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Researched profile. Starter Story's AI research system compiled this page from 43 public sources — the founder didn't write it. Automated research can misread or misattribute a source, so treat figures as best-effort. How this works →
How Liinks Grew
Link-in-bio page builder for creators and small businesses
How did Liinks grow?
Summary of the sourced claims below
Liinks's early growth came from Instagram ads, which worked well until iOS 14 changed targeting and made them less effective. After that, the founder relied mainly on Google Search ads for link-in-bio terms, which were described as high intent and high ROI, and this became the main growth channel over the following years. Early customers came from the founder's existing network, including artists from an earlier marketplace who received white-glove onboarding, and from cold outreach offering free work. A free Product Hunt launch and social posts seeded usage before paid ads, and "Made with Liinks" badges on user pages have driven organic traffic and word of mouth.
Channels
17 channels · grouped by how Liinks grows
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Google Ads
· 5 mentions · 4 sources“After the Instagram ads started not performing as well, I was looking for other channels to scale growth. And I discovered that like Google search ads were the sort of easiest because it was high intent traffic. ... And that's sort of consistently been what I have been relying on most for growth....”
highShow 4 more quotes
“Later, I experimented with ads, particularly Instagram and Google ads. Instagram ads were initially very effective, but post-iOS14, they became less cost-effective, so I switched to Google ads.”
high“Later, I experimented with ads, particularly Instagram and Google ads. Instagram ads were initially very effective, but post-iOS14, they became less cost-effective, so I switched to Google ads.”
high“From $1–5K MRR onward, he leaned on Google Search ads for “link-in-bio”-style terms: high intent, high ROI. These targeted Google searches crushed broad spray-and-pray campaigns.”
high“then Google Search ads for 'link-in-bio' terms took over from $1–5K MRR — 'high intent, high ROI.'”
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Organic social media
· 5 mentions · 5 sources“Listeners hear you say, “Link in the show notes!” or “Hit the link in my bio!”… and then land on a page... When your link in bio is fast to set up, easy to update, and actually looks good, it stops being a glorified bookmark and starts behaving like a podcast growth engine.”
highShow 4 more quotes
“Most of Liinks users come from Instagram, and it has built some cool features just for IG users.”
medium“Overall, organic growth has been strong, too. Liinks pages often include a "Made with Liinks" badge, which has helped drive organic traffic from social media profiles.”
high“Launched publicly, but kept it simple. A free Product Hunt drop + social posts seeded usage before he spent money on ads.”
high“PLG (“Made with Liinks”), SEO-ish content, search/social ads”
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Word of mouth
· 4 mentions · 3 sources“Overall, organic growth has been strong, too. Liinks pages often include a "Made with Liinks" badge, which has helped drive organic traffic from social media profiles.”
highShow 3 more quotes
“as a link service, it is easy to understand that its main traffic sources come from direct and referral channels”
medium“Every live Liinks profile carries a subtle brand touchpoint (“Made with Liinks” / liinks.co domain), turning users into ongoing distribution.”
medium“Organic growth came from 'Made with Liinks' badges on user pages and a free AI converter that turns any website into a link-in-bio page.”
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Product Hunt
· 4 mentions · 4 sources“After gaining some initial users, I launched on ProductHunt. With about 300 upvotes and a #8 rank on the homepage, the launch was relatively successful ... This launch gave me a lot of new users and valuable feedback for future features.”
highShow 3 more quotes
“According to Charlie, he launched the tool on Product Hunt back in 2021: “TLDR: We just launched Liinks on PH. Check it out and upvote here: https://www.producthunt.com/posts/liinks”
high“Launched publicly, but kept it simple. A free Product Hunt drop + social posts seeded usage before he spent money on ads.”
high“And I launched on Product Hunt and I got quite a bit of traffic from it. And that's kind of when I started thinking about monetizing it.”
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Advertising on social media
· 2 mentions · 2 sources“Early Instagram ads worked until iOS 14 killed the targeting; then Google Search ads for 'link-in-bio' terms took over from $1–5K MRR — 'high intent, high ROI.'”
highShow 1 more quote
“PLG (“Made with Liinks”), SEO-ish content, search/social ads”
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Side project marketing
· 1 mention“Started with users he already knew. Artists from his earlier marketplace were his first Liinks customers. Charlie did “white-glove” onboarding: literally setting up their pages to learn fast and create quick wins.”
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LinkedIn
· 1 mention“Early on, I relied heavily on cold outreach to potential users, including manually creating pages for them to show the tool's potential.”
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Email Another Businesses Subscriber List
· 1 mention“After gaining some initial users, I launched on ProductHunt. With about 300 upvotes and a #8 rank on the homepage, the launch was relatively successful. This launch gave me a lot of new users and valuable feedback for future features.”
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Viral growth
· 1 mention“PLG attribution from public pages (“Made with Liinks”) seeds organic trials →Low-touch trial → pay (no forever-free) trims abuse, increases paid activation →Iterate on UX/analytics to keep pages performant and worth keeping → repeat.”
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Cold outreach
· 1 mention“Just to sort of test it out, I was like reaching out to people being like, hey, I built this thing. And I would like send it to them and be like, I built this for you. Like, do you want to use it? ... And that was how I started getting some early feedback, which was really helpful. ... starting f...”
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Personal network
· 1 mention“Second: his VSUAL artist contacts became Liinks's first customers, onboarded white-glove, one by one.”
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Video content
· 1 mention“Later, I experimented with ads, particularly Instagram and Google ads. Instagram ads were initially very effective, but post-iOS14, they became less cost-effective, so I switched to Google ads.”
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Photo Ads
· 1 mention“And my first success that I had was actually with Instagram ads. Got quite a bit of growth early on from that. And then they changed their algorithms at some point ... that eventually became like not a viable channel for me anymore.”
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SEO
· 1 mention“PLG (“Made with Liinks”), SEO-ish content, search/social ads”
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Email marketing
· 1 mention“Resend for email notifications and also sending out marketing emails.”
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Email List Growth
· 1 mention“Step 5: Turn Listeners into Subscribers (the Email Kind)... Your Liinks page is the perfect bridge... Feature it as: 'Podcast Listener Freebie: [Name]' Clarify the benefit in one line...”
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Geographic market expansion
· 1 mention“First: cold outreach with free work. He recreated competitors' users' pages inside Liinks with better styling and asked them to switch — and built custom pages for people using no tool at all.”
high
How 3,222 businesses grow
Of businesses with mapped growth channels, the share using each —
Liinks’s highlighted.
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Referral/Word-of-mouth64% ◀
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Social media63% ◀
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Search/SEO58% ◀
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Email47% ◀
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Community37% ◀
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Content/Inbound35% ◀
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Partnerships32%
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Events24%
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Paid ads23% ◀
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Outbound/Sales19% ◀
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Press/PR17%
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Marketplaces/App stores12%
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Podcasting4%
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Influencer partnerships3%
