Ad creative tactics

Same video concept, different platform name in the hook. 'Stop using LinkedIn to apply to jobs' reaches white-collar workers who apply to hundreds of jobs and will pay to automate it. 'Stop using Indeed' / 'Who's still using Indeed?' reaches blue-collar workers who get interviews easily and flood the comments with hate about paying to apply. Read the comments to tell whether you hit the right audience.

Any creator video over 50,000 views becomes a Meta ad candidate. Run a test campaign at ~$50/day per creative; if ROAS > 1 or CTR is very high, scale stepwise (50 -> 100 -> 200 -> 300/day). Returns are not linear (diminishing returns as spend rises), so watch for creative fatigue and keep producing new creatives to get 'more tickets to the lottery'.

Make many organic creator videos (multiple creators, multiple hook styles), then put the platform minimum behind each one rather than judging by organic views, since good videos sometimes flop on timing or the algorithm. TikTok: ~20 creatives at the $20 minimum each, can switch off after ~$5; Meta: 30-40 creatives at ~$1 each since it is easier to duplicate. Judge within hours on top-of-funnel clicks only: most get 0-2 clicks, one gets 5-20. Keep spending on that one to see whether it was a fluke, then track it down to purchases and make variations (change the first or last second). Mid-virality videos (top 25%) often convert better than the most viral, clickbaity ones. For a $5K starting budget he'd spread it over as many hypotheses as possible, aiming for 100 variations, and compress '500 videos' of learning into a week. Test the same creative across Google, YouTube, Meta and TikTok; one platform can give 2x results.

Started with a required later second mark for the app integration so it wouldn't feel like an ad, then tested bringing it in earlier and earlier until finding the earliest point that didn't hurt views. For Cal AI that was 20-30 seconds in. A friend's app found 60 seconds. Test your own number.

Make ~90% of each campaign cloned content and ~10% new experiments. Take a post that already performed (yours or a competitor's), clone it and change one element: hook, CTA, avatar, colors, a slide image, text font/copy, creator, language or product demo. Choose subtle, moderate or dramatic variance so TikTok does not detect it as a duplicate (avoids shadowbans). Post the variations on other accounts. At a median of 20% of the original's views, 5-10 clones match the original's total volume. Feed winning hooks/CTAs/avatars into future campaigns.

Optimize for purchases, not installs (costs more but learns more). Attribution via Meta SDK + Aggregated Event Measurement; avoid SKAN; no ATT prompt needed. Targeting is driven by creative, so iterate creatives (AI-generated allowed); ~$500/day to test creatives before scaling. Cross-check against App Store Connect's Meta-sourced numbers (AEM off by ~15-20%).

Built an internal dashboard tracking every UGC video, segmented into formats and sub-formats. ~80K videos in a year from 500+ accounts. Example winning format: iPhone lock screen showing a personal notification (e.g. 'your girlfriend leaving you') with a Symmetry notification below saying 'go to the gym and work out'; one such video got 17M views.

Sign large creators who post day-in-the-life vlogs. They show their day and quickly scan a meal with the app, often without saying its name. Aim for four videos per month per creator so followers see it repeatedly. Track with promo codes. Example: Jessi from The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.

Test ~500 ads per week; run the tests in countries with similar conversion rates but low CPMs (e.g. Indonesia) at ~$10/day instead of ~$1,000/day at US CPMs, then scale winners in the US.

Take creator videos that performed best organically on TikTok/Instagram and upload them as regular Meta ads (not partnership ads through the creator's account). Increase budget every week on winners as long as cost per download stays under $5. ~$400/day total; plan 50-100 campaigns next month.

Ads hire made a square static image ad in ChatGPT in ~2 minutes listing ~8 features/key facts; separate versions aimed at men and women. Also testing AI-generated pictures of the app. Founder is now making cleaner, copy-led statics (e.g. 'If you started a GLP-1 and your doctor gave you zero instructions, you're not alone') to compare.

Concept: absurd hook scene (e.g. 'I showed my husband the app and he passed out instead of picking up the kids' - wife opens door, husband asleep on couch, ~5s) then a slowly zooming glowing green orb with on-screen lines on benefits/features of green noise. ~100 versions of this ad, ~400 iterations of the concept: new copy per discovered use case (e.g. tinnitus masking) in users' own language, and different sleep scenarios (inside/outside, more or less absurd).