Nobody visits your marketing site
Give away a focused free tool that solves a real problem. Users discover your main product while using it.
When to use
You can build a simple standalone tool related to your domain. Works best when the tool naturally demonstrates your product's value.
Hypothesis template
If we build a free [micro-tool] that solves [specific problem], we'll get [target] monthly visitors because people search for and share useful tools.
Method
The problem: Your landing page explains what you do but nobody has a reason to visit it unless they're already looking for your category.
What Ahrefs did: Built a free backlink checker, website authority checker, keyword generator, and more. Each tool solves one specific problem and ranks for its own search terms.
The result: Free tools drive millions of visits/month. Users try the tool, see the value of Ahrefs' data, and a percentage convert to paid.
How to do it:
- Identify one painful problem your target user googles (e.g., "check my website speed", "generate color palette", "calculate pricing")
- Build a simple version that gives real value in 10 seconds — no signup required
- Show a taste of your full product naturally (e.g., "Want deeper analysis? Try [your product]")
- Optimize the tool page for SEO — these rank well because they earn backlinks
- Add social sharing — useful tools get shared organically
- Track how many tool users convert to your main product
Key insight: A tool that takes 2 weeks to build can drive more traffic than 2 years of blog posts. People share tools, not articles.
Success metrics
- •Monthly visitors to tool page
- •Tool-to-signup conversion rate
- •Organic backlinks earned
- •Social shares
Prerequisites
- Development resources to build and maintain a tool
- A problem your audience googles frequently
- A natural connection between the tool and your main product
Common pitfalls
- •Building something too complex — keep it focused on one task
- •Requiring signup before showing value
- •Not connecting it back to your main product
- •Forgetting SEO optimization on the tool page
Source: Ahrefs. Free tools drive millions of monthly visits and convert to paid plans.
Suggested ICE scores
Ready to run this experiment?
Sign up free to use this playbook with step-by-step guidance and track your results.