What you can test, and how to advertise for free
Paid advertising always costs money. Testing it does not, and neither do several of the ways to reach people in the first place. This page covers both: the channels that carry no media cost, and how to check an ad against an audience before you buy any traffic for it.
How to advertise without a budget
There is no way to run a Google or Meta campaign without paying for it: every ad platform charges for the placement. What there is instead is a set of channels that cost effort rather than money. Of the 97 channels this simulator models, 41 sit at or below a six-pound effective cost per thousand, and the six below carry no media cost at all.
- Organic searchNo media cost
- People find you by searching for the thing you sell. It costs writing time rather than money, and it keeps working after you stop, which paid traffic does not.
- Communities and forumsNo media cost
- Reddit, Discord, Hacker News, Indie Hackers. A straight answer in a thread is read by people who trust the thread. The same crowd is unusually hard on anything that reads like a pitch.
- Your own listNear zero
- Email and push go to people who already gave you their address. The subject line decides whether any of it is read, and they will unsubscribe if you waste it.
- Store and directory listingsNo media cost
- App stores, Chrome Web Store, the WordPress plugin directory, Figma Community, Steam, itch.io. Your name, icon and existing reviews do the work before your description is read.
- Referrals and word of mouthPaid on results
- Nothing leaves your pocket until somebody arrives. It is slow to start and the only channel that compounds on its own.
- Organic socialNo media cost
- Posting rather than boosting. Reach is unreliable and falling on most platforms, but a post that lands costs the same as one that does not.
None of these are free in the sense of being effortless, and the reach is less predictable than something you can buy. What they are is survivable while you work out which message and which price people actually respond to. Paid advertising multiplies whatever the page already does, so it is worth starting once the page does something.
Testing a paid ad before you pay for it
The expensive part of advertising is not the first pound spent, it is the fortnight spent finding out the offer was never going to land. Describe what you are selling, choose where the ad would run and set a budget you do not actually spend. A population is generated with their own incomes, priorities and patience, and the offer is put in front of them one at a time. What comes back is how many understood it, where they lost interest, what they objected to and which groups objected most, with the specific change to make for each objection.
None of it is real data, which matters enough to say plainly. Every person and every reaction is produced by a model over named factors, seeded so the same inputs always give the same run. It answers whether an idea holds together, not what your conversion rate will be.
What people test
Product teams
Understand reactions before launch
See how many people understand what it is, and which groups do not.
Game developers
Test store pages and concepts against player profiles
Find out whether the hook lands before you build the thing behind it.
Ecommerce
Find which audiences accept your offer and your price
See where people leave, and whether it is the price or the trust.
SaaS
Compare landing pages, messaging and pricing
Run the same offer at two prices and read the objections side by side.
Agencies
Test campaign concepts before spending client budget
Take a concept to a client with the objections already answered.
Advertisers
Compare traffic source, creative and landing page together
Check that the ad and landing page make the same promise.
Common questions
- Can you run ads for free?
- Not paid ads: every ad platform charges for placement, and there is no way to run a Google or Meta campaign without paying for it. What you can do for nothing is advertise through channels that carry no media cost — organic search, communities, your own email list, store listings, referrals and organic social — and test a paid ad before you buy any traffic for it, which is what the free plan here is for.
- How can I test an ad without spending money?
- Describe the offer, choose where the ad would run and set a budget you do not actually spend. Campaigntrial generates a population of synthetic people and puts the offer in front of them one at a time, then reports how many understood it, where they lost interest and what they objected to. No traffic is bought and no real money moves.
- What is the cheapest way to advertise a new product?
- The cheapest first step is usually not advertising at all: publish somewhere your buyers already read, answer questions in the communities they use, and get the listing right on whichever store or directory applies to you. Paid advertising is worth starting once you know which message and price people respond to, because it multiplies whatever the page already does rather than fixing it.
- Is Campaigntrial free?
- The free plan costs nothing and does not ask for a card. You can build a whole test without an account; signing in is only asked for at the point you run it. Paid plans raise how much simulated campaign budget you can model each month.
- Are the results real customer data?
- No. Every person and every reaction is produced by a model over named factors, seeded so the same inputs always give the same run. It is for finding out whether an idea holds together before spending money on it, not for predicting a conversion rate.