Sniffies is an oddball. It's a B2C dating app with millions of users in the United States - and it got there without having mobile apps. It took on a niche that competitors like Grindr and Scruff left out - focused on nudity, anonymity, and no strings attached hookups. And even though people raise eyebrows when you first describe Sniffies to them, the truth is simple - the market wants it.
First - what's Sniffies?
It's one of the top gay hookup apps on the market, with millions of users. Its presence in the U.S. is gigantic.
Users love it for its map-based, anonymous approach to dating.
My goals for this project were:
- Increase # of new customers;
- Increase # of active users.
They had ads running, but with lots of potential yet to explore
Paid Media was crucial for Sniffies to go from early-stage, non-scalable acquisition to millions of users. But you can only go so far without specialized advertising work.
Their main acquisition channel - alternative display networks - was working, but not as efficiently as it could be. Campaigns lacked specificity - a key ingredient to make ads stand out and convert. On top of that, they needed help in launching in foreign English-speaking markets.
In short, they needed someone who understood how to make people click and could keep tabs on hundreds of thousands of dollars in ad spend.
How I solved it
Work started with two introductory workshops. These were long but crucial to get up to speed on the business, the brand, and the current paid media efforts.
I started off by identifying where ad spend was going, what campaigns were contributing to the main conversion objectives (signups and upgrades), and prioritizing experiments. There were new ad placements to test and changes to be made to the existing campaigns, both on the creatives used and the campaign structure.
In the first months, I launched experiments quickly, validating many assumptions and the potential of new strategies. And after this initial rapid-fire phase, I was confident in selecting a winning paid media combo.
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The outcome
Sniffies grew - a lot. We're talking about double-digit growth month over month. The business impact was clear, with more signups and more revenue flowing in. "But of course, if you spend more you'll also earn more", you say. Well, we indeed spent more with Sniffies - but after some initial volatility, we managed to decrease the cost per user and upgrade, meaning campaigns are now more efficient.
I'm an independent Growth Marketer with actual skin in the game. If you want to learn more, click here.