I Wasted €49 to Get Banned by Google
Last Monday, I did something that made my blood run cold.
I woke up to an email with the subject line: "Your Account Has Been Suspended."
It was from Google. The same Google Ads account that, just 12 hours earlier, was getting me app installs for an insane €0.16 each. The most promising marketing channel for my brand-new app was gone. Vaporized. No reason given, no one to call.
I stared at the screen, €49 down the drain across two failed platforms, and realized a horrifying truth.
We’re all doing this wrong.
The Dirty Secret About "Just Running Some Ads"
Here's the lie every startup founder is sold: have a great product? Just point some ads at it.
They show you dashboards with infinite targeting options and promise you a firehose of customers. TikTok shows you a million views. Google promises users with "high intent." It’s all theater.
The brutal reality? You're not "acquiring customers." You're pouring your tiny budget into algorithmic black boxes that couldn't care less if your business lives or dies. You spend more time deciphering their arcane rules than actually talking to users.
That’s not a growth strategy. That's a slot machine with worse odds.
What Actually Works (Based on a €88 Budget and a Lot of Pain)
I decided to figure this out from scratch. No more chasing vanity metrics. No more building my business on platforms that could execute it overnight.
Here’s what I learned.
1. The Vanity Trap: TikTok (€24 Spent for Nothing)
My app helps you catalog and find all the physical stuff in your house. It's a "lean-forward" tool for people who are actively trying to solve a problem.
So naturally, my first move was to advertise on TikTok, a "lean-back" platform where people go to turn their brains off. Brilliant.
I spent €24. The results looked great on paper.
Views: 75,000!
Installs: A pathetic 80.
Seventy-five thousand people saw my ad, and nearly all of them swiped past in less than three seconds. The few who clicked bounced instantly. It was like trying to sell tax software in the middle of a rave. Lots of bodies, zero qualified buyers.
The lesson: Chasing reach on a platform where user intent is zero is the fastest way to feel good about lighting your money on fire. Unless your product is a dance challenge or a fidget spinner, stay away.
2. The Golden Handcuffs: Google Ads (€25 Spent, Then Obliterated)
After the TikTok disaster, I went to the king: Google Ads. This is where people go when they’re desperate. They’re literally typing their problems into a search bar. It was a perfect fit.
And for a day, it was magic.
I spent €25, and the installs poured in at €0.16 each. My heart soared. This was it. I even found the "optimize for subscriptions" button—the holy grail. I was telling Google, "Go find me people who pay for stuff!"
I went to bed dreaming of revenue. I woke up to that suspension email.
Let’s be clear: this isn’t a bug. It’s a feature. Google’s unaccountable, AI-driven suspensions are a horror story every small business owner whispers about. One wrong move, one inscrutable flag in their system, and your entire marketing channel is bricked.
The brutal lesson: Relying on Google Ads is like building your house on an active volcano. The view is amazing, right up until the moment it incinerates you without warning.
3. The Underdog Champion: Reddit (€5 Spent for a Paying Customer)
Defeated, I turned to the one place I’d been hanging out all along: Reddit.
I wasn’t there to advertise. I was there in subreddits like r/organization and r/homeimprovement, just talking to people. Sharing my app, getting feedback.
And that’s where it happened. Before spending a single cent on Reddit ads, I got a notification.
My first paying subscriber. For €1.99.
That one organic conversion was worth more than all of TikTok's empty views and Google’s cheap installs combined. It was proof. A real person found my app valuable enough to pay for it.
Energized, I threw a tiny €5 into a Reddit ad campaign. It drove another 20-50 downloads. But the real win wasn't the numbers. It was the approach. On Reddit, you’re not targeting demographics. You’re targeting a mindset. A shared problem.
I wasn’t selling to "males 25-34." I was talking to the folks in r/ADHD who struggle with object permanence. I was part of the community first. The ad was just an amplifier.
My First Profitable Channel (And What It Actually Cost)
Let's recap the €88 experiment:
TikTok: €24 for 80 useless installs.
Google: €25 for a temporary high and a permanent ban.
Reddit: €5 for ~30 installs and, most importantly, my first paying customer.
Total cost to find my real-world product-market fit: €5.
The other €83? That was the price of my education.
The 1-Week Test That Will Save You a Ton of Money
Here’s your homework. Forget ad managers for a week.
Find your "watering hole." Identify ONE community where your ideal users complain about the exact problem you solve (a subreddit, a Discord, a forum).
Become a human, not a marketer. Spend three days just reading and listening. Learn their language, their pain points, their inside jokes.
Offer help, not a sales pitch. On day four, answer a question. Offer a suggestion. If it feels right, mention what you’re working on and ask for feedback.
Aim for ONE. Your only goal is to get one person to try your product and give you honest feedback. That’s it.
Cancel your other plans. Yes, even that TikTok campaign you were about to launch.
The Truth About Finding Your First Customers
The best marketing strategy isn't the one with the most impressive-looking dashboard. It's the one that connects you to people who actually need what you've built.
Your first users should come from a conversation, not a click. They should feel like allies, not leads in a funnel.
The real question isn't "Which platform has the best targeting options?"
It's "Where are the people who will actually care?"
Start there. Your bank account will thank you.