BetterMe · B2C · fitness and weight-loss app
Keep testing new ads until one sharply cuts costs, even if current ads work
Unknownpaid-socialexperimentation
What they did
Treat steady CPMs/CPAs and a modest positive margin as a warning sign, not a reason to scale. Early creatives shouldn't be good; keep testing concepts until one creative produces a step change (CPA drops sharply, purchases triple in a day). Presented as what made BetterMe special.
- Stage
- Early (early paid)
In their words
Sub Club by RevenueCat · Make Ugly Ads to Grow Your App – Yuliya Lennox (Solid Starts)“Has there ever been a moment when you thought, wow, this is so much better than everything that I've done before where your CPAs went down, doubled down, when your amount of purchases tripled in one day.”
“So never settle for mediocracy and always, always be looking for those creatives that will move the needle”
Related topics
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More from this episode
- BetterMe: Run ugly ads that show the product and the pain in the first secondOne ran for years; called 'the best ad ever'; no numbers
- Solid Starts: Run a trendy AI 'fruit babies' ad for a doctor-backed baby feeding brandBacklash: parents questioned whether to trust the brand
- EWA: Learn English: Have the founder join every marketing meeting and write the ads himselfApp reached #2 after Duolingo; link to this is loose
- EWA: Learn English: Win your home market first, then add languages one by oneLiked locally, then expanded; later #2 after Duolingo
- Test new ads at $10/day in Indonesia, not $1,000/day in the USSame test signal at ~1% of the cost
- Replika: Fully translate and adapt an app for Japan with a Japanese speakerDidn't work at all; harder than expected
- EWA: Learn English: Run paid ads from the start alongside organic growthOrganic-only apps plateau; paid added late often ate into organic
- Palta: Share test results across apps and with a weekly peer group
- Make the paywall's continue button blinkRaised conversion, secondhand; no numbers
- Ladder: Sign a celebrity like Hilary Duff for brand adsBig influx almost at once, secondhand; ROI hard to measure
- Solid Starts: Hire people obsessed with the problemCredited for product quality; no numbers
- Higgsfield: 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