Payout · B2C · class-action settlement finder app
Build your own version of an app that offered you a lowball sponsorship
The first idea tried took off; app reached ~$100K/month
What they did
What happened
- Stage
- idea
In their words
Casper Opala - The Stupid Simple Content Strategy That's Making Apps Go Viral
Casper Opalaif it's low input on my end to build out and it's very easy to just say yes and perform a simple action. Like I could say yes to Connor, he builds it all out, and then I post a video and we see how it does. Like there's no expectations, no guarantees, no nothing. Then it's an easy yes for me.
Casper OpalaSo that's what we did. We hopped on a call. We went through like five ideas. I had a few ideas from companies that have reached out to me in the past to sponsor me, and they just like had low budgets or just didn't work out. And one of those ideas was a competitor of Payout now. And they offered me like 500 bucks for a video, which for the amount of followers and the niche I'm in is really not a lot.
Casper OpalaI kind of just politely denied it, and I brought it to Connor. I was like, "Hey, what do you think about like class-action apps, whatever?" And he said, "Honestly, this is probably going to be the easiest one to build. Let's give it a shot. If it works, we scale it. If we don't, we'll try a different idea." And little do you know the first idea just blew up.
Joseph ChoiIt's really interesting that you already had inbound sponsor requests and then some of the sponsorship deals that they were proposing just didn't seem like good deals, but then it ended up being a source of a good idea. What What makes you want to partner with a developer on this? Cuz I think a lot of people in the audience, um are developers, or, you know, have like a tech background and they they would be looking to partner with, um, a creator …
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More from this episode
- Reuse the hook of your best sponsored video to promote your own appRemake got ~500K views, ~20K comments and $5K+ in subscriptions
- Give a big creator half the app: you build it, they post the videosTook the app from zero to ~$100K/month, mostly from the creator's own videos
- Check likes vs views to spot which sponsored videos really went viral2K likes on 2M views means paid boost; 50K likes on 2M means organic
- Remake a winning video again and again, changing only the number and backgroundKept working until the format dried up; only two formats ever made real money
- Film a skit asking a sued company for your cut, then show the stepsFirst skit video made ~$10K+ in revenue; one of only two money-making formats
- Talk about the money viewers can claim, not why the company got suedLawsuit-story videos got views but few signups; payout-focused ones converted
- Ask viewers to comment 'claim' and auto-DM them the app linkAbout 50% of people who comment click the link; 6.7% of downloads pay
- Never say your app's name in the video; just say 'go to this app'Speaker says it keeps videos from reading as ads; no numbers
- On TikTok and Shorts, cut the call to action and name the app in a pinned comment'Link in bio' didn't work on YouTube; shorter videos without it hold viewers better
- Turn the creator's best organic videos into Meta adsOne video ran profitably for a few weeks
- Get five creators to post on the same day to climb the App Store charts$9,700 revenue that day; reached about #70-80 in Finance
- Get creator friends to post for free or ~70% off by trading favorsRates ~70% below list, but some posts still lost money, e.g. a $1,500 one
- Pick an app that fits your steadiest topic: side hustles over saving tipsSide-hustle videos always get 300K+ views; saving-money ones swing 100K to 10M
- Pay $1,000-1,500 per creator ad, expect 20-30% to work, scale the winnersWinning brand creatives boosted to 35-40M views, earning back ~10x the creator fee
- Sign creators for a year, exclusive, to film 'Hey Amazon' discount skitsOne creator video drove 300K+ downloads; Casper's version got ~12M views
- Give the developer 15% instead of 50% once your videos have proven they sell
Tags: idea-sourcing, sponsor-offers, creator-led