What would I do if I didn’t place in the top 3 on Product Hunt?
Here’s what I think actually matters:
Being featured
Getting into the top 10 within the first 4 hours
Scaling into the top 5
Securing a badge (1st–3rd place)
Why?
1. Being featured
Just being featured already means visibility on Product Hunt’s landing page. That’s massive distribution on its own.
2. Top 10
That’s a solid achievement. You also have a chance to be included in the Product Hunt newsletter. With around 140k readers.
3. Top 5
Products in the top 5 remain visible in the “Previous launches” section in the following days. That means continued organic traffic.
4. Top 3
The most attention, the most impressions, the highest chance of being approached by investors, and, of course, the badge.
If I personally made it “only” into the top 10, it would still mean a lot to me because:
I’d be visible that day
I could get featured in the newsletter
I’d likely see a significant spike in impressions
According to that, I would lead the next communication steps towards this:
👉 Mention it in future communication on socials, newsletter, etc. (e.g., “Featured in Product Hunt newsletter”)
👉 Create content about how challenging it was and which tactics worked
👉 Stay active in the product discussion thread
👉 Regularly update the community with product improvements
Many people feel disappointed when they don’t get first place.
Maybe it’s time to look at a launch as just one part of a broader marketing strategy, and focus on how to maximise what you DID achieve.
If you didn’t make the top 3 but still ranked in the remaining spots, how did you approach your marketing and communication afterwards?
Did you fully leverage the momentum?
Feel free to share your experiences with the launch that wasn't a 1 – 3 place, but up to 10 rankings.
Replies
I think being featured itself is a huge victory given than every day hundreds of products are launching. BTW, the badge is given to all the products in the top 5, not just top 3. :)
minimalist phone: creating folders
@rohanrecommends Thank you for correcting me, that's true. BTW, being featured among 600 products launched should receive any special badge itself :D
@busmark_w_nika haha yes! If the product is not featured they get a badge "Live on product hunt" and if it is featured they get a badge "Featured on product hunt". :D
minimalist phone: creating folders
@rohanrecommends That's not so much visible (I think many people will not care) :D
IXORD
I support the optimistic idea that we should work with what we have already achieved. For example, even if we did not reach the top 10 on a given day, it is still good. Each subsequent launch gives us experience that allows us to form an even more detailed strategy.
minimalist phone: creating folders
@ixord and at least, you have some extra content for social media to fill out the space :D
IXORD
@busmark_w_nika Haha, that too. I always see the discussion after it’s launched for the users :)
I think founders often overestimate how much the exact #1 or #2 ranking matters. For most people, just being Featured on Product Hunt is already a quality signal. When I see that badge on a site, my first thought is Okay, these folks are legit, the product is real. What exact spot it hit on some random Tuesday in 2024? Nobody’s going to remember that a month later anyway 🙂
minimalist phone: creating folders
@nikita_iv To be honest, no one will remember even one day after :D
vibecoder.date
For vibecoder dot date I kinda winged it.
I had zero expectations and launched bc YOLO. but later on I did end up making more connections thanks to it.
I might add an ancillary product to it and relaunch with that., something that would help the core audience while also being part of the brand and leading people to try the dating aspect.
I should have built more distro outside of it tbh.
It got fifth place and got launch of the day. I think it was because the meme nature of it really resonated. And the value prop is simple, it's dead simple.
I also feel like as much as we try to prep for launch, sometimes we coincide with a large org launching something popular.
I think today sonnet 4.6 got launched and it got up the ranks fast. Sometimes these products with large existing followings just pop up, I got lucky on my vibecoder launch because there were no big name launches that day.
minimalist phone: creating folders
@build_with_aj did you launch it somewhere during the weekend? These apps are popular during these days.
vibecoder.date
@busmark_w_nika I barely remember when I launched it.
It was a complete YOLO moment. I think it was a saturday into sunday thing?
minimalist phone: creating folders
@build_with_aj :DDD wow, you live on the edge :D
Totally agree about the newsletter! The homepage lives for 24 hours, but an email can sit in your inbox for weeks. I often clear my mail on the weekend and discover cool tools that launched on Tuesday. Getting into the digest honestly feels even better than sitting in the top for a couple of hours and disappearing.
minimalist phone: creating folders
@annasokol Do you really read the newsletter more than visiting this page?