Photogenic · B2C · AI photo app
Hire one creator who already went viral on her own TikTok
35M views on 46 posts; weekly downloads up 10x
Workedcreator-opsugc-creatorsorganic-short-video
What they did
A solo founder with no organic experience started small with one creator. He got ~600 applicants on SideShift and screened slowly: checked each applicant's own TikTok for past viral posts, then talked to them. He picked a creator who had a history of strong results on her own account and who was very responsive and came with her own strategy ideas.
What happened
46 posts on a fresh account reached 35M total views; weekly downloads grew 10x; App Store page conversion rose from 5-10% to 50%+. The influx of users also helped him learn about the product and build retention and super-users.
- Stage
- Early (first organic campaign)
- Effort
- One creator, 46 posts
“he's like, "Yeah, I'm just going to, you know, start small with one creator, try and, you know, figure out some formats that, you know, work."”
“If we If we check out her TikTok, like, a, she had just, even on her own TikTok, had a history of going viral”
“second indicator is like when he actually had a conversation with her, she was extremely responsive. She was like wanting to run strategy on the account.”
“40 46 posts on this campaign, and doing 35 million total views.”
Related topics
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More from this episode
- SideShift: Have 5 creators post twice a day on new TikTok accounts; copy the first hit10K to 150K+ users in 3-4 months on ~$10K; 16-20M views in one campaign
- SideShift: Post about the tough job market and slip the app in at the endWinning format; videos at 84K to a few hundred thousand views
- SideShift: Have creators reply to comments and name the app when people askGuest says comment plugs convert to real users; no numbers
- SideShift: Visit 25 college campuses in person to sign up the first usersFirst 10-20K users; strong word of mouth among college students
- SideShift: Tell student creators the gig can grow into a strategist or growth roleGuest says it drives stronger results for brands; no numbers
- Give creators a short brief with a Loom, target persona and proven videosSeen across SideShift customers; long briefs get skipped
- Pay creators a base retainer, $15-20 per video, and big view bonusesCommon rate across SideShift; bonuses get creators working the comments
- Warm up each new TikTok account for 3-5 days, acting like your target user
- Test an app idea with a few creators for 2 weeks before doubling downSeen across studios; two weak 2-week rounds mean rethink the product
- Photogenic: Let the creator decide what to post instead of sending her ideasFounder's ideas performed terribly; hers drove 35M views
- Photogenic: Post the AI's funniest mistakes, like a photo with a third legDrove heavy engagement; part of a 35M-view run
- Vert Ventures: Turn the organic TikToks that already worked into paid adsBoth apps in and out of their category's top five for weeks