This is an interesting case study, but my research on acquisition channels that consistently work for founders [1] has shown that sponsoring blogs/web-based "real estate" is hit-or-miss (and doesn't work) for most founders. Here are some dev SaaS examples:
1. SnapShooter ($1k+/mo), a tool to create daily backups of DigitalOcean droplets:
" I tried sponsoring blog articles with a little bit of success." [2]
2. BugFender ($35k/mo), a log storage service for app devs:
"Here's what didn't work: sponsoring developer newsletters and podcasts" [3]
The reason for this (IMO) is that most products that advertise themselves (especially on dev blogs) are not unique/compelling enough. Why should you buy a sponsored app logger when you know 10 other look-alikes with 5 other friends using them? The fact that these guys managed to invest $6k and get $200k in return from sponsoring a blog just shows how unique/compelling/valuable their value prop. is. Good luck!
It depends highly on your acquisition channel too. Twilio and Stripe famously target developers knowing that in a lot of organisations they don't make the final decision but have a lot of "pester power"; it's a risky, but big pay off strategy. I'd imagine (ie no data) that companies with that strategy may benefit more from sponsoring developer events/newsletters?
Jordi, co-founder of Bugfender here. I totally agree. We tried many thing and this kind of advertisement didn't work very well for us. We tried several things in this area, with varying degrees of success.
The main differential factor here is the price of what they're selling. In this case it's a high-value, pretty unique item sold to a highly targeted audience, that 1-2 items sold already make up for the investment. Good for them!
Also beware of confirmation bias: we know this particular campaign worked and was extremely successful, but we don't know the other things this company tried and didn't work, nor if this team had experience in a very similar market that saved them some experimentation.
1. SnapShooter ($1k+/mo), a tool to create daily backups of DigitalOcean droplets:
" I tried sponsoring blog articles with a little bit of success." [2]
2. BugFender ($35k/mo), a log storage service for app devs:
"Here's what didn't work: sponsoring developer newsletters and podcasts" [3]
The reason for this (IMO) is that most products that advertise themselves (especially on dev blogs) are not unique/compelling enough. Why should you buy a sponsored app logger when you know 10 other look-alikes with 5 other friends using them? The fact that these guys managed to invest $6k and get $200k in return from sponsoring a blog just shows how unique/compelling/valuable their value prop. is. Good luck!
[1] https://firstpayingusers.com
[2] https://www.indiehackers.com/interview/how-starting-small-he...
[3] https://www.indiehackers.com/interview/turning-an-internal-c...