Summary
Highlights
The story begins with the creator already earning 5,000€ per month from his mobile application. While this was a good income, he realized that after taxes and advertising costs, the net profit was significantly lower (around 2,000-2,500€). He also felt unfulfilled and believed he had more potential, leading him to set a new audacious goal: 30,000€ per month.
Initially, the creator immersed himself in strategic planning, reading books, and analyzing data, but he soon realized he was getting nowhere. A conversation with a more experienced friend provided a reality check. His friend simply suggested increasing ad spending since the current campaigns were profitable. This made him realize he was procrastinating, driven by both ignorance and fear of taking action.
After the realization, he decided to increase his ad budget. However, this immediately led to a drop in profitability. He discovered a crucial, yet rarely discussed, technical aspect in mobile app marketing: attribution. Attribution is identifying where users come from. Correct attribution allows advertising platforms like TikTok to optimize for users most likely to convert, but it's a notoriously complex and frustrating issue to set up correctly, especially with Apple's privacy changes.
After much struggle and consulting with other developers (who also found attribution challenging), he finally managed to solve the attribution problem. Before massively increasing ad spending, he decided to further optimize his application. He launched a complete redesign with a new mascot, improved visual style, and re-worked the onboarding process to increase conversion rates.
With attribution fixed and the app improved, he re-launched ad campaigns, increasing the budget by 20% every three days as long as it remained profitable. This strategy worked incredibly well, with returns sometimes reaching 4-5€ for every 1€ spent. He reached 1,000€ in daily revenue, putting him on track for 30,000€ monthly. However, profitability suddenly dropped, and the constant stress and focus on numbers led to burnout, making the project no longer enjoyable.
The creator then reveals the actual financial figures. In October, after implementing attribution and design updates, revenue jumped to 12,443€ (8,813€ net). In November, it peaked at 25,656€ (18,173€ net), just shy of the 30,000€ goal. December saw a slight decline in revenue and profitability due to increased ad spending and decreased efficiency, ending at 22,934€ (16,117€ net). He concludes by setting a new 3-month challenge: 100,000€ monthly revenue with 30,000€ monthly profit, driven by passion and personal growth rather than just money.