Solved: App Marketing Strategy on a $1-2k Budget

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out!

Happy to give you some initial thoughts on your situation. As an indie dev, it's a great spot to be in when you've got solid organic traffic and are looking to scale. You're right to be cautious with your budget, a couple of grand a month can dissapear very quickly if you're not careful.

The short answer is you're probably looking at this the wrong way round. You're focused on content creation (UGC) when your real challenge, and what your budget should be spent on, is user acquisition. Let's get into why that is and what a better strategy would look like.

We'll need to look at the UGC and 'Awareness' trap...

Alright, let's tackle your first question about UGC platforms. The very fact you're asking about them tells me you've fallen for a common myth in marketing. The idea that you need "brand awareness" or a library of trendy user-generated content before you can start getting customers. For a massive company with millions to spend, maybe. For an indie dev with a two grand budget, it's a catastrophy waiting to happen.

Here is the uncomfortable truth about these campaigns. When you go onto a platform like Meta or TikTok and set your campaign objective to "Reach" or "Brand Awareness," you are giving the algorithm a very specific, and very literal, command: "Find me the largest number of eyeballs for the lowest possible price."

The algorithm, which is ruthlessly efficient, does exactly what you asked. It scours your target audience and identifies the users who are least likely to click, least likely to engage, and absolutely, positively least likely to ever pull out a credit card and download a paid app. Why? Because those users are not in demand. Their attention is cheap. Other, smarter advertisers who are optimising for sales and signups have bid up the price on the valuable users, leaving the digital window-shoppers for you.

You are actively paying the world's most powerful advertising machine to find you the worst possible audience for your product. It’s like trying to sell steak by handing out flyers at a vegan festival. You'll reach a lot of people, but you'll make zero sales.

The same logic applies to paying for UGC upfront. Platforms where you 'pay per video' are selling you content, not results. You still have to take that video and run it as an ad. And if you run it with the wrong objective, you're back to square one, just with a slightly prettier ad that no one who matters will see. Paying for views is a vanity metric. Views don't pay your server costs. Users do.

The best form of brand awareness for a small app developer is a happy user. That only happens through conversion. Awareness is a *byproduct* of having a great app that solves a real problem, not a prerequisite for making a sale. You need to switch your entire mindset from "getting my name out there" to "getting users in the door".

I'd say you need to focus entirely on conversion campaigns...

So, what's the alternative? It's simple, but it requires discipline. Every single penny of your $1-2k budget must be spent on campaigns with a *conversion* objective. On Meta or TikTok, this means choosing "App Installs" or "Leads/Signups". On Google, it means "App promotion". On Apple Search Ads, it's built-in. This tells the algorithm something completely different. It says: "I don't care about cheap eyeballs. Go into my target audience and find me only the people who have a history of downloading apps, signing up for trials, and making in-app purchases. I am willing to pay more for these valuable users."

This is the only game you should be playing. It's a direct transaction: you pay the platform, and it delivers you a new user. Now the question becomes, how much should you pay?

Based on our experience running hundreds of these campaigns, B2C signups and app installs usually cost somewhere between $1 and $5, sometimes creeping up to $7 for more niche software. One of our app clients, for example, achieved over 45,000 signups at a cost of under £2 per signup across Meta, TikTok, Apple Ads, and Google Ads. Another software client running ads on Meta saw 5,082 trial signups at $7 each. For another, we used Google Ads to bring in 3,543 users at just £0.96 each. The range is quite broad, and your performance within it will depend on your targeting, your creative, and most importantly, your offer.

With your budget, this is what that looks like in real terms. Let's be conservative and say your initial campaigns have a Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) of $7. With a $2,000 budget, that's 285 new users per month. If you can optimise your campaigns and get your CPA down to an excellent $2, that same budget gets you 1,000 new users. This is the maths that matters.

To help you visualise this, I've put together a simple calculator. Play around with the sliders to see how your monthly budget and your CPA directly impact the number of users you can acquire. This should make it very clear why chasing a lower CPA is your number one priority.

You probably should choose your battleground carefully...

Okay, so we've established that you need to run conversion campaigns. The next logical question is, where do you run them? You have a few solid options, and the right choice depends on your app and your ideal user. It's not about being everywhere; it's about being in the *right* place.

Broadly, your potential users fall into two camps: those actively searching for a solution like yours, and those who don't know they need you yet but are a perfect fit. You need a different platform for each.

A) For people who are actively searching:

This is the lowest hanging fruit. These people have a problem, they are aware of it, and they are literally typing solutions into a search bar. For an app, your two primary weapons here are Apple Search Ads and Google Ads (specifically for the Play Store).

• Apple Search Ads: This is often a fantastic starting point for iOS apps. It’s relatively simple to set up. You bid on keywords related to your app's function, and your ad appears at the very top of the App Store search results. The intent here is as high as it gets. Someone is in the App Store, actively looking to download an app that does what yours does. Conversion rates can be brilliant. You could target keywords like "photo editor app", "indie game puzzle", or "personal finance tracker" - whatever fits your niche.


• Google Ads: This works similarly for the Google Play Store. You can run campaigns that specifically target users searching for apps on Google Search and within the Play Store itself. The principle is the same: capture high-intent users at the moment they're looking to solve a problem.

B) For people who aren't searching (but should be users):

This is a much larger pool of potential users, but it's harder to get their attention. These are people who would love your app if they knew it existed, but they aren't looking for it. Your job is to interrupt their scrolling with a compelling message. Your main platforms here are Meta (Facebook & Instagram) and TikTok.

• Meta (Facebook/Instagram): Still the king for sophisticated audience targeting. You can target users based on their interests (e.g., people who like competing apps, follow relevant influencers, or have interests related to your app's purpose), behaviours (e.g., people who have made in-app purchases before), and create powerful "lookalike" audiences based on your existing users. This is where you can scale significantly once you've found a message that resonates.


• TikTok Ads: If your app has a strong visual component or appeals to a younger demographic, TikTok can be incredibly effective. The ad format is more native (short, engaging videos), but the principle of optimising for installs is the same. The costs can sometimes be lower than Meta, but the audience might be less accustomed to paying for software.

To make this decision easier, here's a simple flowchart. Follow the questions to figure out where you should prioritise your initial budget.

You'll need an offer that's impossible to refuse...

Now we get to what is, without a doubt, the single most important part of this entire equation. It's not your ads, it's not your targeting, it's not your budget. It's your offer. This is the number one reason I see campaigns fail, especially for software and apps. The founder has built a brilliant product, but they make it too difficult or too risky for someone to try it.

You have to be brutally honest with yourself. You are an indie dev. You don't have the brand recognition of Adobe or Microsoft. No one is going to pay you $9.99 for an app they've never heard of, based on a few screenshots in the App Store. The risk for them is too high, and the friction is immense. The "Buy Now" button is your greatest enemy.

Your competition, even the big players, are offering free trials and generous freemium models to get people in the door. You have to do the same. The gold standard for any software product is a free trial (no credit card required) or a freemium plan. This is non-negotiable. You have to let people *use* the actual product and experience its value for themselves. Let them feel the transformation your app provides. When the product itself proves its worth, the sale becomes a formality. They aren't just leads you're chasing; they become Product Qualified Leads (PQLs) who are already convinced.

Your ad shouldn't be driving people to a 'buy now' page. It should drive them to a simple page where they can start a free trial or download the free version of your app with a single click. Every extra step, every form field, every request for a credit card, will kill your conversion rate and drive your CPA through the roof.

This also extends to the messaging on your landing page and in your ads. Don't just list features. No one cares that your app uses 'AI-powered synchronisation'. They care about the *outcome*. Use the Before-After-Bridge framework:

• Before: Describe their current world. What is their problem or frustration? "Struggling to keep track of your freelance invoices? Wasting hours every month chasing payments?"


• After: Paint a picture of their world with your app. What does the ideal solution feel like? "Imagine sending professional invoices in 30 seconds and getting paid on time, every time. See all your income in one simple dashboard."


• Bridge: Position your app as the bridge to get them from Before to After. "Our app is the bridge that gets you there. Start your free trial today and send your first invoice in under two minutes."

This is persuasive copywriting. It focuses on the user's pain, not your product's features. A well-optimised offer and landing page can single-handedly cut your CPA in half, effectively doubling the number of users you get for the same budget.

We'll need to look at who you're actually targeting...

Once you have a killer offer, you need to put it in front of the right people. "People who need my app" is not a target audience. You need to get much, much more specific.

Forget the sterile, demographic-based profiles. "Men aged 18-35" tells you nothing of value. You must define your customer by their pain, their goals, and their digital habits. Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) isn't a demographic; it's a *problem state*.

For example, let's say you've built a meal planning app.
Bad ICP: "Busy professionals who want to eat healthier." (This is everyone and no one).
Good ICP: "A new parent, overwhelmed with decision fatigue, who is terrified of not providing nutritious meals for their family but only has 20 minutes to cook each night. They scroll Instagram for quick recipes during late-night feeds and belong to parenting groups on Facebook."

See the difference? The second profile gives you a treasure trove of targeting options on a platform like Meta.

• Interests: "New parents (0-12 months)", "Pampers", "What to Expect When You're Expecting", "HelloFresh" (competitor), "30-minute meals", "Annabel Karmel" (parenting food author).
• Behaviours: Users who engage with "Parenting" Facebook pages.
• Demographics: You can layer on age and location.

You're not just targeting people; you're targeting a specific, urgent, and emotional problem. Your ad copy can then speak directly to that nightmare: "Tired of deciding what's for dinner? Get a week's worth of healthy, 20-minute recipes designed for tired parents. Download your free meal plan."

When you start advertising, you'll generally work your way through different types of audiences, from broad to highly specific. Here's a typical prioritisation for an eCommerce store, which can be easily adapted for an app:

1. Top of Funnel (ToFu) - Finding New People: This is where you'll start.

• Detailed Targeting: Using the interests, behaviours, and demographics we just discussed. This is your primary tool for finding new potential users.
• Lookalike Audiences: Once you have enough data (at least 100 users, but more is better), you can ask Meta to find millions of other people who are statistically similar to your best users. A lookalike of "people who started a trial" is much more powerful than a lookalike of "people who visited the website".

2. Middle of Funnel (MoFu) - Warming Them Up:

• These are people who have shown some interest but haven't converted yet. You can retarget people who visited your landing page but didn't sign up, or people who watched 50% of your video ad.

3. Bottom of Funnel (BoFu) - Closing the Deal:

• This is your highest-intent audience. You can retarget people who started the signup process but didn't finish, or who added a paid plan to their cart but abandoned it.

With a $1-2k budget, you'll spend most of your time and money in the ToFu stage, testing different interest-based audiences to see which one delivers the lowest CPA. But it's crucial to have the tracking in place (like the Meta Pixel on your website) from day one, so you can build those MoFu and BoFu audiences for later.

This is the main advice I have for you:

Theory is great, but you need an actionable plan. If you were working with us, this is the kind of step-by-step process we'd implement to make the most of your first month's budget. It's a system of methodical testing designed to find a winning formula you can then scale.

This approach might seem slow, but it's systematic. By the end of the month, you won't have just spent $2,000 and hoped for the best. You will have data. You will know which audience works, which platform is most effective for you, and you'll have a proven CPA that you can use for future projections. You'll have turned your ad spend into an investment in market intelligence.

This all goes to say that there's a huge amount to consider, and getting it right from the start can be the difference between scaling your app and burning through your budget with nothing to show for it. It's not just about setting up an ad; it's about understanding the deep mechanics of audience psychology, platform algorithms, and offer creation. Many developers find that their time is better spent improving their product, while they leave the complexities of user acquisition to an expert.

With our experience in scaling app campaigns, we can help you avoid the common pitfalls, accelerate your testing phase, and implement advanced strategies from day one. We offer a free initial consultation where we can take a closer look at your app and put together a more detailed, bespoke strategy for you. It's a chance to get some expert eyes on your project with no obligation.

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh