Pre-Launch Marketing: 1K Followers & 600K Reach in 2 Months

Cosmo.wiki is an IT platform that helps users research cosmetic products and ingredients by aggregating real reviews and beauty routines. The founders needed a brand identity and an engaged community before their product launch to validate market demand and attract early adopters. The challenge was specific: build a loyal following in the German-speaking cosmetics market with no product to demo, no existing audience, and a modest advertising budget.

Project Overview

We were tasked with building Cosmo.wiki’s entire social media presence from zero — brand identity, content strategy, and paid acquisition — targeting the German-speaking cosmetics market.

Goals for the first 2 months:

• Fully set up the brand’s social media presence
• Develop a brand style guide and consistent tone of voice
• Achieve 500 followers in month one
• Reach 1,000 followers by end of month two

Brand Positioning and Social Media Setup

We developed a comprehensive brand identity for Cosmo.wiki’s social media, aligned with the platform’s research-driven approach to cosmetics. The visual system balanced scientific credibility (clean layouts, ingredient breakdowns, data-backed claims) with beauty-industry approachability (warm tones, lifestyle photography, accessible language). This included creating over 100 pieces of engaging, German-localized content matched to the target audience’s interests and needs.

The content was organized around four pillars: ingredient education, product comparisons, routine breakdowns, and community questions. Each pillar had dedicated Figma templates so that new content could be produced in batches without losing visual consistency.

Community Engagement and DM Automation

We implemented an automated DM bot system to streamline early audience communication, complemented by active comment responses and conversation-starting. This nurtured relationships and built loyalty well before the product existed.

The DM bot was triggered by specific engagement actions — commenting on a post, reacting to a Story, or clicking a CTA. It opened with a personalized question about the user’s skincare concerns, then guided them toward the waitlist. This approach turned passive followers into active community members who felt heard, not marketed to.

Content Strategy: Instagram Reels

Our content strategy leveraged Instagram Reels as the primary organic growth driver:

• Average views: 2,000-3,000 per video
• Top-performing Reels: 43,000 and 33,000 views
• Approach: Competitor analysis, trending formats, strategic hashtags

The top-performing Reels shared a common pattern: they led with a provocative question about a popular ingredient, then delivered a quick, research-backed answer. This format tapped into the audience’s existing curiosity while positioning Cosmo.wiki as a trusted source — exactly the brand perception needed for the product launch.

Targeted Advertising Campaigns

We ran cost-optimized ads to accelerate community growth:

Month 1:

• Budget: $124
• CPC: $0.11
• Cost per follower: $0.31

Month 2:

• Budget: $423
• CPC: $0.11
• Cost per follower: $0.84

The cost-per-follower increase in month two was expected — the initial $0.31 captured the most accessible audience segment, and scaling required reaching slightly less intent-rich users. Even at $0.84, the efficiency remained well within industry benchmarks for a niche B2C product.

Lead Generation Without a Product

We built lead funnels through strategic post CTAs, Reels content, and targeted ads that drove sign-ups. The early audience helped test key assumptions and collect feedback ahead of the product launch. We ran a similar pre-launch playbook for Upstream’s SaaS community, where the same content-first approach delivered comparable results in a completely different market.

Results

• 600,000+ total reach
• 12,000+ likes on posts
• 3,800+ saves on content
• 1,000+ Instagram followers
• 1,500+ reach in Instagram Stories
• $547 total ad spend over 2 months

All goals were achieved within the two-month timeline: a strong community built, target audience engaged, and brand fully prepared for product launch. For more on how we think about scaling paid campaigns efficiently, we have written a dedicated guide covering budget allocation, creative testing, and audience expansion strategies.