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Comment by rockarage | Hacker News Reader

If it sounds too good to be true it probably is. First thing you should ask yourself, do you really need ads for your startup ? If your startup is not compelling enough to get the tech media attention, is it really a good idea to invest in ads ? Good ads that work like ads on thedeck are expensive and typically not a good idea for small startups here are some suggestions:

http://gettingreal.37signals.com/ch13_Ride_the_Blog_Wave.php

http://37signals.com/svn/posts/741-ask-37signals-10-ways-to-...

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The first thing you should ask yourself is "can I spend money to acquire users?" The second thing you should ask yourself is "is it a price that makes it worthwhile?"

The Deck is probably not a good investment for an early stage startup, but The Deck isn't where you go if you're measuring conversion based ROI on an ad campaign either. Companies that use The Deck are buying brand recognition from an audience that they feel should know about their business. This is an entirely different advertising goal than Ilya is talking about.

I think even with brand awareness, you still have to measure that, there still has to be a ROI, even if the return is just increase awareness.

I think this is a broad generalization. I work on two different projects that both invest heavily in Google AdWords and both have revenue small enough to be considered a "start-up."

If a start-up is focused on a particular vertical, or is a solution people are actively searching for, or has a revenue model built in from day 1, then advertising makes a lot of sense.

I wouldn't call it an either/or question -- tech media (for example) is going to hit a really specific band of end consumers. Is that the entire universe you want to go after? If so, great, but if you're looking to hit a really broad spectrum of consumers you need to combine a range of techniques -- tech media, blogs, social, SEM, general media, etc.

Each one has strengths and weaknesses -- as well as "tricks" like they're talking about in the video. Display, for example, can get you really, really broad coverage. And it's SUPER cheap. But you have to know how to target and measure it, and whether it can meet your goals.

The cool part is all of these techniques can really reinforce each other.

I believe 37signals is buying ads now.

Jason talked about it in his Mixergy interview.

How did you manage to confuse getting attention from the tech media with gaining customers?

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