Paid ads are getting saturated and expensive, kind of like meta ads a couple of years ago. organic takes forever. and launch spikes die in a week.

So we've been building creator programs and documenting what actually works. A few takeaways:

1. there are 3 ways to work with creators: flat fee, pure commission, or a hybrid. each one breaks in a different way. flat fee = you pay even if nothing converts. pure commission = good creators won't take it.
   
2. the hybrid deal is what's worked best for us: commission + a small minimum guarantee. creators feel safe, you stay aligned on results.
   
3. if you pay per view, cap it. otherwise one viral video can blow your budget.
   
4. always get usage rights. the best creator content often performs better as ads than as organic posts.
   
5. no budget? it's not all about money. early access, visibility, community and product perks get you further than you'd think, especially with smaller creators.
   
6. launching the program is the easy part. what matters is what you do after week one: track every creator, double down on the ones that convert, and build tiers so the best ones grow with you.

My cofounder recorded a full walkthrough (24 min) going step by step, from picking your first creators to scaling. disclosure: it's our own content.

timestamps:

0:00 intro
1:15 why creator programs are about to explode
3:14 3 ways to work with creators
6:18 always get usage rights
7:18 no budget? it's not all about money
9:40 who should join your program
11:13 the creator map
14:19 how to pick the right creators
16:22 what to do after week one
20:45 how to measure every creator
22:22 how to scale it

https://x.com/imlocha/status/2115067238416011340

Curious how others here structure creator deals. Any feedback or ideas are welcome, happy to learn from your experience too.

I want to share this because I remember the feeling clearly, and I’ve seen a lot of people here describe the exact same wall.

I spent 5 months building Targela, a goal-planning app, alongside a full-time job and a master’s degree. No budget, no audience, no connections in the startup world. When the app was finally ready, I launched it and nothing happened. just friends as users.

I spent a few days thinking through every channel. I genuinely thought I had no moves left.

Then I just started posting on Reddit. Not ads. Not “check out my app” posts. Just honest stuff: why I built it, what I was struggling with, what I’d learned, asking people about their goals. I replied to every comment. When someone described a problem Targela was built to solve, I mentioned it once, honestly, and answered their question first.

Less than two months later: 5 users, all free, none of whom I know personally.

I know 5 is nothing. These 5 people found the app because they read something I wrote and it meant something to them. No money spent.

Still a long way to go. But “0 to 5 with no budget” felt worth sharing for anyone else staring at that same wall. So just trust the process.

But how did you get your first users?

For our next campaign we want to test whether addressing common sales objections earlier could bring in more qualified demo requests but one concern that comes up is how much work setup might involve and pricing is harder to address because sometimes the issue is the cost itself and other times people just aren't seeing enough value.

We're thinking about adding a section to our landing page that addresses one of these concerns while keeping the rest of the campaign the same and our sales team would also track whether the objection still comes up during calls but the only thing we're unsure about is whether bringing it up so early might create doubts that weren't there in the first place.

Technical founder, B2B SaaS, live. Ads bring me a few trials. Two months of posting on LinkedIn and X, 3 times a week: a bit of reach, then nothing. Zero organic trials.

So here's where I've landed: at this stage, organic is a vanity game. Ads give me data in a week, organic gives me impressions and no users. Every "build in public" story I read seems to come from someone who already had an audience.

I'd like to be wrong about this. If organic actually worked for you early, with no audience to start with, what did you do that I'm not doing?