence, tweets, and some free entries submitted on niche-relevant sites --- and of course, it made hundreds of dollars in sales! Totally counter-intuitive to my then-arguably-naive thinking. But useful learning experience.