I Launched My First App 5 Months Ago and Make $700,000/yr ( Full Guide )

I launched my first app 5.5 months ago.

I just turned 19 and I've launched 2 apps so far.

→ 1 is on pace to hit $100K/month this month → the other one I just exited for $30K

I'm going to walk you guys through exactly how to make serious money from your apps.

and I'm sharing all the sauce below. Like the real sauce not some BS.

and keep in mind:

→ I never A/B tested pricing until 1.5 months ago → didn't even know what a Claude terminal was until a month ago → didn't go to college → never used GitHub until like a month ago → never had any previous online business or money making experience

if I can do it, so can you.

my first app, launched nearly 5 months ago,is now doing $2K/day consistently, running at 45% margins

my other app was in the sports niche and was doing $6K/month, at 95% profit margins.

TRUST ME I KNOW THE SAUCE.

and I did this all at 18.

So here's exactly how.

1. Have to find the right idea

The easiest way to find an app idea is to literally scroll on X or TikTok and look for viral apps that are killing it right now.

A lot of founders on X are super transparent about their apps and share their revenue and analytics publicly. If one of them is clearly blowing up, copy it lol.

The demand is already proven.

If you don't want to do that, you can also pick an app in one of the niches below. These are the niches most killing it right now:

Once you find one, head over to Sensor Tower and look up the niche.

(not a 100% accurate stat, but it can give you an idea)

The rule:

if other apps in that niche are consistently doing over $10K/month,

then that's where you want to build. Follow whats already working.

The key here when choosing the right niche is to find a niche thats not overly saturated, but also an empty niche thats not making money.

You have to hit the sweet spot.

2. Building the app ( SO EASY )

It's literally, not even joking, never been easier to develop and build a fully functional app.

and it's only getting easier.

if you have an IQ of over 30, you can build an app and launch it.

AI makes it so easy.

My stack:

→ Claude Code or Rork to build it (100% recommend Rork if you don't have any experience) → Supabase for authentication → RevenueCat for subscriptions

I would prefer to build in Expo so later you're able to upload to Android + iOS.

Would recommend RORK if your completely new to vibe coding.

The prompt

For building it originally, just type this into ChatGPT:

"I'm looking to build an app that( YOUR APP IDEA AND WHAT YOU WHAT IN IT ) give me a detailed master prompt to send to Rork to build me a fully functional app that is ready to go for this app( YOUR APP IDEA) "

Then copy the prompt into your software.

that's it.

Its not going to make it perfect but from then you can always send more prompt to get it excatly how you want.

MAKE SURE TO NOT OVERLY OBSESS OVER THE PRODUCT IN THE BEGINNING, JUTS GET IT INTO THE APP STORE MAKING $$$ AND THEN LATER ON MAKE THE PRODUCT CRACKED.

3. Rip the onboarding and the pricing( COPY )

Once you have an app productand style that you like,

Stop trying to reinvent your onboarding.

Go through your best competitors onboarding step by step and copy the structure almost exactly. Don't get fancy. Don't come up with your own thing.

They've already spent the money testing what converts. Use it.

Here's the highest converting onboarding flow right now 👇

The onboarding is 70% of the app.

it's what actually makes downloads convert into paying users.

if your onboarding sucks, nobody will pay for your app.

and if your competitors are making over $10K/mo, it means their onboarding is proven to work.

The main purpose of the onboarding is to:

→ SELL THE FEELING OF WHO THEY WILL BECOME AFTER THEY BUY YOUR APP. FOCUS ON SELLING THE TRANSFORMATION, NOT THE FEATURES.

Even small things matter. Your paywall title shouldn't say:

❌ "Buy the subscription to get access"

It should say:

✅ "Lino, in 30 days you'll be unrecognizable"

Same paywall. Completely different feeling.

When I say copy the onboarding, I don't mean literally copy it.

I mean mostly the structure they follow.

You can make the onboarding in your own style and definitely make the actual inside of the app original, but starting off, it's key that you build the onboarding based on validated data that your competitors have already gathered.

THE PAYWALL

Once your onboarding is done,

add a hard, unskippable paywall at the end. NEVER DO FREE TRIALS or at least 90% of the time dont.

→ force users to pay upfront

this has been tested time and time again,

And don't overthink your pricing either. Use the exact same pricing structure your competitors are using.

or aswell The default across almost every niche right now is :

(Option 1) $9.99/month with $49.99/year (Option 2) $11.99/month with $34.99/year

The Goal is to push users towards the yearly for more Upfront LTV.

4. App Store setup

Get a clean App Store setup and don't try to overdo it.

ASO matters a lot more than you think, its the users first impression and can create a Halo effect when downloading your app.

Here are some good examples below:

→ super clean → bold headlines → super readable

5. Marketing the app( THE FUN PART)

Study your competitors first

Go onto the Meta Ad Library, look up your competitors' apps, and sort impressions from high to low.

then recreate their ads with the highest impressions.

(if they have high impressions, it means they're spending a lot on it,

which means it's most likely profitable)

This is just to get an idea of how to market your app. See what ads they're running, what creative styles they're using, and who they're targeting.

You have to understand your target customer before you start marketing if you want to be successful.

NOW You Have an idea on who your Target audience is and somewhat Idea how to market this product.

There's a bunch of different marketing channels/strats you can use, so I'm going to break down the big 3 that have performed best for me

and are the best in the app space right now.

1: UGC campaigns

Step 1: Finding influencers

Go onto Instagram and look up keywords in your niche.

Then DM creators who fit this criteria:

→ 5K–100K followers → Consistently over 5K views per video → Loyal comment section → Shows their face → Bonus if they're attractive

big influencers are extremely costly and hard to work with so tyr to avoid antyhtign over 150K followers and they rarely convert.

Step 2: The DM

Then I would send them this exact script:

PAID PROMO! Hey, we just launched [App Name] and love your content. We would love if you can promote it on your page. LMK if your interested.

Always lead with "PAID PROMO." Creators get tons of DMs asking for free stuff, so this gets yours opened.

influencers get so many DMs and only really read the first words.

"paid promo" will grab their attention.

BTW make sure to never close any of these creators on DMS, try to get all of them on a google meet call.

Step 3: The deal

Use one of these structures:

→ CPM basis: which I will always recommend, especially if you're just starting. $1.50–$3 is the sweet spot. do not go above this.

→ Monthly Retainer + view bonuses: another deal structure influencers would be more down for. Something around $400–$800 a month alongside view bonuses for each video. so +$100 at 100K views, +$300 at 500K, etc.

Step 4: Scale it

Cycle this process until you're consistently at around

10–15 creators, each posting 1–3 times a week.

When running this, make sure:

→ they are tagging your app in the bio → they send you the video before posting so you can confirm it

don't use contracts if the influencer doesn't want to.

it creates so much friction and will lead to many deals not closing.

Or you can manage the campgain through platforms like sideshift or trybe so its all in the one place ( Not a Promo)

Marketing Channel 2: Clipping

This is the one I personally recommend.

it's literally the easiest marketing channel to start and the least time-consuming. All you do is partner with a agency and have them source/manage clippers for you and then each part like 2-3 times a day.

When I say clipping I mean faceless creators creating TikTok slideshows promoting my app. Posting this kind of content below.

here's exactly how to set it up.

1st, again, you have to test out different formats personally before putting money behind it

I drop all of the sauce.

Step 1: The images for slideshows

Go onto Pinterest and look up your app niche + aesthetic.

so for example, if you're building a baseball app, you would look up "baseball aesthetic."

then download 5 images that all share the same vibe and look clean.

Step 2: The hook

The hook is so important.

I would use one of these hooks. they work for almost any niche:

→ "5 reasons why..." → "Here's exactly how..." → "5 ways to improve..."

Step 3: The slides

Go into ChatGPT and paste this:

"I'm creating a TT slideshow, give me 5 slides for this hook( YOUR HOOK )and make it less than 20 words each and actual info."

Paste each bullet into the slides.

Step 4: The CTA

On the 4th slide, include the CTA.

→ include the app's logo → include 2 screenshots → keep it super subtle so it integrates

Step 5: Test

Start posting around 2–3 of these a day, testing all different hooks, styles, and CTAs.

THIS IS WHAT THE FINAL PRODUCT SHOULD LOOK SIMILIAR TO:

Step 6: Scale with an agency

After around 7 days, posting by yourself is only gonna get you so far, so I would partner up with a clipping agency

where they can mass-produce these TikTok slideshows for you.

I personally use @contentrewards ** **and work with an agency directly in there. I tested campaigns and all different platforms and have found this one to be the most profitable.

speak to the agencies there,

and provide them with your winning formats

that have proven to work for you personally.the agency handles all the creators and everything.

you just give them the capital, they do the rest.

The CPMS should be around $ .70 - $1.2 if you anat to maintain profitability.

The results:

I ran a clipping campaign for my last app using the exact format above

→ spent $200 → got $5.1K in revenue in return

it's OP if done correctly.

With @ContentRewards I litteraly spend like 10 minutes a week running this campaign and we currently running at 3X ROAS Right now lol, clipping is the new wave of marketing and not many people know about it.

Marketing Channel 3: Equity influencer partnerships ( BY FAR THE EASIEST)

This one is probably the easiest,

and it's a bonus to marketing channel 1 or 2.

Partner with a huge influencer already in your space

in return for equity.

they have a certain amount of deliverables per month.

for example:

→ "3 posts per month and 2 stories" → in return for 25% equity

this is so easy to get the ground running off the start

and get the name out there.

this is not meant to be the main marketing channel.

it's basically an addition to whatever you're doing right now.

MOST INFLUENCERS WANT EQUITY.

remember that.

I personally partnered up with a fitness influencer who has 300K followers and he helped us get going off the start and aswell easier to work with other creators because hes the face of it. This led to us generating us over 2K In revenue the first week just fork him posting.

6. Running paid ads ( Where the real $$$ Comes)

Almost Every $100K+/month app scales mainly through paid ads.

like 98% of them do.

it's the most sustainable and scalable channel, and it stays that way with the right setup.

However make sure to set up an MMP

Before you spend a single dollar on ads, make sure you set up an MMP (mobile measurement partner) for better tracking ( THIS IS A MUST )

Without one, you're basically guessing. I personally use AppsFlyer.

Step 1: Test

Take all your existing creatives and throw them into a testing campaign on TikTok and Meta.

(yes, make sure to do both, not just one)

→ run them at around $50–$100 a day. I personally would recommend ABO

never go below this, or else it's a waste of time.

Step 2: Find the winners

Test these creatives for 7 days.

after 7 days, move the winners into a new campaign group

where all the winning creatives are.

How to tell what a winning ad is: if paying customer LTV is 1.2–2x your CPA.

for example:

→ CPA is $12 → our app's average LTV is $25 → winning ad.

Step 3: Scale

Move all of them into the new campaign and scale these every 3 days by 20% of the budget, as long as the campaign holds at 1.6x ROAS or above.

keep scaling and don't be afraid to spend.

Heres Cracked Article setting up your ads that goes more in depth 👇

嵌入推文（联网查看）

Step 4: Keep testing

TikTok ads fatigue a lot quicker than Meta,

so make sure you are testing new creatives weekly or even daily.

if your creatives start to fatigue and CPAs keep rising:

→ test new formats and angles → or target a different audience or country

you have to be able to pivot in this game if you want to succeed.

HERE ARE SOME KEY METRICS FOR YOUR APP

Here are the main metrics you should look at

to see if your app stats look healthy:

→ Download to paid: above 5% → Average customer LTV: $15–$30 → ARPU: above $1.10

5 months ago I had 0 apps.

now Im on pace for $100K/month and one exit under my belt and Im only getting started.

the ones that take action now are the ones who win.

JOIN THE APP GOLDRUSH RIGHT NOW OR GETE LEFT BEHIND. YOUR CHOICE.

HOPE YOU GUYS CAN TAKE THIS ADVICE AND ACTUALLY IMPLEMENT IT.