Gravl · B2C · AI gym workout app
Start paid ads the day you add a subscription, once people want the app
First subscriber within 10 minutes; ads are the main channel at ~1/3 of revenue
Workedpaid-socialapple-search-adspaid-search
What they did
Ran paid ads immediately after adding the subscription model, having first validated usage via the free Reddit launch. Spend is mostly Meta and TikTok, with a little Google and Apple Search Ads. Ad spend runs at about a third of revenue (excluding creative production). Advises validating that people will pay before spending on ads.
What happened
First subscription within 10 minutes of the first ad; paid ads have been the biggest distribution channel from the start to today.
- Stage
- growth
“For us, the bigger distribution was paid ads. We started running ads as soon as we, obviously, added the subscription model. I still remember, like, running our first ad. We got a subscription within the first 10 minutes of like activating the ads.”
“Tip number one, for sure, would be to validate before spending money on ads. And when I say validate, it's not just that the product worked, but also that people are willing to pay for it.”
Related topics
Get tactics like this every Monday
New tactics from the week's founder interviews, each linked to where it was said.
More from this episode
- Gravl: Post a 'how I built it' thread on Reddit with the technical details300K impressions, a couple thousand users, and bug reports that proved demand
- Gravl: Copy a top app's design, but fix the part its users complain aboutFounder says it gave the app its edge; no direct numbers
- Gravl: Translate the app to Spanish and run ads in South America for under $50 a dayWorked from the start and still does; US ads seen as too expensive
- Gravl: Pay creators ~$50 a video and copy what competitors run in Meta's ad library
- Gravl: Ask detailed training questions up front, then show a 'building your plan' screen
- Gravl: Put a hard paywall right after onboarding, before people even sign inFounder says 'a lot' pay before seeing the product; no rate given
- Gravl: Offer 24/7 in-app chat answered by a real person, not AIFounder says they grew a lot with it and users value it; no numbers