All tactics

When PadSplit sources the resident for a host's unit, it keeps the first 10 days of that stay to recover a good portion of the marketing cost of finding them, then takes 8% of every ongoing rent payment. It only gets paid when the host gets paid, which the founder pitches to hosts as the key difference from lead-selling 'demand aggregators' like Zillow, realtor.com or apartments.com, where landlords pay for leads.

Made in 30-60 minutes in his basement: a screenshot/screen-recording voiceover tutorial, with the QuickTime recording dot still visible, thumps and clicks audible and a misspoken number left in. Hook: 'most golfers could use a little help understanding strokes gained' (confusing to some, a chance for experts to feel knowledgeable). It then walks through a real 430-yard par 4 showing strokes gained for a drive down the middle, into the rough and into a bunker, and ends 'try out Shot Pattern so you can see strokes gained before you hit the shot'. It showed the core audience exactly what they already wanted to do.

Use only the Meta SDK at the start. Send install, paywall view (standard View Content event, fires when the paywall loads), initiate checkout, start trial and subscribe. In Meta Events Manager > Data sets > your app, pick the same date range as App Store Connect. Compare installs with App Store Connect Analytics > Total Downloads, and start trials with Analytics > Metrics > Subscriptions > Events > Offer Starts filtered to Free Trial Starts. Over Sept 14 - Oct 10: ~3,000 downloads in App Store Connect vs a little over 4,000 in Meta; 312 trial starts vs 276 in Meta.

Plug a chargeback-prevention tool in between Visa/Mastercard and the cardholder's bank. When a user tells their bank they didn't authorise a charge, the tool catches the alert and refunds right away, so no dispute is opened. Costs about $25 per refunded transaction (that user becomes negative revenue). Guest calls it mandatory for web payments; keep chargebacks under 1.5% of users or Stripe can freeze the account overnight.

Same format in all three apps: educate (show the main feature, e.g. film analysis that circles mistakes, drills, stance mode, weight-class fueling), social proof ('Join over 100,000 wrestlers' with creator footage), 'How did you hear about us?', then personalize: style, go-to attack, best position, pain-point questions ('what's costing you most matches', 'hardest part about making weight'), training frequency, height/weight plan, optional match-schedule upload, a stat screen, projected-growth graph, optional match upload. Then the paywall ($9.99/month or $59/year on Wrestle AI, ~50/50 mix) showing a generic example breakdown as a taste of the magic moment.

Register a benefit-named domain used only in the agency's organic videos (flightcheatcode.com for Jetpack; buyabusiness.com / buythebusinessyouwant.com for SMB Market) that redirects straight to the app/App Store. Separates organic creator traffic from paid ads, other agencies and in-house creators running at the same time, and is easier to remember than an unknown brand name. Used only for brands without a well-known or viral name (not needed for e.g. Polymarket). Tested on a couple of apps; SMB Market's domain went live a few weeks before the episode.

When a creator video reaches 10-20K views with at least 3% engagement, tell the creator to double down: repost the exact same video a few more times, and/or reshoot it in the same kitchen with the same script, changing only the spoken hook and text hook. Keep going while the reposts clear 10K views. Rationale: comparable videos differ mostly by timing and volume (Marilyn's 6.9M-view video was no better than a sibling video from another creator).

Context: on Meta, credit/fintech ads can't use lookalikes, age, gender, ZIP or specific interests. Funnel was install -> sign-up -> KYC -> bank link -> first transfer (revenue event). Sign-up was too loose (people gaming cashback/referral rewards); first transfer was too deep (three high-friction steps). At sign-up, data was routed to the internal database and the first and last name run through a name-origin API; anyone with 70%+ probability of being from South Asia (the Indian expat target) triggered a synthetic 'HQ' event sent back to the ad network. No financial data or PII was sent. The event met the three criteria: enough volume (Facebook 50/7 days, Google 10/campaign/day), recency (within 24-48h) and a good proxy for first transfer. Guest notes such scoring could now be vibe-coded instead of using an API.

For a 7-day free trial that auto-renews into a subscription, analyzed how soon after starting the trial people cancel: 25-30% cancelled within the first 12 hours. Instead of firing trial-started immediately, sent an adjusted trial-started event to Meta after ~12 hours (host: '12 hours and 5 minutes') only for users who hadn't cancelled, so the algorithm finds users more likely to pay. Done around 2023 or earlier; guest says it was an industry first then and is now commonplace.

Base rate of $350-$450 for four posts, plus a couple of unlockable view bonuses. Cap bonuses, usually at 1M views: profit comes from the one or two viral videos a month, so you need to keep their upside; people don't perceive much difference beyond a million; and very viral views reach a broad, less-targeted audience that converts worse.

Take the creator's 20 most recent videos, pick the 5 (or 10) worst performers, average their views, and base the CPM price on that worst-case average. Be careful with very recent videos that may still be growing.

Created an Apple Ads max-conversion campaign targeting all countries except the US, with a few top-of-funnel keywords and a $2 target cost per install. Checked impression share by country and which countries produced paying users (India: impressions, no purchases; Netherlands, Canada, UK: impressions and sales). Cross-checked with Mo's Astro-based Claude skill listing keyword volume by country: Netherlands had the same popularity (~55) as the US but difficulty ~17 vs 60-something. Then stop the worldwide campaign and create a Netherlands-only campaign with more budget.

'Proof of pay': ship a real app with a simple onboarding and a hard paywall showing one offer, submit every price you want to test up front, and run Apple Search Ads at the same daily spend (~$1K/day to learn fast; far less works over a longer period). Change only the lifetime price, walking it up: $4.99, $9.99, $29.99, $49.99. Read results directionally (day-one revenue per user), not for statistical significance. If you can't get past ~$4.99, drop or change the concept.

Finds most creators by scrolling and DMing people already making content just for fun: 'Hey, do you want to do some paid content work?' (marketplaces are the easier alternative). Pays no more than ~$20 per video in ~90% of cases. Keeps costs low by making it zero-research: creators open a sheet of formats with exact instructions; each brief is checked for 'any room for confusion or is it stupid simple?' Communicates with creators on WhatsApp; tracks views with Shortimize.

Built an org promo code that does not discount the paywall price: under the paywall a link asks 'Are you part of an organization?', the user types the code, the app signals the backend, and the user gets full access. In an internal Swagger admin view, each code gets an expiration date and a cap on redemptions. Works across Android, iOS and desktop (download the DMG from the website with the code attached), and ties back into RevenueCat. Took about a month of (part-time) developer work. The founder presents on site so people redeem immediately. The host notes Apple offer codes (a year free, non-renewing, shareable link) as a cheaper stopgap if you have not built this yet.

Prompted by members asking for a family plan. The web quiz asks 'Do you have a gym buddy? Would you like to add them onto your plan?' Both users get 15% off. Those who decline see only a small gym buddy toggle on the pricing page, keeping the paywall simple. Buddies can see each other's workouts and meals and send nudges in the app.

Before: monthly and annual shown side by side. Variant: only the annual plan shown up front, with a Blinkist-style timeline above it: Day 1 you get your personalized plan; Day 7 your plan adapts to you; Day 12, before the 14-day free trial ends, 'we'll send you a reminder' and you can cancel anytime. Monthly is reachable via a 'view all plans' link. Price and positioning unchanged; UI-only change.

Quota ~6 new locations/month (~$36K new ARR at ~$6K ACV). Rep keeps 30-40% of year-one revenue on new sales. 'Activity guarantee' instead of a base: reps who knock doors and set appointments earn ~$36-40K/year even with no closes. Target ~70 touch points/week (non-unique; repeat visits count), reduced by closing activity; at 10 demos/week no more walk-ins required. Good reps are promoted within ~6 months to salaried W2 market leads with no commission. Everyone gets a small equity grant vesting after two years.

Added a button in the product UI with a rainbow border: 'Book a call with the team if you want 7 days of extra access.' It linked straight to the founders' Calendly. Both co-founders took ~20 calls a week every week since August 2025, interviewing users with a prepared question list, with an AI note-taker on each call.

1) Search the US App Store (on a phone; the web doesn't show long-tail suggestions) for a topic you understand and can build for, e.g. 'calories'. 2) Note autosuggest long-tail terms; ignore new apps' names that appear there briefly. 3) Check whether other apps already own the keyword in title/subtitle, or whether it's a brand term. 4) If US popularity is low (e.g. 5) but Apple suggests it, assume it's searched elsewhere: find the top-ranking app for it and see where it gets its ratings/installs. 5) Deep research with Claude connected to Astro via MCP (his own skill): popularity and difficulty per country, related keywords, competitors per country; ASOMobile shows whether anyone bids on the keyword in Apple Search Ads. Many related keywords with demand is a good sign. Then build, with country-specific titles/subtitles mixing native and English keywords. Example: 'kanji' has popularity 7 in the US but 73 in Japan; 21 of 22 Japanese-learning keywords score better outside the US.

When a creator says they can 'easily get a million views', agree and add a minimum view clause a couple hundred thousand below that (e.g. 800K, or 700K after checking their page), framed as 'just for our safety' and 'so it's not stressful for you'. Payment is tied to hitting the floor each month. Check their actual numbers first so the floor is realistic and hit every month.

Started with ~5 marketing assistants, grew to ~25, each pushed to contact 100 influencers a day (~2,000/day; real output 40-70 on bad days). Assistants hired through an outside staffing company. Outreach is by email, not DMs (DMs are rate-limited and work mainly with a big personal brand). Creators in the US, UK, France, Germany, Spain; not picky as long as the creator could fit the app into their video at a decent CPM. Assistants send a Calendly link for a manager call; managers close. Signing goals of 50+, later 100 creators a month. Funnel: ~10% reply, a few book a call, ~1 in 1,000 signs. Outreach tracked in an internal system.

Message signed creators monthly: 'Do any of your friends want brand deals?' Pay ~$100-200 to the creator if a referred friend signs. Referred creators send a personal phone number, so you call the influencer directly, sometimes bypassing their management.

'Design your trial' soft paywall: two annual plans with different App Store Connect introductory offers, so the choice is the trial, not the plan length. Option A: free trial (3 or 7 days). Option B: 30-day pay-up-front intro offer at $3.99-$5.99 (seen $7.99 work; $2.99 or lower fails). CTA text changes with the selection ('Redeem 3 days for $0' / '30 days for $4.99'); show the renewal annual price (even in the plan selectors, performs just as well); update the timeline for the paid trial; still send a reminder near day 28. Often combined with the multi-page paywall.

Trigger the offer on transaction abandon (user tapped the CTA, then closed Apple's payment sheet), not on paywall close. Offer a longer trial (3-day -> 7-day, or 7 -> 14) renewing at the standard price, with copy like 'Need more time to decide? How about an extended 7-day trial on us?'. Show it in a drawer modal or a screen with a back button so users can always escape. Apple allows one-time offers but not nagging, and dislikes a cheaper ('better') offer right after the first paywall; a different intro offer at the same renewal price is more likely approved than a discount.

No margin on hardware: armband ~$80 (wholesale cost). Membership $20/month or $14.99/month on an annual plan. Told openly to users that the value is in the app. Chosen over Oura's model (expensive device, cheap subscription) and WHOOP's (hardware folded into a pricier membership), closer to Tractive's.

First month budget $2-4K. Each creator gets a guaranteed base retainer of $600-800 for 30-60 videos (roughly daily or twice-daily posts) plus a $1-2 CPM view bonus. Leave the bonus uncapped so viral videos pay off, or cap it to guarantee profitability. The single goal of month one is finding content-market fit.

When analytics show content-market fit, source more creators from the marketplace or revisit passed-over applicants, do a 5-10 minute call explaining how the campaign is going and why it is scaling, assign them and add them to the group chat. About 90% of the creator cohort posts the winning format; ~10% (usually 1-2 creators) keep testing new formats so a replacement is ready if the winner saturates. Creators on view bonuses put in extra effort once they see the format work.

Once an organic video passes ~5% engagement rate, put spend behind it on Meta (SideShift runs Meta primarily, for its B2B product). Start around $100/day total across the winners (e.g. ~$33 each for 3 videos) for the first 14 days, adjusted for trial length. Track trial starts and conversions via UTM links. If ROAS is positive (e.g. $200 in, $400 out), step up to $300/day, then $1,000/day; if you get 75 cents per dollar, stop. Start paid only after organic content-market fit and once total marketing budget exceeds ~$10K/month.

Base rate $10-30 per post; her own rule is a minimum of 500 views before the base is paid. Bonuses start at 10K or 50K views on a decreasing-CPM ladder, e.g. $50 at 50K views (~$1 CPM) up to ~$500 at 1M views (~$0.50 CPM). Base depends on content type and creator experience: creators working with five apps won't take $10, but new creators (college kids) with easy-to-film content will.

For each app she films a tailored course (her face / video tutorials, 30 min to 1h+), written assuming the creator knows nothing: 1) app intro and setup, including any codes needed to use features; 2) account creation and warm-up with example usernames, bios and profile pictures; 3) content creation with a content bank per format (talking head, reaction, B-roll, Snapchat-style): idea, example videos (filmed by her, swapped for a creator's video once one goes viral), scripts, emotions, on-screen and out-of-video captions, hashtags. Scripts are written like screenplays with an emotion per line and long/medium/short shots to hold watch time; 4) account management: keep warming up, work the comment section, post stories. Creator questions are answered within a couple of hours.

Couldn't outrank an app for a keyword wanted for a client, downloaded it and saw it was undermonetized: #1 for two keywords with ~28 and ~34 search volume, 100-150 downloads/day, one-time $2-3 price, no onboarding paywall. Benchmarked price on a similar client app doing ~$1M ARR at $60/year. Bought it (2022), added onboarding and a paywall (mid-May), went fully hard paywall with a trial at $60/year in June. No new features and no extra downloads.

Same app, same downloads: compared the paywall with a close (X) button against a hard paywall with no X. Watch trial-to-paid: if it holds while trial starts double, the hard paywall wins. Recommended at launch to force a product-market-fit test; exit-intent offers can mimic a soft paywall.

Title: 'Green Noise App'. Subtitle: 'Green Noise for Better Sleep', the App Store autofill suggestion for 'green noise'. Keyword field: 'green,noise,app,free'. Aimed at every autofill variant of the main term (green noise free, free green noise, green noise for better sleep). Done quickly at launch without deeper optimization.

At the start of each year, pre-map the year's product work, holidays and Apple campaigns into a tagged calendar (nomination / in-app event / push). Keep at least 1-2 in-app events live every month; they need no new content: tie them to seasons and moments (Valentine's Day 'plan some love time', Ramadan focus timer, back to school, International Women's Day because of women founders). Submit a featuring nomination every time you adopt an Apple technology (AlarmKit, HealthKit, widgets, Live Activities, Liquid Glass) and before seasonal moments, explaining why you fit. Respect long lead times: for Apple's Global Accessibility Awareness Day in May, submit mid-March to early April. Keep going even when most submissions get no reply; eventually the editorial team gets in touch and requests promotional artwork, which builds the relationship.

Original flow: onboarding -> sign-up -> hard paywall; 60% dropped at sign-up so only 40% saw the paywall. Swapped to onboarding -> hard paywall -> sign-up only for those who paid. Steve's rule: maximize paywall views since they correlate with revenue; always paywall before sign-up.

A/B tested the sign-in button copy 'Sign up with [Apple/Google]' vs 'Continue with [Apple/Google]'.

Trial month: 1 feed video + 1 story per week (4 videos, 4 stories) plus tracked link in bio for the whole month, including TikTok stories. Price on average views/engagement, not followers: ~5,000 views/video -> ~$200 for the month; bigger creators up to $4,000/month. After the month, raise/keep/lower pay based on the creator's tracked signups; strong performers go straight to a 3-month deal.

4 dedicated outreach hires plus the team send the same DM on TikTok and Instagram (100+/day, 1,000+/week). First line: 'Paid promo / affiliate deal?' then a short app pitch and fit with their content. On reply, ask for their number, move to WhatsApp/iMessage and call immediately. Two marketing managers (friends trained by the founder on his own playbook) run calls, deals, contracts, payment, code/link setup and the video guide; founder takes calls with bigger creators. Outreach hires are briefed on exactly which creators to target.

1) Pull a competitor's indexed keywords in ASOMobile (e.g. enter Endel; sort by search ads popularity). 2) Paste them into App Radar for difficulty (its difficulty seemed most accurate; check traffic against Apple Ads if unsure). 3) Target keywords with popularity ~30+ and difficulty under ~40. 4) Check the real App Store results: if none of the top apps have the keyword in their title and rating counts are beatable, build; if giants with hundreds of thousands of ratings hold it (e.g. 'calorie tracker': Cal AI 330K, MyFitnessPal 2.3M), skip. 5) Pick 2-6 (up to 10) keywords as pairs, work on 2-3 at a time and move to the next pair whether they rank or not. 6) Build with simple features, add a good-enough paywall and onboarding once downloads come, and only build new features after ~5K. JPEG to PDF Converter: #1 for 'JPEG to PDF Converter' and '... Free' (difficulty 46/49; traffic 48 in MobileAction vs 10 in App Radar), #2 for 'JPEG to PDF'.