Clear 30 · B2C · app to quit or cut down weed
Ask users where they found the app, and also run proper ad tracking
Shows cost per trial by platform to rebalance spend daily; founders call it very helpful
What they did
What happened
In their words
Asher Herbstman & Thatcher Clough - I Built a $30k/mo App That Helps You Quit Smoking
HostYeah, that's a good insight. Are you guys doing this on Facebook ads and TikTok ads?
Asher HirschmanSo we have an attribution slide like a lot of apps do have. We have all of our panels in Amplitude, but we have a bunch of different graphs that show what our direct return on ad spend is after the Apple tax, what amount of trials are starting from which channel, the return on ad spend from each, so we'll be able to see how much a conversion is costing on TikTok, on Instagram.
Thatcher CloughAnd we can also dive in, like we annotated our onboarding to show like, you know, why we chose to do specific things. But one thing that we've found really helpful is this question of like, you can try and do attribution through a mobile measurement platform, and in fact you should, like it's really important for the Meta and TikTok algorithms to be able to attribute, oh, this kind of user converts, so we should show it to more people like that. But in terms of like in our data, actively seeing, you know, who is converting, we found this question to be very helpful. Yes, there is definitely some bias with the fact that, you know, Instagram is first and we have more people clicking Instagram, maybe when we're running the same amount on Instagram and TikTok in terms of ad spend, but we've found it really helpful in terms of being able to, where people are coming from, to who's converting, you know, how much does it cost to get a trial from this platform, how should we monitor ad spend throughout the day to counteract and and balance what we're seeing in …
Asher HirschmanWhat kind of made us go exponential of like 10 to 30k. Is it okay if we touch on that really quickly?
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More from this episode
- Grow with paid Meta and TikTok ads once the app converts wellBecame the growth engine; founders say they 'cracked paid ads' and are scaling
- Try organic posts, influencers, Reddit and SEO to get first usersUseful for early feedback, but hard to convert; the first $1K was the hardest
- Film your own funny ads that call out a very specific momentSpecific callouts grab attention; calm ads with an older speaker convert best
- Check which ages and quit reasons pay most, then aim ads at them26-30 year olds convert at almost double the 18-20 rate
- Track users from the first screen, not only after they sign inRevealed drop-offs; intro screen passes 85-90%
- Make onboarding a conversation: use their name, echo goals, show proof and quick winsPart of the 2-month push that took revenue from $10K to $30K a month
- Keep the slow 'what do you want to achieve?' questions in onboardingUsers spend 20-30 seconds on them with almost no drop-off
- Give users a free personal report on their habits before asking them to payFounders call it a big point of value; no numbers
- Ask new users which features they'd use, to show them off and learn
- Say up front the app costs money, next to what the habit costs themOnboarding conversion up about 3%; fewer 'it's paid' complaints
- Ask for a star rating during onboarding, right before showing reviewsReviews went from ~50 to almost 1,000 and keep climbing
- Sign users up by phone number and text them funny, personal messagesNo results given; founders cite ~95% of texts read within 5 minutes
- Open the paywall with a day-by-day plan for the first 7 days, not featuresPaywall conversion rose from ~20% to 30% with only this change
- Tell users 'no payment due now' and remind them 2 days before the trial endsMost users choose the yearly plan with the 3-day trial; no conversion numbers
- Test $30, $40 and $50 yearly pricesSettled on $30/year; no test numbers shared
- Run ads inviting people to take a quiz about their weed habitDidn't work; tried half-heartedly while onboarding was weaker
- Study which ads Meta and TikTok spend most on, and reuse their hooksAd with a woman beat one with a man; camera-shot look beat polished
- Offer the app to universities and addiction services, and add paid extras
Tags: meta, tiktok, attribution, self-reported-attribution, roas