All tools
Finding customers · 23 of 110 stories
Google Ads
Google's advertising platform: a business bids to show its ads above search results, on YouTube and on other sites, and usually pays each time someone clicks an ad.
Price: You set the budget; no fixed price (read 13 October 2026)
Free plan: not applicable
ads.google.com
Who uses it, and for what
One row per story. The grade is for the claim that the business uses this tool, not for its revenue.
| Story | What it does there | When | Cost stated | Grade | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HeadshotPro | Search advertising: Tracetify counts 20 active text ads, the first one on 25 April 2023. | since April 2023 | B | A public page outside the story's source list | |
| Formula Bot | Search advertising, run only at times because the payback period can reach 8 months. | B | Tiny Empires newsletter, 10 October 2025: 1.2 Million users as a solo founder | ||
| Glossa.live | Paid search ads: the site reports signups as Google Ads conversions; an outside estimate put paid search at 24.5% of visits in May 2026. conversion tracking | B | Glossa web app, main script with the interface text, read 13 October 2026 | ||
| Polsia | Paid ads for Polsia itself: the site loads the Google Ads tag and reports registrations and trials as conversions. gtag.js conversion tracking | B | Polsia Terms of Service and app code, read 12 October 2026 | ||
| Screenshot to Code | The home page loads a Google Ads tag, ID AW-16649848443, used to measure conversions from Google ads. | B | A public page outside the story's source list | ||
| traxy | A Google Ads conversion tag on the website, visible in the page source; no source states the ad spend. | B | A public page outside the story's source list | ||
| DimeADozen | A Google Ads tag in the July 2023 page source tracked visitors from ads; no source gives the spend or results. conversion tag AW-11115970858 | B | Wayback Machine copy of dimeadozen.ai, 23 July 2023 | ||
| Jungle | Paid search ads; about 20% of revenue during the contractor's two months, and about break-even in the three months before early 2025. | US$105,000 in three months, about US$30,000 a month, early 2025 | B | Profit Mill case study: Jungle AI, 5x ROI within 1 month of running Google Ads | |
| AI2SQL | A Google Ads tag on the home page links site visits to Google ads; no source gives the spend. | B | AI2SQL home page and sitemap, read 16 October 2026 | ||
| Tweet Hunter | Paid search advertising, listed in the founder's Starter Story tool list. | C | Starter Story, 18 May 2023: How we built a $3.5M ARR LinkedIn tool that will be acquired for $10M-$15M | ||
| Talknotes | Ad experiment in March 2024 that brought cheap clicks and few conversions. | since March 2024 | C | Nico Jeannen's blog diary, 30 August 2023 onwards: TalkNotes, From $0 to $200,000 in 1 year | |
| DocsBot AI | Paid advertising and campaign measurement. the privacy policy says advertising tools from Google | C | A public page outside the story's source list | ||
| Headlime | Paid search ads that the founder tried; he says they never worked. then called AdWords | C | Indie Hackers, 1 July 2021: Danny Postma, Zero to 7 Figure Exit in 8 Months with Headlime, AMA | ||
| My AskAI | Paid search ads, tested several times without a good return. | C | Starter Story, 18 June 2024, interview with Mike Heap: I Built A $300K/Year AI Business For Less $50 Bucks | ||
| Neural Frames | Paid search ads; they did not work in 2023 and were increased in June 2025 when search traffic fell. | C | A public page outside the story's source list | ||
| Vid.AI | Ad tags that measure how the ads perform. | C | Vid.AI privacy policy and terms, last updated 27 September 2026 | ||
| Nichesss | Paid search ads used with Facebook ads to get the first sales. | since December 2020 | C | Starter Story, 14 January 2022: This Self-Taught Programmer Built A $360K/Year GPT-3 App | |
| Lancer | Measures conversions from advertising, as listed among the subprocessors. | C | Lancer: Privacy policy, read 15 October 2026 | ||
| Notis | Paid ads for visibility, the largest cost of the business, until the founder stopped all ads on 9 August 2026. | until August 2026 | about US$160,000 together with Meta Ads, to August 2026 | C | Florian Pariset's newsletter Sunday scaries with Flo, 9 August 2026: I give up. |
| GenPPT | Paid search ads for GenPPT, paused on 16 September 2026 after costing US$4 to US$7 a click. | until September 2026 | US$8,900 in June 2026; US$3,100 in July and in August 2026 | C | Ilias Ism on X, 16 September 2026: Just paused all Google Ads on GenPPT |
| Adle | The product creates and runs campaigns in customers' Google Ads accounts through Google's ad platform. | C | Adle pricing page, read 15 October 2026 | ||
| Wave AI | Main paid channel for new Android users in 2026. | C | Mixergy, 3 February 2026: The $7 Million Vibe Coded App, Andrew Warner's interview with Josh Mohrer | ||
| Laper | Paid search ads, listed by the seller as a marketing channel. | C | TrustMRR profile of Laper, revenue read from Stripe by API key |
Grade A: the tool's maker or a payment processor confirms the use. Grade B: an independent report, or the tool is visible in public code. Grade C: the founder or the company says so.
Used in the same businesses
Other tools in the stories above, with the number of stories that share both.
Other tools for the same job
Finding customers, with the number of stories that use each.