Dmitry Afonov, CEO and Co-Founder, Aithor.com.
When we launched our AI writing assistant, it was just one of many experiments inside our venture capital studio. We had a simple goal: to help students write better, faster and with less stress. We didn’t have the ambition to build a unicorn. We just wanted to solve a real problem quickly.
Fast forward 12 months, and our business has scaled significantly and revenue has skyrocketed. One of the key drivers behind that growth? Gen Z. More specifically, we learned to speak their language and play the game by their rules. We had to earn their trust in a way that I’ve found most modern software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies overlook.
Gen Z is different. The digital world is their natural habitat, hence their skepticism toward anything that tries to fool them. If you want their attention, you need to level with them and show respect.
Here’s how you can do it.
1. Make your product simple.
When your company has a simple goal and delivers a simple product, the decision to commit is easier for potential customers to make. So, when crafting your messaging, we’ve found it’s best to talk about what you offer and how one can benefit. Avoid clichés and filler words—just like you’d want to avoid them in a good essay. Get straight to the point.
Ensure your pricing is clear as well, whether you charge monthly, annually, etc. You can also consider allowing users to test key features before committing. For instance, we offer daily tokens so users can try certain parts of our service.
Finally, remember to stay true to your company’s goal. As much as our product has evolved, our core message has remained. Features that don’t serve the product get replaced. Don’t overload your platform just to see what sticks.
When you’re dealing with a generation that scrolls fast, clarity wins.
2. Build trust through smaller creators.
Now let’s talk marketing. We started with performance campaigns: Google Ads, Meta, TikTok. It worked, but it had its limitations. The deeper we went, the clearer it became that Gen Z doesn’t just respond to ads. They respond to people.
So we gave influencer marketing a try. We didn’t use celebrity endorsements or perfectly edited campaigns—just real students and young professionals with a platform, sharing how they use our service and how it helps them. We tried working with bigger players—influencers with millions of followers—but micro-creators still performed better. This channel delivered incredible results, drove high-quality traffic and boosted our conversions. I believe younger generations trust and prefer real people and opinions more than celebrities or faceless ads.
3. Prioritize authenticity over perfection.
If there’s one thing we’ve learned about Gen Z, it’s that they can smell “fakes” from a mile away.
Curious to know what our most successful campaigns look like? They’re simple videos filmed on a phone and they’re usually in one room. Some are comedic; some are creative or aesthetic.
When you’re working with creators, trust them to do what they’re best at: creating. If you make them read from a script, it will sound forced and people will scroll by. Trust me, we’ve learned from experience. The style of content can vary—playful, direct or in between. We’ve tried it all and learned that as long as the creator enjoys working with your product—and is allowed to show it—the audience will enjoy watching it.
4. Reuse what works on social media in paid campaigns.
Influencer marketing didn’t just help us with user acquisition—it helped us reduce costs. We took the best-performing organic content and repurposed it for paid ads. (If you take this approach, make sure you clear this option in your contracts.)
There are two advantages to this: First, you bid on a creative approach you already know works and, second, you don’t pay twice for a great ad. Customer acquisition costs went down, conversion rates went up and we leveraged every dollar spent.
In my experience, Gen Z, unlike many members of other generations, doesn’t expect ads to be high production. So why not use a cool TikTok in your campaign so it doesn’t feel like an ad break at all?
5. Try new things.
We brought influencer marketing in-house and scaled the team from one to 40 people in less than six months. We built strategies around seasons and regions, explored various formats and niches and ran countless tests to see what worked. In other words, we tried new things and adapted based on what we learned.
Influencer marketing worked for us, but you might find a completely different channel that skyrockets your progress. Thankfully, potential customers can be found in countless corners of the internet, especially if your target audience is Gen Z.
Final Thoughts
Gen Z isn’t unreachable, but they do require a different approach. Be useful. Be honest. Show up in places they already trust.
Our journey to success didn’t happen because we had the best tech. It happened because we listened closely, adapted fast and kept our minds open. And we’re still learning.
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