TikTok views don't convert into signups — what actually worked for you?
Two TikTok clips, 20k and 19.7k views. Signups from all that? Almost none.
Some context: solo founder here, building a reminder app. For pre-launch marketing I went the TikTok route — a short video series where my dog "programs" the app. When the clips took off, I was thrilled.
Part of the flop was my own fault, and it's almost funny: personal TikTok accounts need 1,000 followers before you get a clickable bio link. So tens of thousands of people watched the clips — and never had a single clickable path to the site. I only figured that out weeks in. (Workaround now: end card with the URL in every clip, plus the link in caption and pinned comment.)
But even accounting for that, I've become skeptical that short-form views mean anything for early-stage products. Views feel like progress; they're mostly entertainment metrics.
So, curious: what actually moved the needle for your early signups? Communities? Cold outreach? SEO? Something unsexy?
Replies
I think it depends on the product. For something more business focused, maybe LinkedIn or Reddit is a viable route. If it's something to target Gen Z, then probably Snapchat Ads. If it's the older generation probably Facebook.
I had to learn to stop thinking of marketing as a one size fits all kind of deal, there's definitely an art to it.
@abiodunt97 Agreed, channel-audience fit is the real lesson here. Though my case adds a wrinkle: a punctuality app doesn't map to a demographic at all — the target is "people with appointments and consequences", which cuts across every generation. That's what makes channel choice tricky: the audience is defined by a problem, not by age or platform habits.
TikTok delivered exactly what TikTok delivers — entertainment reach. People enjoyed the dog, nobody was there to solve a problem. My working theory now: intent beats reach. App store search ads and the few places where people actually discuss lateness and missed appointments probably outperform any broad social channel, at a fraction of the effort.
Curious whether that matches your experience — did intent-based channels outperform broad reach for you too?