This. Marketing and virality is in fact everything. Back when I was struggling for money, I used to push gift card offers on Facebook (I'm not proud of it). At the time everyone in a third world country with an internet connection was pushing essentially identical pages that would ask people to post a Facebook comment and then they would be forwarded to the offer, where we might get $1-$2 if they enter their email address.
Because of the sheer number of these identical pages, it was impossible to really make any money. But one day I decided to start commenting on my competitors' comment pages, saying that the current page was a scam but this other one (my page) was the real deal, and then voted that comment to the top. 48 hours later, I had made about $38,000 from the same page that everyone else was using.
The only difference was my marketing strategy. In a sea of copycats, the only way to differentiate yourself is through marketing.