[Journey] Building an iOS & Android App Empire

[AllOutAnime]

I do a mix of both. Manual content publishing (I have 5 iphones) and automatic content publishing. So yeah I have around 20 tiktok accounts right now. Also multiple youtube channels and instagram accounts.

Just organic right now. Sometimes on weekend I use Meta Ads and Google Ads, but thats it. But almost all traffic is coming organically.

Why do you do it organically instead of just using Ads on all platforms?
Sometimes I wonder if all the hassle of the automation and being undetected is worth it and I just should use Ads to scale faster.

 

[darkblitzrc]

Why do you do it organically instead of just using Ads on all platforms?
Sometimes I wonder if all the hassle of the automation and being undetected is worth it and I just should use Ads to scale faster.

Ads is not that easy mate, also you need a big budget for that. From my short experience with organic traffic, it converts very good and its FREE.

 

[shakshamfoundation]

For sure building quality apps and staying whitehat is gonna get you places! + keeping your niches on the dl is super smart because the app world is kinda wild

 

[nakamura]

Why do you do it organically instead of just using Ads on all platforms?
Sometimes I wonder if all the hassle of the automation and being undetected is worth it and I just should use Ads to scale faster.

Organic traffic is converting better and its free.

- For Meta Ads it needs really good creatives...and this takes time to create. Its a lot of testing. You have to burn through a lot of money. Another point is, attribution is just not accurate. They also have a lot of bot traffic.

- Google Ads: Easy to setup, but many of them are not converting well

- Apple Search Ads: Easy to burn a lot of money

- TikTok: Need very good creatives and need to contact UGC creators, etc.

I am just ONE person. I cant and dont want to spend 5 days just creating creatives for Meta Ads and test wehther this crap works or not.

At some point I might hire someone just to do this crap

Ads is not that easy mate, also you need a big budget for that. From my short experience with organic traffic, it converts very good and its FREE.

Budget is not the problem. The big problem is the time to create creatives, do testing, etc. and if this is not worse enough Meta, etc. keep changing their algorithm. So one day you have a winning creative and another day it goes to shit

For sure building quality apps and staying whitehat is gonna get you places! + keeping your niches on the dl is super smart because the app world is kinda wild

true

 

[WarlordYT]

so you are making 20+ tiktok per day ? thats a lot bro

 

[AllOutAnime]

Organic traffic is converting better and its free.

- For Meta Ads it needs really good creatives...and this takes time to create. Its a lot of testing. You have to burn through a lot of money. Another point is, attribution is just not accurate. They also have a lot of bot traffic.

- Google Ads: Easy to setup, but many of them are not converting well

- Apple Search Ads: Easy to burn a lot of money

- TikTok: Need very good creatives and need to contact UGC creators, etc.

I am just ONE person. I cant and dont want to spend 5 days just creating creatives for Meta Ads and test wehther this crap works or not.

At some point I might hire someone just to do this crap



Budget is not the problem. The big problem is the time to create creatives, do testing, etc. and if this is not worse enough Meta, etc. keep changing their algorithm. So one day you have a winning creative and another day it goes to shit


true

Thank you for the explanation.
For the organic content you also need a lot of content, no? Would the same content through Ads not have the same result as posted organically?

 

[nakamura]

so you are making 20+ tiktok per day ? thats a lot bro

Easy to do, full automated right now.

Thank you for the explanation.
For the organic content you also need a lot of content, no? Would the same content through Ads not have the same result as posted organically?

This can be automated and just need to be optimized. For example finding the best possible keywords.

I am planning to go big in ads and UGC, but I wanna do it properly and not just lose money while having low quality ad creatives

 

[nakamura]

Update:

In March I made around $80k in total. Could be 2-3k plus or minus. Here is a small breakdown:

Income:
- around $5k through Google Admob
- $75k through IAPs, 80% of this through Apple

Ads could be more, I didnt check Appodeal, Applovin, etc. I only checked Admob.

Expenses:

- $3k in API costs, mostly AI models including Claude Code Max and ChatGPT
- $3k in Google Ads / Facebook Ads
- $800 in different costs like RevenueCat, Appsflyer, SaaS etc.

I will try to reduce the costs even further. For example Appsflyer, they have been quite useless for me. Some SaaS with monthly subscription are also useless, I could make them myself if I have time.

Besides this I bought a new Macbook Pro M5 Pro with 48GB Ram.

Whats next?

Goals for April are:

- Finally release this god damn ebook LOL
- Publish at least two apps for iOS and Android
- Make new screenshots (A / B Test) for my winning apps.
- Post more on TikTok with more accounts and get into touch with UGC creators

 

[tafritravel]

Waw, this whole journey is seriously so inspiring, it's super cool how you're building an app empire with such a clear, ethical plan, especially after already crushing it and making $5k while totally learning the ropes

 

[darshanright]

Update:

In March I made around $80k in total. Could be 2-3k plus or minus. Here is a small breakdown:

Income:
- around $5k through Google Admob
- $75k through IAPs, 80% of this through Apple

Ads could be more, I didnt check Appodeal, Applovin, etc. I only checked Admob.

Expenses:

- $3k in API costs, mostly AI models including Claude Code Max and ChatGPT
- $3k in Google Ads / Facebook Ads
- $800 in different costs like RevenueCat, Appsflyer, SaaS etc.

I will try to reduce the costs even further. For example Appsflyer, they have been quite useless for me. Some SaaS with monthly subscription are also useless, I could make them myself if I have time.

Besides this I bought a new Macbook Pro M5 Pro with 48GB Ram.

Whats next?

Goals for April are:

- Finally release this god damn ebook LOL
- Publish at least two apps for iOS and Android
- Make new screenshots (A / B Test) for my winning apps.
- Post more on TikTok with more accounts and get into touch with UGC creators

In this month you do not run any Apple ads, like Apple Search Ads Advanced?? As you ran before??? Or do you just run Google Ads or Facebook Ads?? Can you share on a percentage basis ...

 

[nakamura]

In this month you do not run any Apple ads, like Apple Search Ads Advanced?? As you ran before??? Or do you just run Google Ads or Facebook Ads?? Can you share on a percentage basis ...

Nope, I didnt run ASA. I just had Google Ads on the entire month with around $50 daily spend. But I didnt check anything at all. On weekends I turned on Meta Ads.

Most of my traffic is organic. I dont think paid traffic is converting well.

 

[Dank19]

Are your google ads and meta ads just static images?

 

[nakamura]

Are your google ads and meta ads just static images?

nope, videos as well. created these videos months ago

 

[Dank19]

nope, videos as well. created these videos months ago

Are they more UGC style, or just a showcase?

Also the niche's you're in, are they smaller sub-niches that have little competition or bigger niches with proven revenue, but more competition.

 

[Bluefrog_1974]

It's one of the longest journeys on BHW i think and I'm impressed by your dedication, seems like a very fruitful Journey

 

[Nicololo]

But how do you automate it? You can automate the content, but you still publish it on each phone, right?

 

[nakamura]

Are they more UGC style, or just a showcase?

Also the niche's you're in, are they smaller sub-niches that have little competition or bigger niches with proven revenue, but more competition.

All of it, I tried all kind of approaches and so many different kind of videos. Thats the difficult part right...as I mentioned before: It takes so much testing and you need to be willing to burn money. Right now I feel there is still so much room for improvement in my creatives.

It's one of the longest journeys on BHW i think and I'm impressed by your dedication, seems like a very fruitful Journey

Thank you, and I am not thinking about stopping

But how do you automate it? You can automate the content, but you still publish it on each phone, right?

Right now there are Claude, OpenAI, etc. helping you to make workflows, then you can use an API to publish directly on TiKTok, etc.

or you can save the videos/pics in a google drive/dropbox/etc, download it on your phone and publish it manually

 

[FabioSelau]

Good luck on your journey!

I'm currently working on a personal finance app with AI, gamification, WhatsApp integration, and more.

My partner has one engaged account with 800,000 followers on Instagram, 300k on Facebook, and 500k on TikTok, in addition to partnerships with other accounts with 2 million followers. Our strategy is to promote through these accounts, as well as white hat SEO for the website. The apps have already been published on iOS and the Play Store; I'm even using RevenueCat.

Any suggestions, recommendations, or tips?

 

[Heiko]

Been following since the beginning. Great to see you come that far. Well done.

 

[nakamura]

Good luck on your journey!

I'm currently working on a personal finance app with AI, gamification, WhatsApp integration, and more.

My partner has one engaged account with 800,000 followers on Instagram, 300k on Facebook, and 500k on TikTok, in addition to partnerships with other accounts with 2 million followers. Our strategy is to promote through these accounts, as well as white hat SEO for the website. The apps have already been published on iOS and the Play Store; I'm even using RevenueCat.

Any suggestions, recommendations, or tips?

idea is great. make sure you promote these app in a natural way, dont make it look too much like an advertisement. best of luck

Been following since the beginning. Great to see you come that far. Well done.

thank you, much appreciated