Practitioner pattern · Steve P. Young (Sells App Masters agency services (including Meta Ads management); Web2Wave and MaxFusion are episode sponsors)
Test 3-5 very different ad ideas first, small tweaks later
Host's launch practice; no results reported
Unknownpaid-socialexperimentationpositioning-niche
What they did
Start from ideal customer profiles (e.g. fitness users vs seniors 55+). Build different concepts rather than swapping the food or hook: for a calorie tracker, 'best way to track calories', a weight-loss before/after, and 'this app tracks everything, even snacks'; for a fitness app, 'stiff after sitting all day?', a short at-home session, real users, curiosity. Each ad: a stop-the-scroll hook, demo, offer/benefit, App Store end page. Put 3-5 concepts in one Meta ad set and let the algorithm pick; once a concept wins, test minor variations of it.
Related topics
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More from this episode
- Wait to run Meta ads until 5-10% of installs start a trialHost's agency rule of thumb; 30%+ trial-to-paid and ~2% install-to-paid also required
- Prove strangers will pay using ASO and Apple Search Ads before MetaHost's standard process; no numbers given
- Run Meta ads only once each install is worth at least $3Host's minimum; Meta installs are expensive
- Check that Meta's install and trial counts match App Store Connect before launching312 trials in App Store Connect vs 276 in Meta; close enough to launch
- Copy ideas from competitor ads that have run for months in Meta's Ad LibraryResearch step; no results reported
- Cal AI: Run a short ad with a one-line hook, the app in use, then the store linkAd has run about four months, which the host reads as a winner
- Set Meta to find trial starts, and budget for 50 a week$1,000 at $2 installs gives ~35 trials, short of 50; ~$95 per subscriber
- Send each audience's ad to its own App Store page with matching screenshots
- Show Meta ad users a hard paywall during onboarding