Excel Exercises · hands-on Excel training site
Add paid ads once organic search has proven people will pay
Biggest growth turning point, from $10K to $30K/month
Workedpaid-socialanalytics-attribution
What they did
After reaching ~$10K/month on free organic traffic, started paid advertising (platforms and spend not stated). This forced a shift to thinking in unit economics: how much it costs to acquire a customer vs. how much they will likely pay.
What happened
Biggest turning point in growth, helping take revenue from $10K to $30K/month.
- Stage
- $10K-30K/month
“And then from 10k to 30k, I started paid advertising. So, that was the biggest turning point in terms of growth, but also in terms of how I think about the business”
Related topics
Get tactics like this every Monday
New tactics from the week's founder interviews, each linked to where it was said.
More from this episode
- Excel Exercises: Put your rough product online and let strangers pay before it feels readyFirst $50 sale arrived unpromoted; more trickled in over weeks
- Excel Exercises: Write 1,500-2,000 words on your homepage explaining what it is and whyMain growth driver to $10K/month; most traffic and highest-intent visitors
- Excel Exercises: Write a blog article for each topic people search for, like each Excel functionFounder says it helped less than the long homepage text
- Excel Exercises: Post about your product on RedditNot credited with growth; a couple of posts
- Excel Exercises: Sell team plans to bosses after individual users bring your product to workAccelerated growth from $10K to $30K/month; requests like 50 seats
- Excel Exercises: Give a few free lessons, then put up a hard paywallFounder says free samples are needed because the format is unfamiliar
- Excel Exercises: Work out lifetime value separately for monthly and annual customersBlended 3:1 LTV:CAC hid monthly plans barely profitable, 4-5 month payback
- Excel Exercises: Double your monthly price and keep the annual price the sameGrowth took off afterwards; no numbers given
- Excel Exercises: Teach a skill with hands-on exercises instead of videosCore of the product; founder says it's how people learn
- Excel Exercises: Add points and leaderboards to your lessonsOne user logged in almost daily for a year; no wider numbers