Super Unlimited · B2C · free VPN app
Buy search ads in Apple and Google stores only where the return holds up
Spend capped by ROAS; some cannibalization of organic installs accepted
What they did
What happened
In their words
How the World's #1 VPN App Reached 1 Billion Downloads – Tanuj Chatterjee, Super Unlimited
David BarnardAnd back to growth side of things, what have you done in paid marketing or has it almost been completely organic?
Tanuj ChatterjeeWell, Apple and Google, it's for search ads. Yeah.
David BarnardHave you found that brand defense especially important or what wins have you found on search ads when you're already the number one result?
Tanuj ChatterjeeNumber one result on VPN. There are other keywords in there, too. Sometimes you also do it for brand defense, like you mentioned. There are other keywords. We focus on specific keywords, specific markets where we spend dollars on, and we look into the ROAS very carefully, and you can't go beyond a certain amount. We also see sometimes some of these ads will cannibalize our organic channels anyway, so there's always that risk, but it's okay. So we are trying to manage it carefully.
David BarnardIt's fascinating at your scale that you do spend on that. And then philosophically, you're still trying to get a return on ad spend. You're still penciling it out versus just trying to be everywhere, because you already are everywhere with that number one placement.
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
- Read your reviews and rivals' reviews, then fix what people complain aboutCredited as the main driver to #1 for 'VPN'; no single number tied to it
- Let people use the app right away: no login, one tap to connectVisits last ~30 seconds; guest credits it for organic volume and ratings
- Ask for a rating only after the app has done its job2M+ high ratings on the App Store; no before/after given
- Test modern, prettier store screenshots against your plain old onesModern designs lost 80% of tests; winners gave no meaningful lift, so old ones stayed
- Hire an SEO agency that knows your field to publish programmatic pages~1,600 app downloads a month; poor conversion; some AI-search traffic, not top 5
- Give away an unlimited free version, paid for with an ad or twoLow paid conversion, but 1M+ mostly organic downloads a day and very profitable
- Don't show any ads the first time someone opens the app
- Keep the free service running in poor and censored countries, even at a loss15M downloads in 4 days during a Turkey Instagram ban; each spike leaves a higher baseline
- Charge for no ads, faster servers, more locations and use on every deviceCompany growing and very profitable; no conversion numbers
- Show an ad for your new eSIM app to all existing VPN usersDidn't work: no travel intent; now planning timed promos before summer
- Have the head of support report to the head of productGuest says product hears about problems right away; no numbers
- Walk into elevators with a debug build to test dropped connections
- Compare your ratings country by country and dig into the low onesGuest says it helped a lot; no numbers
- Launch a new feature in 5 countries behind a switch, then expand
- Start on the cloud, then move heavy traffic to your own rented serversMakes a free tier affordable; cloud still absorbs surges
- Launch a Windows version and promote it to your mobile usersNamed biggest win of the year; people buy on the website directly, no numbers
- Build the product so free users cost almost nothing to supportLets the company keep a generous free tier; no numbers
Tags: apple-search-ads, google, brand-defense, roas, cannibalization, keyword-selection