A habit tracker app · B2C · guest's own app
Check every morning that ads pay back on the first purchase after fees
Not profitable for the first couple of weeks; ~30% margin on paid ads now
Mixedanalytics-attributionpaid-socialrevenue-capture
What they did
Aim for profitability on initial transactions alone. Daily P&L per ad: realized LTV (revenue divided by paying customers) minus CPA, minus Apple's 15% (join the App Store Small Business Program, otherwise you pay 30%), minus RevenueCat's 1%, minus VAT (none when selling to the US, about 20% on EU subscriptions; target the US when starting). Review it each morning with the TikTok ad report.
What happened
Unprofitable for the first couple of weeks; ongoing paid-ads-only margin around 30%.
- Stage
- growth
“Um, I'd recommend aiming for profitability on the initial transactions alone.”
“get rid of the Apple Store 15%, if you're not already on the small business program, you should sign up for that, otherwise you're paying 30% for nothing, minus your RevenueCat 1%”
“So, I got a coffee and my TikTok ad report every morning, and I'd read it just to see these data.”
Related topics
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More from this episode
- Rebuild an app you saw broken down on X, with better design and missing featuresOrdinary habit tracker reached ~$10K/month; guest credits the premium design
- Fill your onboarding with images restyled from Pinterest using an AI image toolGuest says images make the app feel more engaging; no numbers
- Mock up every screen in Figma before asking AI to build the appGuest says the agent can one-shot screens instead of many iterations
- After launch, keep testing your paywall and price options
- Polish your App Store screenshots before running search ads, since they are the adPart of the Apple Ads setup that reached ~$5K/month; no separate numbers
- Bid on your big competitors' names as exact-match Apple Ads keywordsHis breakthrough channel; took the app from $0 to ~$5K/month
- Each morning, give AI your ad and sales exports and ask for the best performersDaily routine behind his Apple and TikTok ad decisions; no separate numbers
- Remake viral videos from your niche as TikTok ads with ~$50 eachStarted the hockey-stick growth from ~$5K toward ~$10K/month
- Raise budgets on winning ads by at most 20% every few daysKept winners running before switching to target CPA; no separate numbers
- Set a target cost per customer on TikTok ads and let it scale spendSpend jumped from $200 to ~$1K/day; revenue $5K to ~$10K/month in a week
- Share your app-building journey openly on XHost says it got him noticed and featured; no revenue tied to it