Cardstock · B2C · sports card scanner app
Spend two weeks on keyword research, then put the best terms in your title
#1 for 'baseball card scanner' for 2-3 years; ~$9-10K MRR with no marketing
Workedaso
What they did
The app was originally just called 'Cardstock' with no subtitle, so it only got people searching the name. Apple's $100 free Apple Search Ads credit pushed Kyle to learn about keywords; he read Sensor Tower and Appfigures posts on ASO, brainstormed a list of terms, checked their popularity with a Sensor Tower free trial, and picked the highest-value ones that fit. Title became 'Cardstock Sports Card Scanner' ('baseball card scanner' didn't fit the character limit) with a subtitle along the lines of 'find value for baseball cards', ordering keywords by priority. It was the first baseball card scanner app. He now tracks keywords in Astro and suggests Sensor Tower's 1-month free trial ('with as many emails as you want') plus checking popularity before choosing a niche.
What happened
Held #1 for 'baseball card scanner' for 2-3 years until May 2024; organic search carried the app to ~$9-10K MRR (~$14K/month revenue) for about two years with no marketing while he was in college. Before the change, there was almost no passive search traffic.
- Stage
- Growth (early growth)
- Effort
- 1-2 weeks of keyword research, a few tweaks later
In their words
The Superwall Podcast · Kyle Fowler - How I make $42k/mo passively with simple no-code apps (copy me)“But eventually, I heard about uh Apple had this $100 free ASA promotion, like for App Store ads. And that kind of got me into the idea I looked into that, and I was like, "Oh, if I'm going to spend $100, I want to use it optimally."”
“Like I did the free trial of the Sensor Tower and looked at all the top keywords that were related or I just kind of brainstormed a list”
“So, we had like the whole thing is is Cardstock Sports Card Scanner. So, because "baseball card scanner" doesn't fit in the keyword amount.”
“I'm pretty sure it was just Cardstock, and then find like I don't even think I had a subtitle.”
“I was making like 14K, I guess not recurring, like probably like 9 or 10K recurring revenue, but for a long time without any marketing for like a couple of years”
Related topics
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More from Cardstock
All 16 Cardstock tactics- Rebuild your working app for a nearby hobby, built in a day with AI$17K MRR and 3,400 subscribers in a year; more new customers a month than the original
- Build the app you wanted for your own hobby when the App Store has noneGrew into ~$75K MRR over six years
- Give creators TikTok slideshow templates to post and pay them by viewsFounder calls it their biggest success; no numbers given
- Bring in friends for a three-way revenue split and teach them to codeTeam of three grew to five; revenue from a few hundred a month to ~$1.5M a year
- Post on Reddit when the app is finishedFirst downloads came almost immediately; no numbers
More from this episode
- Cardstock: Post your app idea in the hobby's subreddit before building it10-15 people said they'd use it; later drove launch downloads
- Cardstock: Announce the launch in the same subreddit, linking your earlier idea post12 paid downloads (~$60) on launch day
- Cardstock: Make the app free to download and charge $5 a month instead of $4.99 onceBiggest revenue jump ever; growth took off from the 2021 switch
- Cardstock: Post brand-style TikToks (memes, silent pack openings) on the app's accountFirst videos got ~23 likes; viral ones brought no downloads without the app on screen
- Cardstock: Film a valuable card, scan it with the app in hand, then reveal its priceFirst one hit 184K views; became the repeatable format behind the TikTok growth
- Cardstock: Hire a friend to figure out TikTok with you before paying an agencyFriend became the de facto CMO; knew enough to spot a good UGC agency later
- Cardstock: Show the paywall at first open, with a small hidden XMost subscriptions came from this first paywall, before people used the app
- Cardstock: Switch to a hard paywallRevenue reached ~$30K/month (alongside a Christmas TikTok spike)
- Scanemon: Put the app's name on the scanner screen so every video shows itFounder thinks it lifts conversion; no data yet
- Scanemon: Post card-collecting tips slideshows from an account with an AI-made girl avatarSeveral posts over 100K views; the format then scaled through paid creators
- Cardstock: Pay creators about $1 per 1,000 views to post your slideshow template~7,600 posts in a month for $2,600, about $1 CPM; biggest recent growth driver