90-Day Playbook

Ship an iOS painkiller with a hard paywall

1. 1

   Pick a core human desire

   Status, wealth, meaning, beauty, intimacy. The app is a painkiller, not a vitamin. Positioning enables all later marketing.

2. 2

   Build iOS only, native SwiftUI

   70% of purchases happen on iOS; ~35% of those in the US. Premium design fast. Android comes later as free money.

3. 3

   Submit the absolute MVP early

   App Review can take weeks. No risky features in build one. Add a demo video to the submission. Never mislead users.

4. 4

   Hard paywall behind a remote config

   RevenueCat or Superwall. Run A/B tests and update it remotely. Anatomy: social proof, sell impact not product, key features, clear pricing, motivational CTA.

5. 5

   Price like competitors, then test up

   Anchor points: $7.99/wk, $14.99/mo, $49.99/yr. Keep yearly under $50; higher yearly raises refunds.

6. 6

   Onboarding: ~12 screens that fight for their place

   Remind users of the problem, show the outcome. Images over text, quizzes with max 4 options, social proof and stats. Measure every screen in PostHog or Mixpanel.

7. 7

   Tune the funnel numbers

   Onboarding completion 75%+. Download-to-paid 4% to start, aim for 8%+. Judge by D2P only.

8. 8

   Queue the extra conversion levers

   Abandon-checkout offer, App Store retention offers beta, cancel-flow exit offer. Add after first approval. Stay Apple-compliant.

9. 9

   Polish the App Store page + enroll Small Business

   Keyword-rich title and subtitle with no repeated words, strong screenshots, reset bad numeric ratings in an update. Enroll Apple Small Business: fee drops 30% to 15%.

$1k/m by day 25 using search intent

1. 1

   Claim the $100 credit, wire attribution

   Connect Apple Ads to RevenueCat or Superwall so installs map to subscriptions.

2. 2

   Tier the campaigns by country

   [US] alone, then [AU, UK, JP], then [TH, DE, …]. US spends most.

3. 3

   Set bids manually

   Manage Bids. Search Match OFF. Bid on competitor names. Start at Apple's recommended bid.

4. 4

   Start $20/day per campaign

   Budget size only changes data speed. If nothing spends after 48h, raise budget 20%.

5. 5

   Weekly loop: export data, cut losers, feed winners

   Higher ROAS than TikTok but capped by search demand. If nobody searches, this channel ends there.

Plug the app into the algorithm, find one winner

1. 1

   Install AppsFlyer as the MMP

   Free first year, then ~$0.07 per conversion. Send app-open and subscribe events; server-to-server via RevenueCat works. Verify events land in TikTok Events Manager before spending.

2. 2

   Configure the campaign exactly

   App install, iOS dedicated. Min $50/day, start $70/day. Goal Based Budget Increase: 20%, up to 20× ($70 scales toward $350/day). Optimise for Subscribe event. Target Cost per Result. Manual targeting, US only, English, adult ages. Placements: TikTok only. One ad group, ~6 ads. Auto-enhancements off except CTA.

3. 3

   Make 5 creatives in 5 distinct formats

   Live inside the niche's feed first. Recreate organically viral posts (high comment-to-view ratio). Film real UGC over AI UGC; platforms crack down on AI faces.

4. 4

   Filter comment keywords

   Hide paid, cost, scam, fake, bad… These comments drag ROAS down. Grow the list to ~50 words.

5. 5

   Bet $50 per creative, judge CPA vs LTV

   No conversion after $50: stop, reallocate. Small loss: keep running through the learning phase. Huge loss: stop. Account-level learning compounds signal.

6. 6

   Claim the $6k matched ad credits

   Effectively doubles CPA headroom while credits last.

Ride the winner, compound the funnel

1. 1

   Scale spend without resetting learning

   GBBI handles it automatically. On Max Results instead, raise budget max 30% every few days.

2. 2

   A/B test paywall, pricing, onboarding

   Remote paywalls make this cheap. Push download-to-paid from 4% toward 8%+.

3. 3

   Refresh creatives before fatigue shows

   Winners die. Keep testing new formats weekly; keep the comment filter current.

4. 4

   Port to Android once iOS prints

   Same assets, free incremental revenue.

5. 5

   Protect cash reserves

   Apple pays out on a lag. Ads paused between payouts stall account learning. Plan float for one month of spend.

6. 6

   Track profit, not just MRR

   VAT ~20% outside the US, Apple fee 15%, tooling ~1%. ~30% net margin is success; be skeptical of claims above 50%. Heavy paid reliance also lowers acquisition multiples if you sell.