Ask HN: From your experience, is Google Ads good?

I'd be skeptical if ads worked for a developer-focused product. Most people hate ads and developers are skilled enough to mitigate the issue with ad-blockers and similar solutions.

yes definitely. google ads and other marketing channels are a known and well established path to growth. knowing how to run them is however not trivial and you're not guaranteed results. in general the key things to keep in mind are 1. focus getting actual results aka try CPA campaigns. optimize for cost per lead or cost per signups that's actually closely ties to your business. 2. you must have great creatives that are enticing. 3. target your audience very carefully. be as narrow as you can to start. extra important on fb. 4. for google use the right keywords. once your main keywords are performing well look to expand to adjacent ones.

You need a gimmick, something that will remind your potential audience about you at the RIGHT time.

Real life example: A firm selling paper to printers advertised by handing out self-adhesive (flourescent paper) football fixtures to printer's purchasing officers. Most times it would be stuck on the wall next to the guy. That was exactly what we wanted to happen!

Perhaps you could provide a free VERY useful desktop app?