Having worked for both, large corporations (Google, GE, BCG) as well as startups between 3 and 300 employees, we are purely speaking from our own experiences (as mentioned on the bottom of the article).
Well, it really depends on the targeting. For instance, if you have brand keywords, you should at least have 30% CTR. Overall, I would say that a CTR around 2-3% for search and 0.2-0.5% for GDN should do well.
But again, this can vary extremely from case to case.
Indeed, as mentioned in my 4th point, the first bid suggestion is very misleading and should not be taken too seriously. It's always higher than it should be actually.
Regarding quality:
Please view the YouTube click I posted in the video, it explains quite well how the quality score is determined.
In genera, optimize mainly for CTRs by using the proper keywords etc. In the end, your QF is almost entirely depdendend on the CTRs.
And sometimes, even though you have high CTRs, your QF is shown low. Do not be irritated, the CTR is the more accurate metric.
2) Time-zone differences: recent posts slightly preferred
Producthunt tries to be just and account for the time-zone differences. So, when later in the (German) day many US companies were listed, their delay in listing was compensated by the algorithm. Recently ranked companies were ranked higher - especially those which - during the same time periods - had a higher "traction" (measured in "more upvotes per last xyz minutes", we guess). To "account" for this: if you still want to share the link with your family and friends/network, do it later in the day, if you are Germany-based (again: a) not recommended, b) impact likely overestimated).
3) Community engagement: reply to comments and provide benefits to users
We suggest that your engagement with the community (see comment fields) also plays a role. But not everyone is allowed to contribute/reply. When featured however, please ask the admin/OP to provide access. Also: provide "goodies" to producthunt-generated leads (especially if you know up-front that you will be featured and have enough time to prepare).
4) As soon as you are featured, make sure that you write a FIRST comment, telling more about your product/service. The comments are chronological, so if someone else writes a comment before you, people won't notice your makers comment that easily. My advice: Either ask Producthunt immediately for a makers account and write the comment OR ask someone who can contribute to write the comment instead. Definitely make sure that the first comment is yours introducing the product.
5) Additionally to the goodies mentioned in 3), you can also generate a separate landing page for all producthunters. This will help you track the traffic much more efficiently -> you have no loss in data by viewthrough conversions for example. This point is however not much in your control, as often other hunters submit your product (as it was in our case).
6.) If you do not want other hunters to submit you, you can add a sticker or note to your homepage that says: Please do not hunt. Most producthunters respect this.
Hope this post helps anyone who is featured off-guard as well ;)
Disclaimer: we do not(!) claim to have a true knowledge or understanding on how the algorithm works - or on how strong each of the mentioned factors are weighted. Please feel free to correct or amend the information in our comments or write me a message via LinkedIn, we´re willing to learn from your experience as well.
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