HowTheyGotUsersHowTheyGotUsers

Make Content, Not Ads

Make Content, Not Ads is a social & short-form tactic for getting your first users: Lead with entertainment, value, or a vivid pain — never a feature pitch — and let the product appear as the obvious answer, with the ask tucked at the very end or off the video entirely.

It's a strong fit for teams of almost any kind, and works especially well for any. As a social & short-form play, plan for medium effort and expect results to build gradually over time, all grounded in 7 linked primary sources.

Social & short-formMedium effortSlow

Why does social & short-form work for this?

People scroll past anything that looks like an ad, but they'll watch, share, and trust genuinely useful or funny content — and a viewer who feels the pain will download the moment the solution appears.

The exact steps (5)

The full step-by-step this founder ran, what they posted, where, and in what order, plus the watch-outs, is part of the library.

Unlock the steps · $29 oncePlus all 3,000+ tactics and the new ones we add weekly.

Sources

Works for
Any / universal

Frequently asked

How is the "Make Content, Not Ads" tactic verified?
It is drawn from 7 primary sources — real founder write-ups and interviews, not generic advice. They are linked in the Sources section above so you can read the original accounts yourself.
How much effort is it and how fast are results?
It is medium effort, and results tend to be slow.
Where can I see the exact step-by-step?
The full step-by-step a founder ran, documented via My 2 apps made $1.5M and How I Built It: $40K/Month iPhone App, is in the paid library.

Related tactics

Social & short-formLow effort· Medium

Share Real Revenue Numbers to Earn Credibility

Building in public by openly posting milestones and exact sales figures, since transparency is rare and earns trust, traffic, and inspiration-driven shares.

Read the steps →
Social & short-formMedium effort· Slow

Run a Tag-Reply-DM Loop on Twitter

A repeatable engagement routine for growing on Twitter: follow the right people, add to their conversations, slide into DMs, and tag them in your own posts.

Read the steps →
Social & short-formLow effort· Medium

Cross-Post the Identical Video to TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube

Publish the exact same video to several platforms at once to see where identical content performs best (30k on TikTok vs 19k on Facebook vs 1k on YouTube).

Read the steps →
Social & short-formMedium effort· Fast

Win the First Two Seconds

Engineer the opening of every video — the hook — to stop the scroll instantly and open a curiosity gap that only watching (or downloading) can close.

Read the steps →
Social & short-formMedium effort· Slow

Fish Where Your Buyers Already Swim

Instead of defaulting to the "professional" network, map where your specific customer actually spends time and concentrate there, even if that means Instagram and Facebook over LinkedIn.

Read the steps →
Social & short-formHigh effort· Medium

Use Follow/Unfollow to Trigger Follow-Backs

Follow target accounts so they get a notification, capture the percentage that follow back, then later unfollow them.

Read the steps →

Get all 3,000+ tactics in one place

Filter by your product and channel, follow the exact steps, and get the new tactics we add every week. One payment, yours for good.

Unlock for $29 onceBrowse by channel