Boost App Social · B2C · Instagram growth app
Test many UGC ads on Meta, knowing about 1 in 85 will get the spend
Scaled to $10K/day and $100K MRR; ~$800K of ~$1.5-1.8M spend wasted
Workedpaid-social
What they did
Ran all acquisition on Meta (Facebook/Instagram), scaling from $100/day to $500, $1K and $10K/day. Accepted that ~97% of creatives fail regardless of quality (Meta must 'like' it and the audience must convert), so the operation was built to produce enough creative volume to find the rare winner. Some 'great' creatives got $20K and still flopped. Later gained a Meta rep because of spend.
What happened
Reached $100K MRR and a seven-figure exit; ~$800K of ad spend wasted along the way.
- Stage
- Scale (0 to $100K MRR over ~2.5 years)
- Effort
- ~$1.5-1.8M (maybe $2M+) over ~2.5 years
Related topics
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New tactics from the week's founder interviews, each linked to where it was said.
More from this episode
- Boost App Social: Cold-email creators from 1,000 Gmail accounts, 10-30 emails each per day10-20% replied; fed a pipeline of ~300 UGC creatives
- Boost App Social: Move creators to a Telegram group and send $100 upfront to prove you're realCreators installed Telegram and delivered; only one or two ran off with the money
- Boost App Social: Buy lifetime rights to every creator video, including the right to edit itNo renegotiating when ads won; ~300 creatives and contracts transferred in the sale
- Boost App Social: Give creators a one-page list of hooks that work, then let them improviseFounder says it balanced freedom and quality; low-effort hooks were rejected
- Boost App Social: Caption every ad and film the creator over a green-screen demo of the appDistilled from ~$1.5M of spend; the format behind $100K MRR
- Boost App Social: Open ads with one exact frustration, like 'stuck on 1,000 views'Among the final best ads; smaller reach but works really well
- Boost App Social: Cut each creator's 5 videos into about 15 ads, mixing screen and in-hand shotsMore variety to feed Meta's algorithm; founder says don't overdo it
- Boost App Social: Fight every Meta ad account ban until you win it backRecovered from 6-8 bans, including permanent ones; later got a Meta rep
- Boost App Social: Rebuild your web tool as an iPhone app when people use it on their phoneGuest calls it the right move; led to $100K MRR
- Boost App Social: Add features beyond the core tool so people stay and pay moreFounder credits it, with Meta ads, for $100K MRR; no split given
- Boost App Social: Sell to an unknown buyer through escrow, with a strong lawyer and seller referencesClosed a seven-figure sale after a 4-5 month negotiation