# Why new SaaS launches should advertise on The Pillar > The Pillar is a free 3D city game in the browser where tower windows ($9 to $392.85 a month) and billboards ($4 to $8 a month) are ad space. A new SaaS can put its logo, a one-line pitch, its pricing and a sign-up link on a window that stays lit for the whole month after launch. Launch day is loud and short. When RoastWeb, a website audit tool made by the same small team as The Pillar, launched on Product Hunt on September 22, 2026, it had 66 visitors that day. On a normal day it had about 12. Two days later it was back to 9. A launch brings a crowd for a day, and the month after it is when a new product still needs to be seen, long after the launch posts have scrolled away. A window on The Pillar covers part of that month. It's a spot on an 80-floor tower in a free 3D city game, with your logo, a one-line pitch, your pricing and a sign-up link, lit for the whole month at a flat price from $9. **At a glance** - RoastWeb's Product Hunt launch on September 22, 2026 brought 66 visitors in one day, more than five times a normal day. Two days later it had 9. - Launch posts fade within a day or two. A window on The Pillar stays lit for the month at one price, from $9. - Use the pitch for what the product does, the pricing line for the free plan and the link for the sign-up page, with a tracking tag on it. - Every window gets a share link with a preview card, which gives you something new to post in the weeks after launch. - The Pillar's audience is small and new. A window is one more place to be seen after launch, next to Product Hunt, Hacker News and your own list. ## What happens to traffic after a SaaS launch? It jumps for a day and falls back within about two days. RoastWeb launched on Product Hunt on September 22, 2026. Google Analytics recorded 66 visitors that day, against an average of about 12 a day over the two weeks before. It had 23 visitors the next day and 9 the day after. **RoastWeb visitors per day around its Product Hunt launch** | Day | Visitors | | --- | --- | | Sep 15 | 17 | | Sep 16 | 7 | | Sep 17 | 16 | | Sep 18 | 10 | | Sep 19 | 7 | | Sep 20 | 24 | | Sep 21 | 16 | | Sep 22 | 66 | | Sep 23 | 23 | | Sep 24 | 9 | | Sep 25 | 16 | | Sep 26 | 8 | | Sep 27 | 5 | | Sep 28 | 11 | | Sep 29 | 12 | | Sep 30 | 7 | *RoastWeb's own Google Analytics 4 data, active users per day, pulled on October 1, 2026. The launch was on September 22.* Over the week after launch, RoastWeb averaged about 10 visitors a day, a little below the two weeks before it. For one day the launch did its job, and then the product was back to being found one visitor at a time. These are small numbers, and a bigger launch brings a bigger spike. Plan for the drop either way, because the people who saw you on launch day are a small share of the people who will ever need your product. ## Where did the launch-day visitors come from? Google Analytics credited 12 of the 66 launch-day visitors to producthunt.com and 50 to direct visits. GA4 files a visit as direct when it has no clear referral source, for example a link without tracking tags, a shortened link, an address typed by hand or a visitor with an ad blocker, as [Google's help page on direct traffic](https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/15258820?hl=en) explains. Google, Bing and Perplexity sent the remaining 4. **RoastWeb's launch day by source, September 22, 2026** | Source | Visitors | | --- | --- | | Direct (no clear referral source) | 50 | | producthunt.com | 12 | | Google | 2 | | Bing | 1 | | Perplexity | 1 | So Product Hunt's own page sent 18% of the launch-day visitors. Most of the rest arrived without a source GA4 could read. Product Hunt's own day runs on a fixed clock. "The site operates on 24-hour periods in PST so your post will go live on the site at 12:01 AM PST," its [help center](https://help.producthunt.com/en/articles/479557-how-to-post-a-product) says. By the next morning, a new set of launches has taken the front page. ## Why keep a new SaaS visible after launch? Because the people who need your product mostly weren't watching on launch day. They turn up later, through a search, a recommendation or something they pass by, and a name they've seen before is easier to trust than one they haven't. Psychologists have studied that pull since Robert Zajonc's 1968 work on the [mere-exposure effect](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mere-exposure_effect), which found that people rate familiar things more positively. After launch, most founders go back to the slow channels: writing, search, word of mouth and their own email list. Those take weeks or months to grow. A paid spot that stays up all month covers part of the gap with something people can see right away. Most paid options don't fit a small, steady month. Search ads charge per click and can spend a launch budget in days. Sponsoring a newsletter buys one issue on one day. A window on The Pillar costs one flat price, stays lit the whole month and needs nothing from you after checkout. ## What a window gives a new SaaS Your logo goes on a pane of glass on the tower, lit day and night. Anyone who taps it opens a panel with your product's name, a pitch of up to 140 characters, a pricing line of up to 80 characters and your link. Your panel also shows a view counter, which goes up each time someone opens your window and counts real opens only. Every lit spot also has a share page, at thepillar.io/w/ plus the spot's id. Its preview card shows your logo, name and pitch when you post the link on X, LinkedIn, Slack or in a newsletter, and anyone who opens it is flown straight to your window. That gives you a new thing to post in the quiet weeks after launch. ![The link preview card for RoastWeb's window on The Pillar, with RoastWeb's logo, name and pitch](https://thepillar.io/blog-img/share-card-roastweb.jpg) *The preview card a window's share link shows. This one is RoastWeb's; yours shows your own logo, name and pitch.* Your product is also listed in the [directory](https://thepillar.io/directory), the page that lists every company on The Pillar with a link to its site. In legal terms: The Pillar is a 3D open-world browser game and an advertising marketplace. A window is a licensed ad pane on its 80-floor tower, not real property and not a security. The [Advertising License](https://thepillar.io/legal/license) page has the full wording. ## How should a SaaS fill in its window? Say what the product does and who it's for, in words a stranger understands. "Turns support emails into a searchable help center" works. "The future of customer experience" tells nobody anything. You get 140 characters. Use the pricing line for the free plan or the trial, since a stranger's first question is what it costs: "Free plan, Pro from $19 a month" or "14-day free trial, no card". It's optional and holds up to 80 characters. Link to the sign-up page rather than the homepage, and add a tracking tag such as ?utm_source=thepillar&utm_medium=window&utm_campaign=launch. Your link is stored exactly as you type it, so the tag survives and visits from the tower show up in your own analytics. Use your app icon or a bold logo on a transparent background. Visitors see it from across the city, so fine detail disappears. PNG, JPG, WebP and SVG all work, up to 400 KB. Write copy that's still true in week four. There's no self-serve editing after checkout yet, so "Launching today on Product Hunt" will read wrong by Tuesday. "Now open to everyone" or a plain description of the product holds up all month. ## Window or billboard for a SaaS? Pick a window if your logo or app icon is strong and you want your name on the tower itself. Windows sit where every visitor starts, and from about floor 20 up they rise above the rooftops, so they can be seen from across the city. A floor 20 window costs $21 a month. Pick a billboard if your product looks good in a screenshot. Billboards sit on top of the buildings around the tower and come in many shapes, from nearly square to about nine times wider than tall. A wide board can hold a dashboard view or a launch graphic edge to edge, and the checkout shows a live preview shaped like the exact board, so you can drag the image until the important bit is in frame. Plenty of launches will want both: a window with the logo and the pricing line, and a billboard with the product itself. Together, a floor 20 window and the most visible billboard come to $29 a month. ## What to post with your window The share link does the most work when you give people a reason to click it. These posts fit the month after a launch, and each one sends your followers to the tower, past every other window on the way to yours. - **Launch day:** "We launched on Product Hunt today, and our logo is on floor 23 of a skyscraper in a video game. Fly up and find it." Add the share link. - **Week two:** a screenshot of your window taken from the elevator, with one line on what the product does and who it's for. - **A first milestone:** your first hundred sign-ups or your first paying customer, with the window's link and its current view count. - **Day 30:** what you learned from the month, including whether the window brought anyone in. Use your real numbers, small or not. Keep each post short and put the link where people can tap it. Since the preview card carries your logo and pitch, the post itself only needs one line. ## When should you rent the window? Rent it a week before launch if you can. Your share link is ready for the launch post, and a line like "we're also on floor 23 of a skyscraper in a video game" gives the post something unusual. After the launch posts stop, the window keeps going. Renting it the day after launch also works. As the spike fades, post the window as a second wave: a new link, a new card and a reason to mention the product again without repeating the launch post. If you have good screenshots, add a billboard. Billboards take a full-bleed banner, and the wide ones suit a dashboard screenshot or your launch graphic. Each costs $4 to $8 a month. ### How to set it up 1. Open [thepillar.io](https://thepillar.io/) and tap a window, or take the elevator to choose a floor and a face. 2. Sign in with X, where a lot of founders already post their launches. 3. Paste your product's address. The Pillar reads the page and fills in your name, logo and a short pitch, and you can change any of them. 4. Add the pricing line and the tagged sign-up link. 5. Pay monthly through Stripe. Your window lights up a few seconds later. 6. Post the share link with your launch, or the day after it. ## What does it cost next to other launch spending? Windows cost $9 a month on floor 1 and about 4.5% more on each floor above, so floor 10 is $13, floor 25 is $26 and floor 50 is $78. Corners cost 35% more, up to $392.85 for the top corner of the tower. Billboards cost $4 to $8. - Floor 1: $9 / mo - Floor 10: $13 / mo - Floor 20: $21 / mo - Floor 30: $32 / mo - Floor 40: $50 / mo - Floor 50: $78 / mo - Floor 60: $121 / mo - Floor 70: $188 / mo - Floor 80: $291 / mo - Floor 80, corner pane: $392.85 / mo - City billboard: $4 to $8 / mo There's no bidding, no daily budget and no setup fee. Whatever the weather or the hour in the game, the price stays the same all month. You can cancel from your desk at [thepillar.io/desk](https://thepillar.io/desk) or by email, and the window stays lit until the end of the month you paid for. For most launches that's a small line in the budget. ## Day 30: how to judge the window At the end of the month, look at two numbers. Your window's view counter shows how many times its panel was opened. Your analytics show the visits and sign-ups tagged thepillar. Divide the cost by the sign-ups and compare that with what a sign-up costs you elsewhere. Four sign-ups from a floor 25 window work out to $6.50 each. Keep the window for a second month if the numbers hold up, or release it from your desk if they don't. Releasing takes about a minute, and nothing renews after that. Look at the share link too. If your post with the preview card got replies or reposts, that attention counts, even when it doesn't show up as a sign-up the same day. ## How players and visitors find your window Every visitor starts with the tower in view, because the page opens on a wide shot of the city at night with the tower in the middle. From there they explore. The elevator runs all 80 floors and lets them circle the tower close enough to read the windows. Cars, a helicopter, a plane and a wingsuit take them around the city and past the billboards. Every evening at 19:10 New York time, the Golden Window hunt sends players across the tower's dark windows in search of a hidden prize, and the first finder wins a week on that window with their X avatar on it. Links bring people in too. The [directory](https://thepillar.io/directory) lists every product on the tower, and every share link you post brings your own followers, who pass everyone else's windows on the way to yours. Players can also meet in live multiplayer and a lobby chat. None of this adds up to a guaranteed number of views, since the audience is still small. ## What can't The Pillar do for a launch? It can't replace your launch. The Pillar went live in September 2026 and has a small, growing audience, and we won't promise a number of visitors or sign-ups. Product Hunt, Hacker News, your own list and the communities you belong to will still bring most of your launch traffic. There's no targeting, so you can't aim the window at developers, marketers or any other group. There's no self-serve editing after checkout yet. The view counter counts opens of your window, not every player who passed it. You need an X account to rent a spot. Most of the tower is still dark, and the lit windows today mostly belong to products made by our own team, which also means first pick of floors is yours. For the full list of rules, prices and billing details, read the [advertiser guide](https://thepillar.io/advertise). ## An example: a small SaaS launch month Say you're launching a tool that turns support emails into a help center, with a free plan and a paid plan at $19 a month. A week before launch you rent a window on floor 25 for $26. For the pitch you write "Turns your support emails into a searchable help center." For the pricing line, "Free plan, Pro from $19 a month." The link goes to your sign-up page with ?utm_source=thepillar&utm_campaign=launch on the end. On launch day, your post includes the share link and one extra line: "We're also on floor 25 of a skyscraper in a video game." A week later, when the launch traffic has faded, you post the window again on its own. On day 30 you check the view counter and the sign-ups tagged thepillar. If a couple of them upgrade to Pro, the window has paid for itself. If none do, you release it, and the test cost less than an hour of a contractor's time. ## Frequently asked questions ### How much traffic does a Product Hunt launch bring? It depends on the product and the day. RoastWeb's launch on September 22, 2026 brought 66 visitors that day, against about 12 on a normal day, and two days later it was back to 9. Plan for a short spike and a quick return to normal. ### When should a SaaS rent a window on The Pillar? A week before launch, so the share link is ready for your launch post, or the day after, as a second wave once the spike fades. Keep it for the month after launch and judge it on day 30. ### What should a SaaS put in the pricing line? The free plan or the trial, since that's the first thing a stranger wants to know. "Free plan, Pro from $19 a month" or "14-day free trial, no card" both fit in the 80 characters. ### Can I show a screenshot of my product? Yes, on a billboard. Billboards take a full-bleed banner, and the wide ones suit a dashboard screenshot or a launch graphic. The checkout shows a preview shaped like the board so you can frame it. ### Can I change my pitch after launch day? Not by yourself yet. There's no self-serve editing after checkout, so write a pitch that stays true all month, such as a plain description of what the product does, instead of "launching today". ### Is advertising on The Pillar worth it for a new SaaS? It's a small, fixed cost for a month of being seen in an unusual place, plus a share link to post. The audience is new and small, so judge it on the view counter and the sign-ups your tracking tag records. ### Is a window a real-estate or crypto investment? No. The Pillar is a 3D open-world browser game and an advertising marketplace. A window is a licensed ad pane on its 80-floor tower, not real property and not a security. It's an ad placement you rent by the month. ## Sources - RoastWeb (our own product), Google Analytics 4, active users per day and by source, September 8 to 30, 2026, retrieved 2026-10-01, https://roastweb.com - Product Hunt Help Center, How to post a product, retrieved 2026-10-01, https://help.producthunt.com/en/articles/479557-how-to-post-a-product - Google Analytics Help, [GA4] Understand (direct) / (none) traffic, retrieved 2026-10-01, https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/15258820?hl=en - Wikipedia, Mere-exposure effect, retrieved 2026-10-01, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mere-exposure_effect --- By Vladislav Gerasimchuk. Published 2026-10-01, updated 2026-10-01. The Pillar is owned and operated by Extensions Market (extensionsmarket.com) and created by Vladislav Gerasimchuk. Contact: contact@extensionsmarket.com.