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?