Reaching your target audience can be challenging without the right campaign strategy. Traditional advertising often misses the mark. Whether it's PR that fades quickly or expensive programmatic ads that scatter impressions without precision. The result? Low ROI, wasted budgets, and audiences that just don't care. In 2024, we’ve reviewed the marketing spend of 4,000+ technology companies. Here are five surprising insights: LTV:CAC Myth Busted: Not a single company with more than five employees hit the “golden” 3:1 ratio, proving that this metric is outdated for most.
Influencer Marketing = Performance Marketing: Most companies your size now use affiliate platforms, which can quietly drive up your CAC.
Ad Platforms Lag Behind: Google, Facebook, Reddit, and Twitter ads are cheaper, but tech sites deliver better results. Sometimes, you really do get what you pay for.
Flashier Ads, Lower CTRs: Attention spans are shrinking, but making ads bigger and bolder isn’t working—click-through rates keep dropping.
Custom Campaigns Win: Companies that co-create campaigns with tech publications see the best results. Loyalty and conversions are earned, not expected. Let's Talk – See How HackerNoon Delivers 5x More Clicks 💡 What Makes HackerNoon Campaigns Different? In short: Increase customer touchpoints by 150% for greater visibility, retention, and conversions. ​ With over 2 million monthly readers, 8M+ monthly pageviews, 130K+ stories published, an average reading time of 3:02 minutes per user session, and 50K+ contributing writers, HackerNoon maintains the prestige of a quality tech publication while remaining free from clickbait and paywalls. Our audience is primarily based in the US (40%) and Europe (20%). 🧠 So, How Do We Make Ads Work Without Ruining the Vibe? We don't want to advertise the shoes you've considered buying around the web, we do want to surface sponsors that are relevant to the subject matters being read, such as blockchain sponsors on blockchain content. We believe sponsorship is not evil, if done right. What's evil is surveillance. Our sponsors will be by subject matter.Our promotions are like billboards - relevant to the content and not the individual reader. Many major tech publications clutter their pages with intrusive ads that overwhelm readers—making them easy to ignore and ultimately ineffective. Here's the proof: Our unobtrusive, all-in-one targeted ads, however, avoid the "Can I read one blog without getting hit by a million ads?" experience. Plus, they yield 5x higher CTR! Billboard ADs: Piques Attention via sticky, yellow bar | Reader's first point of contact and seeds brand recall via your logo and CTA
Story Page ADs: Creates Interest via Full-Width Banner Placement above story comments section to filter out non-serious impressions
Curation Page ADs: Generates Desire across thousands of related pages via positional tiled banner AD with CTA
Newsletters and Audio: Improves Action via newsletter banners and audio ADs visible/audible only to your target audience See the difference in the ad space? Our sponsorship placements are minimalistic & non-intrusive. No sidebars, no popups, no video ads. We care about reading quality and will never take that experience away from the reader. 🎯 Who Is This Perfect For? Brands Looking to Generate Quality Leads ASAP Achieve 5x more clicks with our contextual ads! Target your industry specifically and gain millions of impressions monthly, leading to clicks that convert. Your brand will be showcased across newsletters, audio embeds, banners, logos, and tiles—a true all-in-one advertising solution at under $10 CPM!​ Our Step-Up ads elevate your CTR progressively:​ 0.15% CTR: Top-of-Page CTA + Logo: Grabs attention and follows intent
0.45% CTR: Curation Bleed Banner: The crux of our contextualization
0.56% CTR: Story Page Banner: Intent Matching done Tastefully
1.2% CTR: Newsletter Banner + CTA: Follows intent to inbox
4.5% CTA: Audio CTA + Logo: Exhorts listener to act upon intent Let's Talk – See How HackerNoon Delivers 5x More Clicks 📈 Plus, Results That Impress Your Boss and Your ICP Galvanize a niche... within a niche... within a niche!​ Our targeted ads enable you to focus on a specific audience without sidetracking your budget toward a broader, less relevant audience.​ Expected Results: 48% increase in results QoQ
Hyper-targeted impressions QoQ
Rising CTR QoQ 🛠️ Here's How Ad Placement by Content Relevancy at HackerNoon Works HackerNoon has curated 110,000+ technology tags to date
These tags are grouped into the relevant parent categories like AI, Web3, Programming, Startups, Cybersecurity, Finance, and more!
Every story organically gets eight relevant tech tags and a parent category
Sponsors buy multimodal placements on relevant categories with all the tags and stories.
These Ad placements include Banners, Logos, Newsletter ADs, and Audio ADs - truly AIO (Activities, Interests, and Opinions)
Optimized For: Brand Recall and Clickability (Get 5x clicks for the same impressions compared to elsewhere) Book a meeting with us to learn how AWS, Brave, DataStax, Bright Data, Twilio, SonarSource, Algolia, Algorand, Postman, IONOS, and thousands of other tech companies partner with HackerNoon to target their audiences. Stay creative, stay iconic! Reaching your target audience can be challenging without the right campaign strategy. Traditional advertising often misses the mark. Whether it's PR that fades quickly or expensive programmatic ads that scatter impressions without precision. The result? Low ROI, wasted budgets, and audiences that just don't care. In 2024, we’ve reviewed the marketing spend of 4,000+ technology companies. Here are five surprising insights: LTV:CAC Myth Busted: Not a single company with more than five employees hit the “golden” 3:1 ratio, proving that this metric is outdated for most. Influencer Marketing = Performance Marketing: Most companies your size now use affiliate platforms, which can quietly drive up your CAC. Ad Platforms Lag Behind: Google, Facebook, Reddit, and Twitter ads are cheaper, but tech sites deliver better results. Sometimes, you really do get what you pay for. Flashier Ads, Lower CTRs: Attention spans are shrinking, but making ads bigger and bolder isn’t working—click-through rates keep dropping. Custom Campaigns Win: Companies that co-create campaigns with tech publications see the best results. Loyalty and conversions are earned, not expected. LTV:CAC Myth Busted: Not a single company with more than five employees hit the “golden” 3:1 ratio, proving that this metric is outdated for most. LTV:CAC Myth Busted: Influencer Marketing = Performance Marketing: Most companies your size now use affiliate platforms, which can quietly drive up your CAC. Influencer Marketing = Performance Marketing: Ad Platforms Lag Behind: Google, Facebook, Reddit, and Twitter ads are cheaper, but tech sites deliver better results. Sometimes, you really do get what you pay for. Ad Platforms Lag Behind: Flashier Ads, Lower CTRs: Attention spans are shrinking, but making ads bigger and bolder isn’t working—click-through rates keep dropping. Flashier Ads, Lower CTRs: Custom Campaigns Win: Companies that co-create campaigns with tech publications see the best results. Loyalty and conversions are earned, not expected. Custom Campaigns Win: Let's Talk – See How HackerNoon Delivers 5x More Clicks Let's Talk – See How HackerNoon Delivers 5x More Clicks Let's Talk – See How HackerNoon Delivers 5x More Clicks Let's Talk – See How HackerNoon Delivers 5x More Clicks 💡 What Makes HackerNoon Campaigns Different? In short: Increase customer touchpoints by 150% for greater visibility, retention, and conversions. Increase customer touchpoints by 150% for greater visibility, retention, and conversions. ​ With over 2 million monthly readers, 8M+ monthly pageviews, 130K+ stories published, an average reading time of 3:02 minutes per user session, and 50K+ contributing writers, HackerNoon maintains the prestige of a quality tech publication while remaining free from clickbait and paywalls. Our audience is primarily based in the US (40%) and Europe (20%). 🧠 So, How Do We Make Ads Work Without Ruining the Vibe? We don't want to advertise the shoes you've considered buying around the web, we do want to surface sponsors that are relevant to the subject matters being read, such as blockchain sponsors on blockchain content. We believe sponsorship is not evil, if done right. What's evil is surveillance. Our sponsors will be by subject matter.Our promotions are like billboards - relevant to the content and not the individual reader. We don't want to advertise the shoes you've considered buying around the web, we do want to surface sponsors that are relevant to the subject matters being read, such as blockchain sponsors on blockchain content. We believe sponsorship is not evil, if done right. What's evil is surveillance. Our sponsors will be by subject matter.Our promotions are like billboards - relevant to the content and not the individual reader. We don't want to advertise the shoes you've considered buying around the web, we do want to surface sponsors that are relevant to the subject matters being read, such as blockchain sponsors on blockchain content. We believe sponsorship is not evil, if done right. What's evil is surveillance. Our sponsors will be by subject matter. Our promotions are like billboards - relevant to the content and not the individual reader. Many major tech publications clutter their pages with intrusive ads that overwhelm readers—making them easy to ignore and ultimately ineffective. Here's the proof: Our unobtrusive, all-in-one targeted ads, however, avoid the "Can I read one blog without getting hit by a million ads?" experience. Plus, they yield 5x higher CTR ! 5x higher CTR Billboard ADs: Piques Attention via sticky, yellow bar | Reader's first point of contact and seeds brand recall via your logo and CTA Story Page ADs: Creates Interest via Full-Width Banner Placement above story comments section to filter out non-serious impressions Curation Page ADs: Generates Desire across thousands of related pages via positional tiled banner AD with CTA Newsletters and Audio: Improves Action via newsletter banners and audio ADs visible/audible only to your target audience Billboard ADs: Piques Attention via sticky, yellow bar | Reader's first point of contact and seeds brand recall via your logo and CTA Billboard ADs: Story Page ADs: Creates Interest via Full-Width Banner Placement above story comments section to filter out non-serious impressions Story Page ADs: Curation Page ADs: Generates Desire across thousands of related pages via positional tiled banner AD with CTA Curation Page ADs: Newsletters and Audio: Improves Action via newsletter banners and audio ADs visible/audible only to your target audience Newsletters and Audio: See the difference in the ad space? See the difference in the ad space? Our sponsorship placements are minimalistic & non-intrusive. No sidebars, no popups, no video ads. We care about reading quality and will never take that experience away from the reader. 🎯 Who Is This Perfect For? Brands Looking to Generate Quality Leads ASAP Achieve 5x more clicks with our contextual ads! Target your industry specifically and gain millions of impressions monthly, leading to clicks that convert. Your brand will be showcased across newsletters, audio embeds, banners, logos, and tiles—a true all-in-one advertising solution at under $10 CPM !​ 5x more clicks $10 CPM Our Step-Up ads elevate your CTR progressively:​ Our Step-Up ads elevate your CTR progressively:​ 0.15% CTR: Top-of-Page CTA + Logo: Grabs attention and follows intent 0.45% CTR: Curation Bleed Banner: The crux of our contextualization 0.56% CTR: Story Page Banner: Intent Matching done Tastefully 1.2% CTR: Newsletter Banner + CTA: Follows intent to inbox 4.5% CTA: Audio CTA + Logo: Exhorts listener to act upon intent 0.15% CTR: Top-of-Page CTA + Logo: Grabs attention and follows intent 0.15% CTR: 0.45% CTR: Curation Bleed Banner: The crux of our contextualization 0.45% CTR: 0.56% CTR: Story Page Banner: Intent Matching done Tastefully 0.56% CTR: 1.2% CTR: Newsletter Banner + CTA: Follows intent to inbox 1.2% CTR: 4.5% CTA: Audio CTA + Logo: Exhorts listener to act upon intent 4.5% CTA: Let's Talk – See How HackerNoon Delivers 5x More Clicks Let's Talk – See How HackerNoon Delivers 5x More Clicks Let's Talk – See How HackerNoon Delivers 5x More Clicks Let's Talk – See How HackerNoon Delivers 5x More Clicks 📈 Plus, Results That Impress Your Boss and Your ICP Galvanize a niche... within a niche... within a niche!​ Our targeted ads enable you to focus on a specific audience without sidetracking your budget toward a broader, less relevant audience.​ Expected Results: Expected Results: 48% increase in results QoQ Hyper-targeted impressions QoQ Rising CTR QoQ 48% increase in results QoQ Hyper-targeted impressions QoQ Rising CTR QoQ 🛠️ Here's How Ad Placement by Content Relevancy at HackerNoon Works HackerNoon has curated 110,000+ technology tags to date These tags are grouped into the relevant parent categories like AI, Web3, Programming, Startups, Cybersecurity, Finance, and more! Every story organically gets eight relevant tech tags and a parent category Sponsors buy multimodal placements on relevant categories with all the tags and stories. These Ad placements include Banners, Logos, Newsletter ADs, and Audio ADs - truly AIO (Activities, Interests, and Opinions) Optimized For: Brand Recall and Clickability (Get 5x clicks for the same impressions compared to elsewhere) HackerNoon has curated 110,000+ technology tags to date 110,000+ technology tags 110,000+ technology tags These tags are grouped into the relevant parent categories like AI, Web3, Programming, Startups, Cybersecurity, Finance , and more! relevant parent categories AI , Web3 , Programming , Startups , Cybersecurity , Finance AI Web3 Programming Startups Cybersecurity Finance Every story organically gets eight relevant tech tags and a parent category tech tags Sponsors buy multimodal placements on relevant categories with all the tags and stories. Sponsors buy multimodal placements on relevant categories with all the tags and stories. These Ad placements include Banners, Logos, Newsletter ADs, and Audio ADs - truly AIO (Activities, Interests, and Opinions) truly AIO (Activities, Interests, and Opinions) Optimized For: Brand Recall and Clickability ( Get 5x clicks for the same impressions compared to elsewhere ) Brand Recall and Clickability Get 5x clicks for the same impressions compared to elsewhere Book a meeting with us to learn how AWS, Brave, DataStax, Bright Data, Twilio, SonarSource, Algolia, Algorand, Postman, IONOS, and thousands of other tech companies partner with HackerNoon to target their audiences. Book a meeting with us to learn how AWS, Brave, DataStax, Bright Data, Twilio, SonarSource, Algolia, Algorand, Postman, IONOS, and thousands of other tech companies partner with HackerNoon to target their audiences. Book a meeting with us to learn how AWS, Brave, DataStax, Bright Data, Twilio, SonarSource, Algolia, Algorand, Postman, IONOS, and thousands of other tech companies partner with HackerNoon to target their audiences. Book a meeting with us Stay creative, stay iconic!

Algorand

Internet Computer

Algolia

Clicks

DataStax

Every

Reach 400K+ Tech Readers with HackerNoon Newsletter Ads

Turns Out, a Little Competition Goes a Long Way—Especially When it Comes to Content

Brand Growth ∝ Internet Reputation

Read My Stories

Too Long; Didn't Read

Generate Quality Leads ASAP: HackerNoon's Content-Relevant Niche Ads FTW

Generate Quality Leads ASAP: HackerNoon's Content-Relevant Niche Ads FTW

About Author

Comments

TOPICS

THIS ARTICLE WAS FEATURED IN

Related Stories

Untitled Story

From Keywords to Concepts: Optimizing for AI Understanding

Targeted Ads: Ad Placements by Content Relevancy

How to Advertise to Your Target Audience without Creeping Them Out

Is Your ICP An Offensive Stereotype?

How You Like Them Sandwiches?

From Keywords to Concepts: Optimizing for AI Understanding

Targeted Ads: Ad Placements by Content Relevancy

How to Advertise to Your Target Audience without Creeping Them Out

Is Your ICP An Offensive Stereotype?

How You Like Them Sandwiches?

Light-Mode

Classic

Newspaper

Dark-Mode

Neon Noir

Minty

HN StartUps