TLDR;
- Relying only on 'free' marketing is a slow, unreliable path in a crowded market like health apps. Your time isn't free, and the feedback loop is too long.
- To get a "fair shot," you need to treat advertising not as a cost, but as a predictable, scalable engine for gathering data and acquiring users.
- The most critical calculation you need to make isn't your marketing budget, but your Customer Lifetime Value (LTV). This tells you exactly how much you can afford to spend to acquire a paying user.
- Your best initial ad platforms will be Apple Search Ads (to capture high-intent users actively looking for a solution) and Meta Ads (to target users by health and fitness interests).
- This letter includes a fully interactive LTV Calculator to help you understand your app's financial viability for paid ads, and a Platform Prioritisation Flowchart to guide your initial strategy.
Hi there,
Thanks for reaching out!
Congrats on getting CaptureCal launched on the App Store. Building an app from scratch in a month is seriously impressive, and the idea of simplifying calorie tracking with photos and voice memos is a really interesting angle. I can see the appeal.
You mentioned you're looking for ways to market the app without resorting to paid ads. I get it, especially when you're just starting out and every penny counts. A lot of people start with that mindset. I'm happy to give you some of my thoughts on it, but I'll be honest with you – in a space as competitive as calorie tracking, avoiding ads entirely might not be giving your app the "fair shot" you want for it. The 'free' methods aren't really free; they cost you your time, which is your most valuable asset right now, and the results are often slow and unpredictable. So, what I'd like to do is walk you through how you should be thinking about growth strategically, and how paid ads, when done right, become a predictable engine for growth rather than just a cost centre.
Let's look at the whole picture.
We'll need to look at the hard numbers first...
Before we even talk about placing a single ad, we need to answer a fundamental question: "How much is a user actually worth to you?" Without knowing this, any money you spend on marketing is just a gamble. This is where most new app developers go wrong. They focus on minimizing the cost per install (CPI), trying to get it as low as possible, without knowing how high a CPI they can actually afford.
The metric that changes everything is Customer Lifetime Value (LTV). It tells you the total profit you can expect to make from an average user over the entire time they use your app. Once you know your LTV, you can determine your target Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC).
Let's break it down. The formula looks like this:
LTV = (Average Revenue Per User * Gross Margin %) / Monthly Churn Rate
- Average Revenue Per User (ARPU): This is pretty straightforward. If you have a single subscription tier at, say, £9.99/month, that's your ARPU.
- Gross Margin %: For a software app, this is usually very high. After Apple's cut (~30%) and server costs (e.g., Firebase), your margin might be around 65-70%. Let's call it 65% for this example.
- Monthly Churn Rate: This is the percentage of your paid subscribers who cancel each month. This is a huge factor. A high churn rate will kill your LTV. For subscription apps, anything under 5% is great, but it can often be higher initially.
So let's imagine some numbers for CaptureCal:
- ARPU = £9.99/month
- Gross Margin = 65%
- Monthly Churn = 8% (This is a bit high, but realistic for a new app finding its feet)
The calculation would be: (£9.99 * 0.65) / 0.08 = £6.49 / 0.08 = £81.12 LTV.
This £81.12 is the total gross profit you can expect from a single paying subscriber. Now, a healthy business model usually aims for an LTV to CAC ratio of at least 3:1. This means you can afford to spend up to £81.12 / 3 = £27.04 to acquire one paying customer.
Suddenly, the game changes. You're no longer asking "how can I get free installs?". You're asking "how can I acquire paying customers for less than £27.04?". This is a question you can build a predictable, scalable business on. That £27.04 is your budget to get a user to download, use the app, and convert to a paid plan. It's your target Cost Per Acquisition (CPA).
To make this more tangible, I've built a little calculator for you. Play around with the sliders to see how small changes in your pricing, churn, and margins can dramatically affect your LTV and what you can afford to spend on ads.
I'd say you need a multi-platform strategy...
Once you know how much you can afford to spend, the next question is where to spend it. Throwing money at the wrong platform is a surefire way to burn through your budget. For an app like yours, you need a mix of platforms that capture people at different stages of their journey. Some people are actively looking for a solution *right now*, while others don't know they need a better one until they see it.
From my experience growing apps – we've run campaigns that drove over 45,000 signups for one app – a phased approach works best. You start with the lowest-hanging fruit and expand from there.
Here’s how I would prioritise for CaptureCal:
- Apple Search Ads (ASA): This is non-negotiable. It should be your first port of call. Why? The intent couldn't be higher. People are literally in the App Store, typing in keywords like "calorie counter," "food tracker," or "diet app." You're catching them at the exact moment of decision. Your ad appears at the top of the search results. It's the digital equivalent of having the best shelf space in the supermarket. You can start with a small budget and target very specific keywords, including your competitors' brand names. This will give you your first batch of high-quality users and invaluable data on which keywords convert best.
- Meta Ads (Facebook & Instagram): This is for reaching people who aren't actively searching but fit the profile of a potential user. The targeting capabilities here are powerful. You can build audiences based on interests like 'Weight Watchers', 'MyFitnessPal', 'Noom', 'healthy eating', 'fitness and wellness', etc. You can also target demographics (e.g., age 25-45, women) who are more likely to be in the market for a health app. The key here is the creative. You need thumb-stopping videos or images that quickly demonstrate your app's unique selling point – the simplicity of snapping a photo vs. tedious manual entry.
- Google App Campaigns (UAC): Once you have some traction and data, this is how you scale. Google's UAC is a bit of a "black box" but it's incredibly powerful. You provide it with your app, some ad copy, images, and videos, and set a target cost per install (or cost per in-app action, like a subscription). Google's machine learning then promotes your app across its entire network: Google Search, the Google Play Store (once you launch there), YouTube, and the Display Network. It's less about granular control and more about feeding the algorithm the right data and creative assets to find users for you at scale.
- TikTok Ads: Don't dismiss this one. The health and fitness community on TikTok is massive. This platform is all about authentic, user-generated-style content. A simple video showing someone's full day of eating, logged in seconds with CaptureCal, could perform incredibly well. The cost to reach people can be lower than on Meta, but the audience might be younger and potentially less likely to pay for a subscription, so it requires careful testing.
Here's a simple flowchart to visualise that decision-making process:
Starting Point
Goal: Get first paying users & validate CPA
Priority #1: High Intent
Target users actively searching for a calorie tracker.
Platform: Apple Search Ads
Priority #2: Audience Building
Find users based on health & fitness interests.
Platform: Meta Ads
Priority #3: Scaling Up
Use machine learning to find more users profitably.
Platform: Google App Campaigns
You probably should focus on the offer and the message...
Having the right platform and budget is only half the battle. Your ads will fail if your message doesn't connect. A common mistake is to advertise features. "We use AI to log food!" is a feature. Nobody buys a feature. People buy a solution to a problem, a transformation from a state of frustration to a state of relief.
You need to get inside the head of your Ideal Customer. What is their real nightmare? It's not "I need to count calories". It's "I've tried every other app and I quit after three days because logging my food is a soul-crushing, time-consuming chore." It's the feeling of failure and frustration that comes with that process. Your app's unique features—photo and voice logging—are the solution to *that specific nightmare*.
I always use a simple framework for ad copy called Before-After-Bridge. It's brutally effective.
- Before: Describe their current world of pain. The frustration, the time wasted. Agitate the problem.
- After: Paint a picture of the new world your app makes possible. The ease, the consistency, the feeling of being in control.
- Bridge: Position your app as the clear and simple bridge from the 'Before' state to the 'After' state.
Here’s how this could look in some actual ads for CaptureCal:
| Ad Copy Example 1: The "Tired of Typing" Angle | |
|---|---|
| Before | Spending 10 minutes after every meal, trying to remember every single ingredient, and endlessly scrolling through a database to log your lunch. More time logging than eating. |
| After | Getting an accurate calorie count in seconds, feeling effortlessly in control of your diet, and actually sticking with your goals because tracking is no longer a chore. |
| Bridge | Introducing CaptureCal. Just snap a photo of your meal and let our AI do the work. It’s the bridge to consistent, stress-free calorie tracking. Download for free and log your first meal in 5 seconds. |
| Ad Copy Example 2: The "Overwhelmed & Inconsistent" Angle | |
|---|---|
| Before | Feeling motivated on Monday, but by Wednesday you're already behind on logging. The thought of catching up is so overwhelming you just give up for the week. Again. |
| After | Effortlessly logging your entire day's food in one go before bed. Waking up every morning with a clear, accurate picture of your progress, feeling proud and motivated. |
| Bridge | With CaptureCal, you don't have to log meal-by-meal. Just use our voice memo feature to describe what you ate all day ("two eggs for breakfast, a chicken salad for lunch..."). We'll handle the rest. Download now and conquer inconsistency. |
You'll need a way to measure what matters...
Once your ads are live, you'll start getting data. Lots of it. And it's easy to get distracted by "vanity metrics" like impressions, clicks, or even installs. They feel good, but they don't pay the bills. I've seen countless accounts with a super low Cost Per Install (CPI) that were burning money because none of those users ever converted to a paid plan. For instance, one campaign we took over for a medical job matching app had a Cost Per User Acquisition of over £100. We shifted the strategy and managed to reduce their final CPA to just £7. That's the only thing that matters.
Your measurement funnel needs to look something like this:
- Installs: The top of the funnel. It's the first step, but the least important metric for profitability. A typical CPI for a B2C app in developed countries is often in the £1-£5 range.
- Free Trial Starts: This is a much better indicator of interest. How many of the people who installed the app were engaged enough to start a trial? This tells you if your app's onboarding is effective.
- Paid Subscriptions: This is the goal. This is your CPA (or Cost Per Acquisition). This is the number you compare against the affordable CAC we calculated from your LTV. If your CPA is lower than your affordable CAC, you have a profitable ad campaign.
The drop-off between these stages is normal, but it's where you find opportunities to optimise. If you have lots of installs but very few trial starts, your onboarding needs work. If you have lots of trials but few paid conversions, maybe your trial experience or pricing page needs improving. This is how paid ads give you rapid feedback on your entire business, not just your marketing.
Here’s a visual representation of what a healthy app conversion funnel might look like. Don't be alarmed by the drop-off; it's the final CPA number that counts.
I've detailed my main recomendations for you below:
I know this is a lot to take in, and it's a very different approach from just posting on social media and hoping for the best. But this is how you build a real, sustainable business around an app. It's a system of measurement, testing, and scaling. To summarise, here is the actionable advice I'd give you to start.
| Phase | Recommended Action | Why It's Important |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Foundation | Calculate a realistic LTV and affordable CPA for your app using the calculator above. Set up robust in-app event tracking for trial starts and subscriptions. | This turns advertising from a guessing game into a maths problem. You will know exactly what success looks like before you spend a single pound. |
| 2. Initial Test | Launch an Apple Search Ads campaign with a small budget (£20-£50/day). Target high-intent keywords like "calorie tracker" and your main competitors' names. | This is the fastest way to get your first high-quality users and validate if people are willing to install and pay. It provides the quickest feedback loop. |
| 3. Audience Expansion | Launch a Meta Ads campaign targeting interests related to health, fitness, and competitor apps. Use video creative that demonstrates the "Before-After-Bridge" of your app. | This allows you to reach a much larger audience that isn't actively searching but is highly likely to be interested. It's how you start to build brand awareness that actually leads to conversions. |
| 4. Optimisation | Monitor your Cost Per Paid Subscription (your CPA) relentlessly. Compare it to your affordable CPA target. Turn off ads and audiences that are not profitable. Double down on what works. | Constant optimisation is the key to profitability. The goal isn't cheap installs; it's profitable growth. This data-driven process is what seperates successful apps from failed projects. |
Doing all of this correctly involves a steep learning curve, from navigating the intricacies of each ad platform to writing compelling copy and analysing the data effectively. It is absolutly something you can learn to do yourself, but it will involve a lot of trial and error, and potentially wasted ad spend along the way.
Often, working with an expert who has been down this road many times before can massively accelerate the process and help you avoid those costly early mistakes. We live and breathe this stuff every day, and we've run successfull campaigns for many apps and software businesses.
If you'd like to chat through this in more detail, I'd be happy to offer you a free, no-obligation 20-minute strategy session where we can look at your specific situation and map out a more detailed plan. It could be really beneficial to get a second pair of expert eyes on it.
Hope this helps give you a clearer picture!
Regards,
Team @ Lukas Holschuh
