Picnic · B2C · app with over-the-shoulder ads
Mix app demo clips into everyday videos, like a chore list for ADHD
What they did
In their words
Marcus Burke - How to Build a $2M/Month App (Copy Me)
… category like some things just need less explanations than other stuff i don't know here's another example from um this is me plus a habit tracker like in the end a habit tracker you don't need to explain a lot like it's pretty clear it's like a task list just uh advanced um so ultimately this is a an ad that is very much just content and then they have like a few app demos in between but otherwise it's really more of kind of a content focused
approach weekly cleaning schedule for adhd okay and then just goes through each day like monday tuesday wednesday toilet but then in between each clip there's a b-roll or there's a um demo clip of the app just like checking off the checklist pretty much i think i've seen this format yeah this one seems very specific to like to do list app where you're like using the the app every day You can think about, well, how does your app integrate in a day and how can I fit it into that? But ultimately, this needs a little less explanation because the app will be pretty clear to everyone.
You'd see them ticking off a box and it's clear, okay, that's what I do with it. While other stuff might need more education. That's always something to figure out. Do you think that web ads and app ads fit into different parts of that framework? I would say so because app ads are always going to be very close to the product already. So it's very hard to like build your funnel just around kind of creating awareness and like tapping into an …
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More from this episode
- Say 'app' or show a demo so the App Store isn't a surpriseMost winning app ads do this; installs suffer otherwise
- Remake one winning ad ~400 times with new hooks and use casesWell over $1M spent on the concept
- Run short videos with a wall of text in the audience's own pain wordsOne of the main working formats; no numbers
- Feed 10-20 Reddit threads to Claude to write ads in your audience's wordsHis standard process; no numbers
- Make ad variants with AI: create an image first, then turn it into videoUsed for clients; not compared with creator videos
- Run ads that look like normal posts; let a web page do the selling
- Send Meta ad clicks to your blog instead of the App StoreClaims to be one of the first to scale this way; no numbers
- Compare cost per trial with trial-to-paid rate for each age groupAges 25-34 cost the most; older users looked under-served
- Give ads that deliver differently, like mostly Facebook feed, their own ad set
- Split ads into groups by format and message, each with its own budget
- On a small budget, put all ads in one group and pick winners weekly
- Have every ad team member interview one user a weekTaught the team most of how to write ad copy; no numbers
- Post on LinkedIn 2-3 times a week
- Fix the store page, onboarding and paywall alongside paid ads
Tags: meta, creative, app-demo, over-the-shoulder