EWA: Learn English · B2C · English learning app
Win your home market first, then add languages one by one
Liked locally, then expanded; later #2 after Duolingo
What they did
What happened
- Stage
- launch
In their words
Make Ugly Ads to Grow Your App – Yuliya Lennox (Solid Starts)
David BarnardYeah. Well, that was a really fun digression. I think people will enjoy that pushback on both sides. So what was the net philosophy you learned at EWA?
Yuliya Lennox… a lot of people, they don't use their strengths. A couple of people came to me at some point and they were from different countries. They were from Lithuania, they were from India, they were from different markets and they're like, "Oh, help us grow." And what they want to do first is to go America, of course, let's start with the US market because it has a lot of cash value. It is right, but in the same time, you should look first at what you know best. So Babbel, a great example, what's their name? Blinkist also. They started with Germany and they're super big in Germany and they're getting the same results in Germany as some people are getting in the US, which is what, 10 times bigger. So if you have a benefit of knowing some local market better, definitely use it because this is what Eva did.
Yuliya LennoxIt was very good in speaking their native language and they started this super funny, super whimsical app that everybody in their local country liked. Then they grew it to all their other languages. But the actual lesson here is not that the actual lesson here is the world is really, really big. And with current AI, when you can translate any service in three hours into any languages, why don't you try different languages? Why don't you try …
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More from this episode
- Keep testing new ads until one sharply cuts costs, even if current ads work
- Run ugly ads that show the product and the pain in the first secondOne ran for years; called 'the best ad ever'; no numbers
- Run a trendy AI 'fruit babies' ad for a doctor-backed baby feeding brandBacklash: parents questioned whether to trust the brand
- Have the founder join every marketing meeting and write the ads himselfApp reached #2 after Duolingo; link to this is loose
- Test new ads at $10/day in Indonesia, not $1,000/day in the USSame test signal at ~1% of the cost
- Fully translate and adapt an app for Japan with a Japanese speakerDidn't work at all; harder than expected
- Run paid ads from the start alongside organic growthOrganic-only apps plateau; paid added late often ate into organic
- Share test results across apps and with a weekly peer group
- Make the paywall's continue button blinkRaised conversion, secondhand; no numbers
- Sign a celebrity like Hilary Duff for brand adsBig influx almost at once, secondhand; ROI hard to measure
- Hire people obsessed with the problemCredited for product quality; no numbers
- Have the core team work ~17-hour days, six days a weekSaid to lead the field now; no numbers
- Translate the app into many languages with AI and test nearby marketsHer biggest win of the year; Turkey converts well; no numbers
- Sell a $1 plan after a 60-question quiz, then stack add-ons to ~$350Buyer got half back after demanding a refund; invites regulation
- Run three apps at once with one teamBiggest fail of the year: attention spread too thin
Tags: home-market, native-language