I run a SaaS that I believe will benefit from trying ads on it. However, I got blocked on Google.
First, they marked my website as compromised. I tried to remove all Javascript, run malware scanners, change IP, change server location, contact support - nothing helped. Then, they blocked my account (no idea why), so unless I create a new Google account (which might be against their TOS), I'm banned from advertising on Google.
The product is not a scam, and there are hundreds of happy customers. There are similar products that Google happily takes their money for ads.
All social media ads such as Meta, Twitter, TikTok, Reddit - are not helpful, as my main source of traffic are people who search for "How to do [what my product does]" on Google, rather than people who scroll news feeds.
It's more of a "I need a solution now" type of product rather than "oh, look another cool gimmick/t-shirt/gadget that I might buy", this is why I'm focusing on SEO and ads on Google.
But I know that Google is not the only one. So where can one advertise in order to reach search results? Preferably something you had experience with yourself.
There are several alternatives worth exploring:
Alternative Search Engines:
- Bing Ads (Microsoft Advertising) is your best immediate alternative for Western markets - often lower CPC and less competition - Yandex Advertising for Russian markets (if relevant to your market) - Baidu Marketing for Chinese audiences (if relevant to your market)
Resolve Google Issues:
- Try reaching out to a Google Ads account manager - they can sometimes help resolve account blocks that automated support can't handle - Consider working with a certified Google Ads agency who might have better support channels - Document everything meticulously to demonstrate your legitimacy
Rethink Social Advertising:
While you've found social media ads ineffective, generally paid social is effective for most client, so you might want to reconsider with a different approach to define your audience:
- Target people discussing your problem space on LinkedIn/Reddit - Use detailed interest targeting on Meta to reach people in relevant industries/roles
I also have a domain that is blocked buy Google. There is nothing you can do and the only solution for me has been to: 1) change the domain name 2) change the content (text and images) of the pages
And, even after that, the recovery has been really slow...
I think you can create a new Google account for a new website and/or entity. That is why you can have a google business account and a personnal one.
If you have enough budget you could use a PPC Agency, who may run your Google ads through their ad account.
PPC agencies often also have an Account Manager at Google (who will be able to unblock you, or at least give you more insight into why you were blocked).
Hope that's helpful
Helps if you tell us what it is.
Reddit ads might be OK if there are subs that coincide with the topic.
Bing. Otherwise nowhere else will fit your description so you gotta advertise in places you think isn't the best until you figure out some that work.
Found this on a post on Reddit (original source is linked below)-
Bluesky: Bsky is crazy- unlike X, which took me months to get anywhere. On Bsky, the audience seemed really into the content that was being posted. I saw accounts with interests similar to the website's niche, so I followed and clicked through the link to the site. It's super motivating to see!
Interactivity Studio: Super cool free marketing tool- I've noticed an increase in conversions and click-throughs when I embed interactive images of affiliate products on my site. The interactivity also helped decrease bounce rates for traffic coming from Pinterest. And yes, I post on the community to get more traffic from Interactivity Studio and add a link to my blog for a backlink. On one of my sites, I embedded a map with different regions linked to different pages. Worked much better to get my audience to check out more pages on my site.
Unsplash: Yes, you heard me right- Unsplash. If you are in a visual niche and are taking original photos, posting them on Unsplash can be a goldmine- especially if you are running an agency type of business or a digital marketing type of business. Whenever someone downloads your photo, there is a chance they might give you attribution, which can improve your brand/ website visibility. I have tried the same with other stock image platforms too but Unsplash has shown the best results so far.
Peerlist: At first I thought this was some wannabe Product Hunt, but then they did a feature launch of Peerlist articles. Even though most of the audience is into tech, I found that posting articles here works great for parasite SEO. If you are targeting low keyword difficulty keywords, you can rank much faster through Peerlist as articles get indexed relatively fast. Also, if you post on the weekly launchpad, you get a do-follow backlink.
Dailymotion: Who here still remembers Dailymotion? At one point, they were actually bigger than YouTube. I have crossposted some of the long-form video content from my YouTube channel to Dailymotion. Surprisingly seeing similar results in terms of views here since the videos are also getting indexed in SERP. Threads It was a smooth transition setting up Threads since I already had an Instagram account with 100+ followers. I started to see some engagement when I posted links to my site. However, I shifted gears to see what people were searching for and what my competitors were not focusing on and created content accordingly. This helped grow my threads account and get more traffic to my site.
Framer Plugins: This one is for the devs. Framer recently announced the launch of Framer Plugins. Much like WordPress plugins, this opens doors to multiple possibilities- especially if you are running a SaaS business. There are only 54 plugins as of the writing of this post, so your chances to get noticed and acquire new users is high- unlike WordPress, which literally has thousands of plugins.
Webview Apps: I had a tool site that was in a high-competition niche. I got someone on Fiverr to turn my site into an Android app and published it to the Play Store. Since then, the app received more than 50,000 installs and has been a reliable source of traffic for me.
Uneed(dot)best: This platform has come a long way since its launch. They're getting some serious traffic, and every tool/ website that you submit here gets featured which was a big w. The only downside is that if you don't make it to the top 3 upvoted products for the day, you don't get a do-follow backlink. But if you do, it'll send traffic to your website forever.
Gumroad: If you are looking to grow your email list, or to create an additional source of revenue for your website, I found Gumroad to be quite effective. I created a downloadable digital product and listed it on Gumroad for free. Then I put a link on my site for users to get the 'Free Guide'. Built an email list from 0-100 in a matter of 1 month through this method. I found this to work far better than the Grow plugin I had mentioned in my post earlier.
Flipboard: Before they changed the algorithm, things were going pretty well and I was seeing a decent number of outbound clicks. But now I am not sure anymore. I am a/b testing things to see what works and plant to double down on what actually does, but in the meantime, I still think that original content tends to do much better here.
Google Classroom: If you are in the education niche, it might feel more native for your users to join your space in a Google Classroom. Once you build an audience here, you can add links to your content and drive targeted traffic to your website. If you are not in the education niche, telegram or WhatsApp are good places to build your audience.
Slideshare: If the nature of your website involves documents, slideshows, etc, then posting them on Slideshare can be another great avenue to get more eyeballs on your content and website. I prefer Slideshare over Scribd or Issuu since the user experience is much nicher imo, but you can post on similar document-sharing platforms too.
Link to the original post on Reddit- https://www.reddit.com/r/juststart/comments/1gvoiep/a_list_o...