How to market a product with no budget

To market a product with no money, you pay with time instead. Start with people you know and the communities your buyers use, write a few search pages for low-competition keywords, and get onto lists and launch sites. Then make sure your website turns that attention into signups.

Each step below costs hours and no ad spend. Pick the ones that fit where your buyers are.

Start with your own network

The people you already know are the cheapest channel you have. Most of them will not buy, but many know someone who might.

1. Write a list of everyone who fits your buyer, or works with people who do.
2. Send each one a short personal message. Say what you built, who it is for and what you want from them.
3. Ask for feedback or an introduction. Asking for a sale up front usually gets ignored.

You get your first conversations, honest feedback and often a few early users.

Show up in communities your buyers use

Forums, Slack groups, Discord servers and subreddits are where people ask for help. Answer questions where you know the topic. Mention your product only when it solves the exact problem, and say you built it.

Read each community's rules first. Many ban self-promotion outside a weekly thread.

Build in public

Share what you are building as you build it. Post on X, LinkedIn or Indie Hackers once or twice a week.

• What you shipped and why.
• A decision you made and what you weighed.
• A mistake and what you changed.

Real details get more replies than announcements. Over time you build an audience that is ready when you launch.

Write 5 search pages for low-competition keywords

Search traffic keeps coming after the work is done. A new site rarely ranks for broad terms, so aim for specific searches with little competition.

Run Keyword Research (34 credits) on one phrase that describes your product. It returns related Google searches with monthly searches, difficulty and trend, sorted into easy wins and blog topics. The numbers are estimates, so use them to compare options. Pick 5 searches with low difficulty that someone close to buying would type, and write one useful page for each.

See low-competition keywords for how to pick them.

Get onto "best X" and alternatives lists

Search Google for "best [your category] tools" and "[competitor] alternatives". The articles that rank are where buyers compare options, and AI answers often cite these lists too.

Email the author of each list with a short note: what your product does, who it suits and one detail that sets it apart. Many writers update their lists and add new products. Keep it short and do not push.

Launch on launch sites

Launch sites put your product in front of people who like trying new things. Product Hunt is free to post on. Hacker News has "Show HN" posts, and Indie Hackers lets you share a launch post.

Prepare before launch day: a clear tagline, screenshots and someone ready to reply to every comment. Our Product Hunt launch checklist covers the steps.

Partner with complementary products

Find products that serve the same buyer but do not compete with you. If you build invoicing software, think time trackers or accounting tools.

Offer something useful in return: an integration, a guide you write together, a mention in each other's newsletter or a spot on their partner page. You get in front of an audience that already trusts them.

Learn from competitor ads without buying ads

Your competitors have already paid to test their messaging. You can read the results for a few credits.

• Meta Ad Finder (5 credits) shows a competitor's current Facebook and Instagram ads, with wording, call to action and landing page.
• LinkedIn Ad Finder (5 credits) shows a company's LinkedIn ads, headlines and start and stop dates.
• Competitor Google Ads (15 credits) shows the Google ads a competitor runs and the headlines of its longest-running text ads. Long-running is a hint that an ad works, not proof.

Use what you learn in your own headlines, posts and pitches. You see how others describe the problem without spending on ads.

Fix your site so the attention converts

All the steps above send people to your website. If the site is unclear or broken, that attention is lost.

• Say in one sentence what the product is, who it is for and how to start.
• Give each page one clear call to action.
• Make sure Google can crawl and index your pages.
• Check that shared links show a proper title and image.

For more cheap tactics, see growth hacking strategies and how to get your first 100 users.

Check your website before you send people to it

Our website check looks at your home page and up to two more pages for crawling and indexing, on-page SEO, structured data and content. It gives you one fix list sorted by priority and 0 to 100 scores for SEO readiness, AEO readiness and AI access. A quick preview of your home page costs no credits, needs no account and takes about 20 seconds. The full check costs credits, and the price shows before it runs. Start with the preview and fix the top items before your next launch or post.