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Ask HN: How to promote landing page? Can't use Adwords

4 points by jere 14y ago

I've been hearing about how great landing pages are for years (4HWW, HN, and various sources). So I made a custom one the other day that briefly describes the product, collects emails, and does a little A/B testing. I didn't realize until now that this landing page concept is specifically forbidden by Google and my adwords campaign (I think not my account luckily) has been halted: >Google allows sites that collect personally identifiable information from users as long as this is not the primary purpose of the site. >Google doesn't allow the promotion of sites that offer incentives in order to collect users' personal information (such as free quiz/survey results, horoscopes, etc.) where collecting this information is the primary purpose of the site. All I was "offering" by the way was 'free updates', but I'm guessing the canonical landing page strikes out on the first criteria. So now the question is: how the hell does anyone actually promote a landing page? I have not heard good answers beyond advertising.

calbear81 14y ago
What is your product? Have you considered using interest based targeting on Facebook ads to test your landing page?
- jere 14y ago
  It's a lending library for businesses. I've sold it as in-house solution to two game companies (who apparently often manage a huge library of games/books for employees), but was planning on moving it to a SaaS model. Since it's not at all a consumer app, I didn't think Facebook was the best choice. I figure I would throw up a landing page while I worked on it and my best chance is to target someone searching for a solution... but that's not allowed on adwords. My only other thought it producing content/starting a blog. Could work with a lot of time and effort. But everyone always treats this landing page deal as something you throw together and gather emails easily.... maybe I've being naive. Here's the page in case anyone wants to have a look (warning: hosting is acting wonky right now): http://vulgat.com/?toggle_vars http://vulgat.com/?toggle_vars
ScottWhigham 14y ago
All I was "offering" by the way was 'free updates' What? I don't get it. What is a 'free update'? Sorry - your whole post is just weird and I don't get it.
- jere 14y ago
  >Sorry - your whole post is just weird and I don't get it. Uh... ok. People often, before launching a product, put up a landing page advertising that the product is coming soon. On this page, they give a brief description (or hint) about the product and they have a form in which people can submit their email in exchange for updates about the product. It was covered 5 years ago in The 4 Hour Work Week. There are even several tools to do it. Landing pages are posted to HN all the time. I didn't think this concept was especially strange. I'm surprised you have never encountered such a page.
  - ScottWhigham 14y ago
    I'm surprised you have never encountered such a page. It's not that I've never encountered such a page; it's that you did a rather poor job of explaining what you were doing in the first place. If you'd said, "Here's what I want to do" and then explained what that was in even minor detail, people would've been able to follow you. Instead, you said I made a custom one the other day that briefly describes the product, collects emails, and does a little A/B testing. That's it - that's your only explanation of what you were doing. You then further said All I was "offering" by the way was 'free updates'. It made no sense then, and it still doesn't make sense when I read it an hour or so later. No need to write an insulting reply to me when I've basically asked you for clarity in an attempt to help you solve your problem. That's a jerk reply and it implies that I'm an idiot for not "reading between the lines" of your text. Screw that - I don't need to help when people act like that to others who try to help.

4 points by jere 14y ago

calbear81 14y ago

What is your product? Have you considered using interest based targeting on Facebook ads to test your landing page?

jere 14y ago
It's a lending library for businesses. I've sold it as in-house solution to two game companies (who apparently often manage a huge library of games/books for employees), but was planning on moving it to a SaaS model. Since it's not at all a consumer app, I didn't think Facebook was the best choice. I figure I would throw up a landing page while I worked on it and my best chance is to target someone searching for a solution... but that's not allowed on adwords. My only other thought it producing content/starting a blog. Could work with a lot of time and effort. But everyone always treats this landing page deal as something you throw together and gather emails easily.... maybe I've being naive. Here's the page in case anyone wants to have a look (warning: hosting is acting wonky right now): http://vulgat.com/?toggle_vars http://vulgat.com/?toggle_vars

ScottWhigham 14y ago

All I was "offering" by the way was 'free updates' What? I don't get it. What is a 'free update'? Sorry - your whole post is just weird and I don't get it.

jere 14y ago
>Sorry - your whole post is just weird and I don't get it. Uh... ok. People often, before launching a product, put up a landing page advertising that the product is coming soon. On this page, they give a brief description (or hint) about the product and they have a form in which people can submit their email in exchange for updates about the product. It was covered 5 years ago in The 4 Hour Work Week. There are even several tools to do it. Landing pages are posted to HN all the time. I didn't think this concept was especially strange. I'm surprised you have never encountered such a page.
- ScottWhigham 14y ago
  I'm surprised you have never encountered such a page. It's not that I've never encountered such a page; it's that you did a rather poor job of explaining what you were doing in the first place. If you'd said, "Here's what I want to do" and then explained what that was in even minor detail, people would've been able to follow you. Instead, you said I made a custom one the other day that briefly describes the product, collects emails, and does a little A/B testing. That's it - that's your only explanation of what you were doing. You then further said All I was "offering" by the way was 'free updates'. It made no sense then, and it still doesn't make sense when I read it an hour or so later. No need to write an insulting reply to me when I've basically asked you for clarity in an attempt to help you solve your problem. That's a jerk reply and it implies that I'm an idiot for not "reading between the lines" of your text. Screw that - I don't need to help when people act like that to others who try to help.