Advertising as a source of dissatisfaction: cross-national evidence

Re:Advertising as a source of dissatisfaction: cross-nationa... by cwkoss on Tuesday May 28, 2019 @08:21PM (#20035754)

This is fallacious thinking. If you had an app that would increase plumber productivity by 50%, plumbers would be lining up to get into the Beta. Find any plumbing supplier or trade group, and if the effects are actually that good, they'll tell their members at no-charge because that knowledge would be a service to them. Plumbers would be cold-calling other plumbers trying to get a beta invite. All you need is a marginally competent sales person.

Advertising is a waste money for quality products, only makes sense for inferior ones.

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Re:Advertising as a source of dissatisfaction: cross-nationa... by taffer on Tuesday May 28, 2019 @08:38PM (#20035839)

> If you had an app that would increase plumber productivity by 50%, plumbers would be lining up to get into the Beta.

How would plumbers know about the app without advertising?

> Find any plumbing supplier [...] they'll tell their members at no-charge

In other words: They would advertise it.

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Re:Advertising as a source of dissatisfaction: cross-nationa... by anoncake on Wednesday May 29, 2019 @03:04AM (#20037495)

> In other words: They would advertise it.

It's quite clear we are talking about paid advertising, not the broader concept of people saying things.

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Re:Advertising as a source of dissatisfaction: cross-nationa... by cm2012 on Tuesday May 28, 2019 @09:10PM (#20035997)

This is just not true. Example: I was just hired to scale marketing for a particular app.

This app currently has over 100 real reviews online, averaging 4.9 stars out of 5. Retention is nuts - 98% of people who ever started using the product (which has a monthly fee) are still using it. The company is three years old.

Perfect to take off, right? But few industries are actually viral. We just doubled the number of new customers per month using FB ads in the first two months of scaling it out, and we'll scale much further over the next 3.

Anyone who works in start-up growth will tell you the same things I am.

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Re:Advertising as a source of dissatisfaction: cross-nationa... by cwkoss on Tuesday May 28, 2019 @09:29PM (#20036067)

Why isn't the app growing organically?

You can certainly pay for eyeballs, the question is whether FB ads are giving users with a retention level high enough to justify the advertising expense. Users from online ads tend to much lower quality than those that come from organic traffic, I would not expect your organic retention numbers to hold.

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Re:Advertising as a source of dissatisfaction: cross-nationa... by cm2012 on Tuesday May 28, 2019 @09:36PM (#20036103)

I've said why its not growing organically many times. Most businesses have no viral coefficient, so organic growth is linear and slow. Some consumer focused tech busnesses are the exception, not the rules.

And yes, all ad spend should be measured against true LTV.

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