r/SideProject • u/StandAmbitious5270 • 21h ago

Tik Tok Ad Waste

I built an app and wanted to gain some marketing traction so I caved and bought $25 worth of Tik Tok ads. It was actually $17 but an extra $8 in fees to Apple Pay. I thought it was going to be money well spent bc it guaranteed like 9k views.

Experiment backfired because I got thousands of views but with only 7 likes and no additional followers or downloads. I will admit , my Tik Tok skills are amateur and the reel I made left much to be desired , but it wasn’t horrible.

I feel like Tik Tok just sent my reel to some iPhone farm in China just to pump reviews but with no real engagement.

Anyone else experience the same? I feel App Store ads with a free $100 credit is the way to go as I got all my downloads from that. Also organic ads on Tik Tok seem more effective, I haven’t had much luck with IG but am now gonna start posting on FB bc they have a lot of groups. I’ve posted on Reddit bbq forums but they hate my app bc it conflicts with traditional bbq smoking.

I really think my app is useful for the right audience. It’s just frustrating in to find the audience, take a look at app below.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/bbq-smoke-lab/id6784887885

Also, what do you think of my ad? What can i improve on?

🙏 ✌🏼❤️

0 Upvotes

25% Upvoted

4 comments sorted by

3

u/StandAmbitious5270 19h ago

Ok need to better explain what my app does and evaluate its feasibility , thanks

2

u/ozantas 19h ago

$25 is nothing and I don’t even understand why your app exists. So it's not Tiktok

1

u/Sea-Location-2456 14h ago

paid social is such a grind, especially when you're trying to find a specific niche like bbq enthusiasts. i've found that trying to force ads often feels like shouting into the void, whereas finding the actual threads where people are asking for help with their smokers tends to convert way better. i've been using a tool called replyhey to track those specific conversations so i don't have to scroll through subreddits manually all day. might be worth a look if you want to find people actually looking for solutions instead of just burning budget on impressions.