Traffic for your digital product
Generate Traffic: Combine Suitable Traffic Sources
Combine a small number of suitable traffic sources through which visitors can find, understand and return to your product. Give each source one clear purpose.
Specialist terms on this page, explained
Listing
The product page inside a store, marketplace or directory.
Landing page
The destination behind a link or ad. It should continue the promise and make the next action clear.
Asset
Reusable material such as a screenshot, demo, video, message, template or example.
Referral
A visit or signup caused by a recommendation or a link from another source.
Creator
A person who regularly publishes videos, posts, streams or newsletters for an audience.
SaaS
Software used online and commonly sold as a monthly or annual subscription.
Wishlist
A store list where interested people save a product before downloading or buying it.
Waitlist
A list for people who want to be informed or invited before a product is released.
What this route can do for you
A useful plan connects several tasks: reach people who already search for a solution, introduce the product to new people, answer doubts and create another opportunity for contact. Different products require different platforms for those tasks.
For a new product, maximum reach is not the most important factor. Ask whether you can become visible without an established audience, whether visitors fit the product, how much time or money the route requires and whether it produces signups, installs, wishlists or purchases.
Which traffic sources fit your goal
TikTok, Reels and Shorts
Reach new people without an established audience. They fit when the use or outcome can be shown in a few seconds.
YouTube
Answers search questions, demonstrates the product and can reach new viewers through recommendations.
Reddit and niche communities
Suit early feedback and products that need explanation when the contribution is useful without the product link.
Google Search and Search Console
Fit problems, instructions and comparisons people already search for. Results usually take time for new websites.
Product-specific marketplaces
App stores, Steam, Amazon and extension marketplaces reach people who already want to install, wishlist or buy.
Product Hunt and Show HN
Give immediately usable tools and apps a focused day for introduction, initial visitors and feedback.
Smaller creators, streamers and newsletters
Can credibly introduce a product to a relevant audience when its benefit fits their content.
Recommendations in AI search
Become more likely when clear product information and credible mentions on other sites are available.
Comparison sites and directories
Help people compare products and create additional places to be found. A few relevant listings beat many arbitrary ones.
LinkedIn
Fits professional problems, business buyers, SaaS, AI tools, education and recruiting.
Pinterest
Can keep visual outcomes for templates, ebooks and learning material discoverable for months.
Advertising in search engines
Quickly reaches people during a specific search but requires a clear offer, exact searches and reliable measurement.
Advertising on social networks
Can amplify proven images, videos and messages. It becomes expensive quickly without a clear destination and measurement.
PR, podcasts and newsletters
Are difficult to predict but can build substantial confidence in a niche when there is a relevant story.
Email, waitlists and wishlists
Rarely create the first visitors but make it possible to contact interested people later.
Discord, Slack and specialist forums
Reach smaller groups but can produce useful conversations and feedback in focused niches.
Open source and GitHub
Can be an important route for technical products when examples and instructions make adoption easy.
Publishing on additional platforms
A proven article can reach more readers when adapted for Medium, Dev.to, Substack or another relevant platform.
Referral and sales partners
Make sense when the product already wins customers and commission payments can be attributed clearly.
Jams, competitions and hackathons
Create an occasion for a visible demonstration and connect games, prototypes or creative products with a suitable audience.
How to begin
Start with the situation of your potential users. If they already search for a solution, consider Google, YouTube, app stores, marketplaces or comparison pages. If the benefit can be shown in seconds, short videos or a product demonstration can reach new people. When the decision requires confidence, use clear examples, community contributions, experiences and personal recommendations.
A good start combines a clear destination page, visible proof such as a demonstration, trailer or sample, one relevant search route, one test in a suitable community and a way to reach interested visitors again.
What to prepare
One clear destination
Use a product, store or landing page that explains the audience, problem, outcome and next action without detours. Every external channel needs one place where interest can become a trial, download, wishlist, signup or purchase.
One visible proof point
Create a demonstration, trailer, sample chapter, completed example or concrete before-and-after. You can use it for search pages, short videos, community posts and messages to creators.
A way to make later contact
Offer an email list, waitlist, wishlist, update mechanism or community that fits the product. This lets you reach interested people again without depending on the same platform.
Step by step
Your practical action plan
- Describe in one sentence who the product helps, with which task and what the visitor should do next.
- Choose one place where people already search for the problem or product category.
- Add one route through which new people can discover the product and see its benefit.
- Create a demonstration, trailer, sample, completed example or clear comparison for those routes.
- Measure signups, installs, wishlists, purchases or enquiries and improve the route with the most suitable results first.
Products this route is suited to
App
The App Store and Google Play with clear screenshots, short use videos and genuine reviews.
Game
Steam or itch.io with a demo, wishlists, gameplay moments, communities and relevant streamers.
eBook
Amazon or your own destination page with a sample, topic content, newsletters, podcasts and communities.
SaaS or tool
A clear destination page, product demonstration, comparison pages and platforms where the user problem is already discussed.
When this route fits your product
- Plan now when
- you do not know whether the main problem is being found, reaching new people, missing confidence or a lack of return visits.
- Do not start a new plan when
- one traffic source already produces suitable signups, installs or purchases reliably. Improve that route first.
- Combine sensibly
- one route for people already searching, one route to new people and a way to answer open questions. Pay for more reach only when that foundation works.
How to tell whether it is working
- Suitable visitors from each traffic source
- Signups, installs, wishlists, enquiries or purchases
- Time and money required per result
- Returning visitors and contacts you can reach again
- Visitors that still arrive through pages, videos and recommendations weeks later
Common mistakes and limitations
- Assuming the largest platform is automatically the best place to begin.
- Starting many traffic sources at once and implementing none of them well.
- Treating views and clicks as success when nobody completes the desired action.
- Paying for advertising before the destination page, product promise and measurement work.
Questions to answer before starting
Which traffic source should a new digital product use first?
Start where user behaviour fits the product. A commonly searched problem points to Google or YouTube, a visible outcome to short video, a complex niche product to communities, and an installable product to its relevant store.
How many traffic sources should I test at once?
Two or three routes with different jobs are usually enough initially. More simultaneous tests increase the work and make evaluation harder. Repeat what brings suitable signups, installations, wishlists or purchases.