What it Takes to Succeed with Paid User Acquisition — Thomas Petit, App Growth Consultant

On the podcast: Setting sensible goals for paid marketing, how to measure and learn from the results, and why a single ad creative can completely change the trajectory of a company.

Top Takeaways

🥅 Set clear and realistic goals before investing in paid UA — and make sure you can afford to experiment. It can be tough to get to ROAS positive, and even tougher to get that return quickly.

💰 Monthly ad budgets should ideally start at $10-20k for big, algorithmic platforms — increasing data volume for optimization — while lower budgets call for exploring non-algorithmic platforms and influencer marketing.

🤔 Successful ads are built on in-depth, comprehensive user understanding, including their triggers and responses to different messages — before investing in advertising.

🧪 Test and iterate radically and substantially in the the quest for the ideal creative: Promising concepts need further refinement and tweaking, especially given the unpredictable nature of what might work.

🤝 Focus on conversion rates, not just high user engagement

for ad campaigns — low conversion can negatively affect overall performance, and ad platforms like Facebook and Google aim for a balance between engagement and revenue.

About Thomas Petit

👨‍💻 Independent subscription app growth consultant.

💪 Thomas has worked with hundreds of clients and helped manage tens of millions of dollars in ad spend.

💡 “Know your expectations and know what you're after… a lot of people don't ask this question in a deep enough way.”

👋 LinkedIn | Twitter

Links & Resources

‣ David’s talk at Mau Las Vegas

‣ Revisiting the Fundamentals of App Marketing Post IDFA — Thomas Petit

‣ Check out MADV - Mobile. Ad.ventures on Substack

‣ Connect with Thomas on LinkedIn

‣ Connect with Thomas on Twitter

‣ Get involved in the Sub Club community

Episode Highlights

[2:50] Minimum viability: What does it take to start making paid UA work? The answer depends on what you want to achieve with it.

[9:44] The early bird catches the worm: If you know what you want from the get-go, Thomas explains why starting paid UA early might not be a bad strategy. But only gamble what you can afford to lose.

[14:00] A word on Facebook: If running on a tight budget, Thomas “strongly recommends against” buying ads on Facebook because of targeting and demographic challenges.

[18:44] Cash moves everything around: The guardrails around scaling on algorithmic platforms necessitate a five-digit monthly budget minimum. Below $10-20k a month you’re operating in a very tough spot.

[24:57] Good Ol’ Google: Operating on low budgets, choosing keywords for Google searches may still work. Using a simple landing page builder is an avenue to explore — but only very early on when you need to assess SEO and imagery. The three checks are: goals, cash, and ARPI.

[31:31] Scaling paid UI: Thomas goes deep into how to scale paid UI, and how MMPs and SDKs play into that.

[39:56] The measure of success: It’s critical to assess evolving trends based on changing spend. But attribution isn’t (and never was) an exact science. Look at whatever tools you have at your disposal for an estimate.

[45:39] His toolkit: Thomas talks about the tools he uses for modeling incrementality across product and subscription lifecycle events.

[53:44] Let’s get creative: With growing automation, getting ads right is crucial. Messaging, USP, and understanding your audience all factor into effective ads. Don’t rely on intuition.

[1:05:01] USP: There’s no secret formula for a single, winning USP, but you need to test it to understand what users react to.

[1:09:41] Spanning the gap: Some successful ads are indirect and don’t transition. The relation between downloads and transitioning is a tough nut to crack, but teasing and explicitly explaining it’s an app are good ways to try at least a slight transition.

[1:13:26] Clickbait install rate: Beware of the delicate interplay between clicks, reduced install rate, ad spend, and ROI.