Stronger · B2C · gamified workout tracker
Keep content in-house; hire agencies only to scale a proven format
Two founders make almost all content; few affiliates
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What they did
Peter and his brother Joseph make almost all content, with internal tooling and a few affiliates. Agencies tried a little before; incentives don't align and they take ~20% margin. Use them only to learn something you can't, or to quickly stand up volume (e.g. pushing a known winner across 50 accounts) when unit economics are known, then bring it in-house.
In their words
The Superwall Podcast · Peter Gillan - My App Makes $600k/Year Using This Easy Growth Strategy (copy me)“We've worked with agencies a little bit before, but I think with agencies the incentives never fully align.”
“You use them more for scaling when you find something that wins and maybe you haven't got the ops team put in place to be able to say, "Okay, let's get this pumped out across, you know, 50 accounts."”
Related topics
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More from this episode
- Stronger: Post the same 6-second fade-in app screenshot Reel over and overEst. 150-300M views, a 100M-view month; low conversion and now fading
- Stronger: Copy a winning video across many accounts, changing a few words or colors each timeAdopted after a rival did it with ~10 accounts; no separate numbers
- Copy a rival's viral video format and post it from 10 accountsDownloads visibly ramped up; out-scaled the team that invented it
- Stronger: Design every feature to look great as a screenshot for social postsScreenshots are the main money-maker; founder claim, no numbers
- Stronger: Post 2-3 slide TikTok carousels of real, unpolished app screensHistorically their best-converting channel; weaker in the past year as 20 rivals copied
- Stronger: Post a rough founder video of a fun app feature before launch~15K followers in week one; then hit #3 in Health & Fitness at launch
- Stronger: Reply to comments with videos showing their lift as random objects in the appA series of viral videos; likely most of the account's 4.9M likes
- Stronger: Make everyone start a free trial first; free version only after they cancel~25% boost, their biggest ever; few complaints, but less sharing
- Stronger: Test when and how often the paywall shows before testing its wordingFounder says they now monetize per user among the best workout trackers; no numbers
- Stronger: Turn workout numbers into a strength rank users can show off12 months with no copycat; became the main marketing asset
- Stronger: Adapt viral video formats from other app niches, then test hooks by watch timeHow they find each new format; no numbers given
- Stronger: Fund the app with government grants instead of investorsStayed bootstrapped; no amounts given
- Copy a rival's strength score and add game-style ranks for each musclePerformed 'brilliantly' per the guest; Stronger later added ranks too
- Runna: Give each running influencer their own workout plan in the appGuest says it built a strong brand and rocketed up the charts; no numbers
- Build the new app as a tile-based game that AI tools can't copy yet