We are living through the biggest opportunity of our lifetimes to build generational wealth with mobile apps
AI has made it so that anyone can build an app in days. The barrier to entry has never been lower and the market has never been bigger. People are making $20k, $50k, $100k a month from simple apps they built in a weekend.
But most of you are going to miss this wave. Not because you're not smart enough, not because you can't build, but because building an app got easier, distributing it didn't.
So I'm going to give you the exact playbook. How to pick the right app, how to get your first paying users, how to nail your onboarding, how to scale your distribution, everything.
This is the same playbook I used to scale Prayer Lock to $25k/month with 50% profit margins, and I'm not holding anything back.
Step #1: Build one app
STOP building 10 apps at the same time. This is the biggest mistake you can make, it just decreases the chances of you actually succeeding.
People see the results of others on here and think that it's easy to replicate (in a way it is) but you need to realize all of them have 1 thing in common: they cracked the code on 1 single app.
You might see them with multiple apps right now but that's only because they now have the knowledge to replicate the systems on infinite apps.
You have so much to learn early on, so many unknown unknowns that you cannot afford to lose focus, and having 10 apps at once, makes you lose focus.
Now trust me, if this is you right now, I feel you, AGI feels at the touch of our fingertips, you can build new apps and launch them in 3 days and you have automations that promise to solve marketing for you, all of this is quite frankly, fun.
But counterintuitively, in a world of infinite software, building less has never been more important.
You complain about kids chasing cheap dopamine but you traded doom scrolling for building app after app.
Building apps is the new cheap dopamine.
Yes, distribution is scary but this is where the world is heading, there's no way around this, anyone can build now, you're not special, embrace this now or you'll regret it later.
So then, how do you know what to build? How do you know if you should stick to one app? How do you know when to pivot?
To know what to build you can do one of two things:
- Grab a successful app and add your own twist to it, I don't believe in plain copy catting, that's NGMI behavior. Add your own personality, your own colors, a mascot, whatever makes the app yours.
This is actually what we did with Prayer Lock. We grabbed @lottsnomad very successful Pray Screen app and created our own version. If you look at the apps today, they have completely different design philosophies and don't look at all like each other.
- The other thing you can do is grab two successful apps and combine their main features into one app
Pray Screen's idea came from combining Opal with Prayer. Our new app Step Lock comes from combining walking apps with Opal. This is actually harder to do so if you're just starting out i'd recommend adding your twist to a successful app instead.
If you're reading this you probably know exactly how to build the app you want: Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Rork, whatever, use one of those to make the app as quickly as possible. You shouldn't be taking more than 2 weeks to go from idea to launching your app, speed is key.
I don't think it's worth it to go over how to design your app, screenshots, logo, and everything else you need to launch it. But please let me know in the comments if this is something you would like to see.
Now, how do you know if you should stick to the app you launched?
You will know instantly. If you've launched multiple apps before you'll know that most of them will not get any traction on launch day even with the Apple boost (Apple's way of pushing your app to new audiences when you first launch it).
With your soon to be successful app, you'll get 1 trial, 5 trials even or even a direct conversion on launch day.
In my case, I had launched 3 faith apps before and got absolutely no conversions on launch day, even after going viral on TikTok, I still got no conversions.
With Prayer Lock I got 5 conversions on day one.
If you don't get conversions on your launch day I would then try to go viral on social media, if after 100k views I don't get even a single conversion, I would move to the next app idea.
Step #2: Obsess Over Distribution
Apps are nothing more than a funnel
At the top of the funnel you have distribution, eyeballs, views on social media. And at the bottom of the funnel you have your actual conversion, people paying money for your app.
There is absolutely no point in optimizing for anything below the top of the funnel when you first start out.
Improving animations, making your mascot more cute, changing colors around, optimizing retention, adding new features, even optimizing onboarding at this stage are ALL A WASTE OF TIME.
"But Mau if my app isn't optimized I might not convert as well on the few downloads I do have"
It doesn't matter, there is absolutely nothing to optimize for or change with 100 downloads, heck I'd even argue this is the case even with 5k downloads.
So don't touch your app AT ALL, until your distribution engine is running decently well (we'll get to that)
You have 4 options:
- Make content yourself
- Hire Influencers
- Hire UGC creators
- Paid Ads
Knowing what to pick depends solely on how much money you can invest into your app right now.
The more money you can invest the faster you'll be successful.
It took me 3 years and 10 attempts to make $25k/month because I started with absolutely nothing and decided I never wanted to work a job in my life (to this day I never have).
But it took @ErnestoSOFTWARE only a couple of weeks and 1 app to make the same amount of money because he had money to invest from previous ventures.
An important mindset shift that you have to go through, specially if you have a more technical profile like me, is getting comfortable with investing money. Stop trying to save $9/month on tools you need to grow your business, this mindset permeates to the rest of your app when you will need to be spending $1000s of dollars a week to grow. Start investing NOW.
Making content yourself
The best way to go if you're new to distribution, even if you have money to invest.
Making content yourself will develop your viral sense and will give you the foundations to know what to look for when you want to hire influencers and UGC creators.
Start posting at least 21 times a day across TikTok, Instagram and YouTube Shorts. It's not as much as it sounds, you just have to make 7 posts/day and cross post them to the different platforms.
Now the question is what content to actually make right? It depends on the niche, look at the content your competition is making and copy it, literally, use the same hooks, the same script, even the same CTA if you can.
Again, the type of content you can make depends on your niche but here are some examples of content you can try out right now.
UGC Reaction + Demo
In my opinion the best way to start making content and a format that never fails. This format alone got our app to $2.5k/month.
Buy reaction clips from friends or platforms like @dansugcmodels and stitch your demo to it.
The hook, which is the combination of the clip and the text you use on top of the clip needs to be really good. Make sure the demo you're using is not longer than 8 seconds long.
Slideshows
Another killer format, there are apps out there making $20k+/month just from slideshows (and they perform great as ads as well).
As @ErnestoSOFTWARE would say, make sure your posts aren't Pinterest feeds with a bunch of random aesthetic picture with no cohesion.
Make your slideshows accounts consistent, take direct inspiration from your competition and include a direct CTA to download your app. Make a brand identity around your slideshows.
This is a good example of a slideshows account:
It has brand identity and it's consistent
This is a bad example:
This account is all over the place, no clear format, no clear brand identity.
The Jack Friks Method (@jackfriks)
In my experience not the best converting format but it's very easy to make in bulk, I wouldn't overlook it when starting out. You state a flattering or relatable identity label in the headline, then show 4 image cards with traits, hobbies, or behaviors that qualify someone for that label.
Video hook + CTA
Again, this is not the best converting format but it is extremely easy to automate. We're on track to be the first mobile app to get a YouTube Play Button from completely automated content, and it was all thanks to this format.
We made a scraper that gets the video hooks for us and then with a python script we stitch the videos together to form a single video, we made 700 clips in 30 minutes and then bulk scheduled them.
Let me know if you'd like me to make a Claude or Openclaw skill that gets this done for you!
The idea is to grab viral videos from other creators and use the first 3 seconds as the hook and then switch to your app's CTA in a way that's entertaining for the user.
Memes
These work really well on Insta, it wouldn't be the first format I'd try but it can be great for brand awareness and a good format if coupled with a Manychat automation and Instagram Stories that then drive your followers to download your app.
I'd recommend warming up a meme account and copying viral meme clips and adding your own caption.
Influencers
Influencers are a great way to scale your app. This is actually how a lot of great apps scaled, including @ErnestoSOFTWARE first app.
Running influencers correctly is a little harder and requires investment. You probably need a budget of at least $10k to pull it off, because a lot of them will not work.
The first step to get influencers is to mass DM them, you need to be sending at least 100 DMs a day, most of them will not respond, make sure your message starts with "Paid Promo Opportunity" or something similar to cut through the noise. Make your message short and concise.
Also, you can't just reach out to any influencer, they need to actually be in your niche or speaking to your customers, they need to have good engagement rates and you need to look at the comment section.
Are most of the replies fire emojis? Do people actually care about this creator? The best influencers have an audience that deeply cares about them, look for that.
Never disclose the deal through DMs, you will give your influencers a chance to think it through and get a worse deal for you.
Instead, try to get them on a call as soon as possible, if you can't, it's better to at least send them the deal through text to their phone number.
Basically, you should be looking for a deal as close to a $1 CPM (cost per thousand views) as possible.
The way @ErnestoSOFTWARE structures the deals for our app is by first getting them on a "trial" deal on a $1 CPM for 300k views with 40% upfront and then on a $1.2 CPM deal after that.
UGC Creators
Often called THE way to scale mobile apps right now. You hire micro influencers or new creators to create new accounts to make content just for your app.
Having a successful UGC army is actually way harder than anyone on X will make it seem. You have to deal with making sure creators make the right content for your brand, checking in on them constantly, tracking their performance, hiring new creators, firing them fast, paying them, it's a pretty complex process to be honest.
For this reason I wouldn't recommend new builders try to make a UGC army unless you have experience with distribution or a cofounder, a UGC campaign will take most of your time and it's a full time job on its own.
Having said that, if you can make it work, you're going to absolutely rip it and have a skill that will be valuable for the rest of your life. To me, UGC campaigns are the holy grail of distribution, the toughest beast to crack but the one with the highest leverage.
To be completely transparent we don't currently have any UGC campaign for any of our apps, but we do have some experience with them.
The first step is very similar to influencers, mass reach out, but you're looking for slightly different things.
With influencers you mostly want to be reaching out on Instagram and email, with UGC creators you mainly want to be reaching out through TikTok.
Followers don't matter at all, instead, look for creators with 2-3 viral videos, look for camera charisma, look for good communicators. UGC campaigns are more about taste and viral sense than anything else, this is what makes them so interesting and hard at the same time.
There are some incredible people here on UGC like @alexolim_ @juliapintar and @xElenaYangx
Follow them if you want to know more about how to make successful UGC campaigns
Paid Ads
My specialty, and how we scaled Prayer Lock from $2.5k/month to $25k/month with 50% profit margins.
Most people completely overlook ads, they either start them too late or too early
I left this distribution channel to the end on purpose, and that's because you shouldn't be starting out with Paid Ads.
Ads do best when you already have organic content that worked for you before. That content could be coming from your own posts, your influencers or your UGC creators.
So make sure you already have a content system in place before you jump to ads, you don't need much either, you only need 5 high quality pieces of content a week to start testing ads.
By high quality I don't mean highly produced or edited, I just mean content that is working well organically.
Don't make super vague posts that convert through the comment section, your ads need to be what I call "Organic Ads":
Posts that have a super organic hook and make the user feel like this is an actual organic video but with a clear and direct CTA.
I put together a free guide on how to scale your mobile app with Meta and TikTok if you're interested:
Paid Ads are the only distribution channel on this list I wouldn't start before you truly nail your onboarding. You need at least a 10% download to trial conversion rate to run them successfully.
Which takes us to the next step in scaling your app to $25k/month. Once you have a content engine running and you've partly solved the top of your funnel, meaning, you're getting at least 300 daily downloads, you now need to go back to the product.
You're not going to add new features, you're not going to optimize retention, you're going to now completely obsess over your onboarding.
Step #3 Obsess Over Your Onboarding
Your onboarding is without a doubt the MOST IMPORTANT part of your app, if you're reading this and still haven't shipped an app try to get this right the first time around, don't wait.
The only reason I mention it as the third step is to try to get your hands dirty with marketing as soon as possible.
Here is everything that matters when designing your onboarding, follow these steps and you will get a killer conversion rate:
- Think of your onboarding as a story with three acts: an introduction that paints the problem, a climax where the user experiences your app, and a conclusion that prepares them for the paywall
- Don't design your onboarding from scratch, study the best onboardings in your niche and outside it, find what works and make it your own
- You need at least one aha moment, a screen that stops the user in their tracks and makes them feel the weight of their problem, and it should hit within the first minute
- Most founders use onboarding questions to learn about their users, but the real purpose is the opposite, you want the user to reflect on their own answers and slowly convince themselves that they have a problem worth solving
- After every few questions, mirror the user's answers back to them so they feel like the experience is being built specifically for them
- The longer your onboarding, the better it converts, as long as every screen is adding value, people hate losing something they already invested, so after 10 to 15 minutes in your onboarding they will think twice before leaving at the paywall
- Let the user actually use your core feature during the onboarding, don't just describe what the app does, make them do it
- Show your review modal right after the user completes your core feature, when they are at their most excited, this is the most important thing you can do for your ASO and social proof, most users will not pay, but they can still leave a review, and that review compounds over time and brings you more organic downloads for free
- Ask ChatGPT about Robert Cialdini's principles of influence and apply them to your onboarding, especially the principle of commitment, getting users to actively state they are committed before hitting the paywall significantly increases conversion, read the book too if you want to go deeper
Don't do anything else at this point other than getting your onboarding right, iterate it until you have a conversion rate that is good for you, i would say at least 10%.
Here's the link to the canvas I used to design my onboarding, it has the apps I took as inspiration and our own onboarding.
Step #4: Scale and Iterate Product
By this point you have a good app, a killer onboarding and a pretty good distribution system.
You are now ready to scale and take your app to $25k/month and more.
At this stage you're going to mainly focus on scaling your distribution system: more ad spend, more UGC creators, more influencers, more self made content.
As you scale your marketing efforts you will get a lot of user feedback, now is finally the time to improve the product. Don't bloat your app with features, be very deliberate about what you're adding and why.
Make data driven decisions, don't add features on a whim, only what's necessary.
Try to always optimize back to a revenue event, for example, instead of adding a useless feature try to increase your trial to conversion rate (if you have a trial).
You should still be spending 90-100% of your time on marketing.
Time To Scale To The Moon
That's it, this is all you need to scale your app to the moon.
Is it easy? It depends, how fast can you let building go in favor of marketing
Is it simple? Yes, there's literally no room for you to fail if you follow the steps I just gave you.
You might fail your first few attempts, and that's ok, it took me over 10 apps to finally have a successful one.
The key is to obsessively focus on one app and on one thing at a time.
This is the biggest opportunity of our lifetimes, who knows how long this will last but one thing is for sure.
Mobile apps are going through a golden era and now is the moment to make generational wealth with them.
It doesn't matter if you know nothing about marketing (I didn't), it doesn't matter if you're not technical (I'm a finance bro), it doesn't matter if you have no money (I started off broke).
What are you waiting for?
