Sway AI · B2C · dating profile feedback app
Post unbranded slideshows until views come, then brand every slide with the app
One branded Christmas Day post got ~4M views and $5-6K revenue in a day
What they did
What happened
- Stage
- launch
In their words
Daniel Heintzma - I speedran a new app from 0 to $2m/year in 6 months (here's how)
Joseph Choi… 50K views on every video. And they're all It It's all simple. It's like, "Oh, five mistakes when flirting over text, dating advice from Sway AI app." And then you kind of you CTA in every single slide, which is pretty pretty good. I feel like a lot of these slideshows are like I imagine they're kind of low converting cuz they don't actually plug the app. But yours actually plugs the app in every slide, not just like the last slide or anything.
Daniel HeintzmanI think what's an interesting note though is if you scroll to the bottom of that page, you'll notice that I actually started off with doing the these like aesthetic carousels where it was like more of like these pictures in the background which were fully unbranded. If you're starting a brand new account, and it's like fully branded, I almost feel like it wouldn't have gone as viral initially. I think initially in the first like couple weeks, the whole goal was to get the account warmed up and start getting traction. And then once we started getting traction and a few videos started popping off, then
Daniel Heintzmanum yeah, I had that idea of like adding the branding to it.
Joseph ChoiMhm.
Daniel HeintzmanAnd then once we like started getting traction and it was like guaranteed views, then we just made the whole branding like, you know, the orange theme and all of that.
Joseph ChoiThis seems like a really good one. Do Do you remember this like doing well and how many like how how many downloads this got you? Cuz this is like 600,000 views, and there was a call to action at the end. And then in the comments, people are saying like, "Have you tried this app? What's the link for the app?"
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More from this episode
- Grow an Instagram account on Hinge prompt tips before building, with a preorder linkSome videos took off within weeks; audience existed before launch
- Charge followers $15 by DM for a manual profile review before buildingPeople paid before any app existed; proved willingness to pay
- Copy the text of a men's self-improvement account's most viral slideshows into your own designsSlideshows averaged 10-50K views; one hit 600K
- Make a month of TikTok slideshows in 1-2 hours from a spreadsheet and templateSeconds per slideshow; a month of posts in an hour or two
- Have one dating influencer make promo videos, then run them as ads from his pageTook revenue from $30-40K/month to about $2M a year; creative supply became the limit
- Open onboarding with short videos explaining the app before asking any questionsAdded after emails asking what the app does; no numbers given
- Ask for profile screenshots after the paywall, not before itSimple onboarding before the paywall performed a lot better; no numbers
- Sell extra analysis credits to people who rerun the profile checkAbout 11% of revenue
- Sell AI photo packs at $14.99 for one and $49.99 for tenBiggest upsell in the app; no spending cap lets big spenders pay more
- Preselect the yearly plan on the paywall to collect cash upfrontWeekly plan also tried; grew a lot slower
- Redesign the meal logging screens so people keep paying after the 3-day trial
- Let users join friend groups and topic groups with streak leaderboards
- Add daily logging streaks, copied from Duolingo
- Let users post progress photos, meals and streak badges to Instagram storiesA lot of users share progress and meals; no numbers
- Make the 3 screens creators film (camera, loading, food detail) instantly clear
- Grow through fitness creators who sell coaching, so the app doesn't compete with themMain growth driver; guaranteed views vs hoping to go viral
- Ramp up paid ads once influencer growth is workingMarked Cal AI's big growth inflection point; no numbers
- Launch in a month with game-like branding unlike bank-style crypto appsWent really viral; idea to launch in about a month
Tags: tiktok, slideshows, account-warmup, branding, cta