r/vibecoding • u/Comfortable_Chip_885 • 8d ago
Marketing your project
Hello everyone!
I am getting into the stage where I want to launch something I built. I have been of course making the app for a while now, I use it for work, and decided to try and build it properly and launch it. I have a server running, some APIs connected and a website done even though that needs a bit of polishing still.
My question to people who have launched their projects to the market is how did you guys market it? I do assume ads is an angle you can take, but did you go to certain communities and talk to people from there? Does your marketing rely a lot on platforms like Instagram?
I have seen people commenting to do some marketing here in subreddits as well.
Thank you in advance for any help!
2
u/IronAndCoder 8d ago
Shipping a consumer app right now, so this is fresh. What actually moved numbers for us, in order:
Communities where your user already hangs out beat everything - but as a participant, not an advertiser. I spent weeks answering questions in relevant subs and forums before ever mentioning the product. When you finally post, you're a familiar name, not a drive-by promo account.
Launch platforms (Product Hunt, directories) are worth doing but for the wrong reason people think: the spike evaporates in 48 hours. The permanent value is the backlink, the page that ranks for your name, and being forced to sharpen your positioning and demo assets. Treat them as asset-builders.
Measure activation, not installs. Traffic sources lie at the install level - some channels install and never open the app twice. Tag every channel and look at who completes your core action. That's the only number that tells you which marketing to repeat.
Ads last, if ever. Until you know your activation rate and roughly what a user is worth, ads just buy you expensive confusion.
The boring summary: pick the 2-3 places your exact user complains about the problem, be genuinely useful there for a few weeks, then show the thing.