u/Medium-University219

Hey guys I'm Rachel . I'm a developer. I enjoy building products, but I've always been terrible at consistently marketing them .

I'd launch something, post about it for a few days, then disappear for weeks because I'd rather spend my time coding.

So a while ago, I built a small internal tool to solve this for myself.

I gave it context about my product, automated most of the repetitive work around creating posts, and started using it to consistently put content out instead of manually figuring out what to post every day.

At first, nothing crazy happened.

Some posts got a few thousand views. Some barely got any.

But because the whole process was automated, I didn't really care. I just kept it running and focused on building.

Then one of the posts took off.

It eventually got close to 1M views and, more importantly, brought in around $1,000 in revenue for my product.

That was the moment I started looking at this little internal tool differently.

I originally built it because I was lazy about marketing and wanted something for myself. But after seeing it actually produce results, I started wondering how many other developers have the exact same problem.

So recently I've been cleaning it up and turning it into something other devs can use too.

Still early, but it's probably the most useful thing I've built completely by accident.

Here is the product if you want to try it - https://slizo.io

Here is the slideshow that got viral - https://www.tiktok.com/@matt.loves.me/photo/7646781936299461919

Hi guys, I’m Rachel. I’ve built 3 apps, and somehow I ended up building a fourth one just to market the other three.

The problem was TikTok. I knew it could bring users to my apps, but I hated everything that came with it. Coming up with content every day, finding new hooks, making slideshows, posting consistently and then doing the exact same thing again tomorrow. I wanted the results, but I didn't want another job managing a TikTok account.

So I decided to automate it.

I built Slizo — you basically give it your product URL, choose how often you want to post, and it handles the TikTok workflow for you. It creates different slideshow formats around your product, uses hooks designed to get people to stop scrolling, and automatically posts them according to your schedule.

I started using it for my own apps first. The idea was that I could set everything up once and then let TikTok keep running in the background while I focused on actually building my products.

And that's how I ended up in this slightly ridiculous situation where I built a SaaS to promote my SaaS...

I'm not sure if that's good marketing or just peak laziness, but it's working well enough that I decided to let other founders try it too.

​

A few months ago I was trying to figure out how the hell people actually get attention for their apps.

I didn't have a big audience and I didn't really want to spend a bunch of money on ads.

So I started posting TikToks.

At first I was just making normal videos showing the app.

And yeah... nobody cared 😂

Then I tried something different.

I started taking 100s of reaction clips and asked claude to combine them with a demo of my app along with a viral hook .

Basically the video would start with a reaction that was interesting enough to stop someone from scrolling, and then I'd smoothly bring the app into the video.

It didn't feel like an ad.

It was just a piece of content where the app happened to be part of it.

The first few videos were nothing special.

A few hundred views here and there.

Then one started getting some traction.

Then another.

Eventually some videos started hitting 10k, 50k, 100k+ views.

And the interesting part was that the people coming from these videos were actually signing up and using the app.

I ended up creating a bunch of variations instead of trying to make one “perfect” video.

Different reactions, different hooks, different app features, different edits.

Some were complete failures 😂

But once I found a format that worked, I just kept making variations of it.

The biggest thing I learned is that you don't necessarily need to make an ad to advertise your app.

You can make content people actually want to watch and sneak the product into the content naturally.

I've been doing this completely organically, no paid ads.

Still experimenting with it, but it's probably been one of the better growth experiments I've tried so far.

Here is my account - the girl in the video is not me , I just bought these reaction clip .

https://www.tiktok.com/@haileylovesss15

Around 4 months ago my app was barely getting any users.

I kept reading "build in public", "SEO", "Product Hunt", "Reddit marketing"... tried a bit of everything but nothing really moved the needle.

Then one random TikTok crossed 1M+ views and then few more videos got viral

That single video brought more users than everything else I had done combined.

Since then I stopped thinking like a founder and started thinking like a content creator.

Here's what I do now.

I record my app doing one tiny thing (usually 6-10 seconds).

I download 100s of reaction-style UGC clips that fit different emotions (confused, shocked, impressed, etc.).

I pair the app recording with a matching reaction and add a simple hook like:

"This app saved me 4 hours."

"I wish I found this sooner."

"This feels illegal."

Every video is slightly different. Different hook, different reaction, different ending.

I post 1-2 videos every day instead of trying to make one "perfect" video.

That's literally it.

No expensive production. No influencers. No ad spend.

Just lots of iterations until one catches the algorithm.

Today the app is doing a little over $3k MRR, and almost all new users still come from short-form videos.

Proof: https://www.tiktok.com/@cookedby.sarah

The biggest thing I learned is that distribution matters way more than polishing features.

You don't need a viral app.

You need a viral video about your app.

I always heard Reddit ads were a waste of money.

Finally decided to try them myself.

At first I made the same mistake everyone does. I wrote actual ads.

Then I spent some time just reading posts in the subreddits I wanted to target and rewrote everything to sound like a normal Reddit post. No fancy designs or marketing copy. Just a screenshot and straight-up text.

I started with a $50 budget and didn't even set a daily spending limit. I just wanted to see what would happen.

Ended up making around $500 back.

Around 200 people signed up and 34 of them bought premium, which honestly surprised me. The conversion rate was much better than I expected.

One thing I think people ignore is that ads can only do so much. If your product actually solves a problem, has a premium-looking UI, and gives people a good first impression, your conversions will naturally be much better. Good ads might get the click, but the product is what gets the sale.

Definitely not saying this will work for everyone, but I judged Reddit ads way too early.

[deleted]

​

A few months ago, I started sharing my journey of building and scaling my apps. One thing became painfully obvious: influencer marketing was eating a huge chunk of my revenue. For many indie developers, spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on creators just isn't sustainable.

So instead of paying influencers, I built a small SaaS for myself that gives me access to hundreds of UGC reaction clips (shocked, crying, laughing, etc.) that I can combine with my app demos to create short-form content.

That simple idea completely changed how I market my apps.

Today I spend $0 on ads and $0 on influencer marketing. I use 3 old phones running 18 Instagram and TikTok accounts, and together they generate 100k+ views every week. That system helped one of my apps reach $600 MRR, and now the tool I built to solve this problem has also crossed $850 in revenue.

A few days ago, I shared the exact workflow I use—from managing multiple accounts to creating videos that consistently get views. I didn't expect that post to get so much love. A lot of people found it useful, and the discussions in the comments were genuinely interesting.

Thanks again to everyone who's been following along

I launched my app about 3 months ago, but I'd been quietly distributing it long before the official launch.

Then on July 2, one TikTok completely changed everything.

It went viral, and weeks later it's still bringing in new users every single day.

That pushed me to spend a lot of time reverse-engineering how apps like Alarmy, Cal AI, and Recime consistently rack up millions of views on TikTok and Instagram Reels.

After studying dozens of their videos, this is the workflow I noticed over and over again:

1. Create a fresh TikTok/Instagram account

Start with a dedicated account for the app instead of mixing it with your personal profile.

2. Build a library of UGC reactions

Download hundreds of reaction clips from marketplaces like DansUGC or ugcbundle.com. Organize them by emotion—shocked, excited, crying, confused, impressed, etc. Having a large library makes every video feel different.

3. Record your app in short clips

Screen record your app and cut everything into 8–10 second highlights. Show only the most interesting moment or feature—don't explain the entire app.

4. Keep everything organized

Create folders for:

- UGC reactions

- App screen recordings

- Hooks

- Music

- Viral captions

Good organization makes it easy to create dozens of videos without starting from scratch.

5. Let AI edit the videos

Use Claude, Codex, or another AI coding assistant to automatically:

- Pick a random UGC reaction.

- Overlay a strong hook like "This app feels ILLEGAL" or "I wish I knew this sooner."

- Place your app recording beside or after the reaction.

- Export a new variation every time.

This lets you produce lots of unique videos in minutes instead of hours.

6. Warm up the account

Don't immediately spam uploads. Spend 3–4 days interacting with content in your niche, watching videos, liking posts, and behaving like a normal user before posting consistently.

7. Stay consistent

Post 1–2 videos every day, ideally during the hours when your target audience is online (for me, that's US time). Most videos won't explode—but you only need one or two winners to change everything.

The biggest lesson I learned is that viral growth isn't just luck. It's mostly about creating enough high-quality variations until one resonates with the algorithm.

I'd love to hear if anyone else has found similar patterns or has other TikTok growth strategies that have worked for their apps.

I launched my app 3 month ago but I started distributing way earlier.

On 2nd July one of my video got viral on tiktok and it's still giving me customers .

I researched a lot of these apps that goes viral on tiktok

This is the exact step that viral apps are using like alarmy , calai , recime to get millions of views on tiktok

1. Create a tiktok/insta account

2- Download 100s of UGC reaction clips from apps like dansugc or ugcbundle.com .

3- Record a video of your app showing how the app works, cut it shortly to 8-10s clips.

4- Organize all of these footage files into folders.

5- Ask Claude/Codex to overlay text over the UGC clips and automatically stitch a random reaction + the screen recording of your app.

Eg - "This website feels ILEGAL". with a surprised reaction of the UGC girl.

6- warm up your account for 3-4 days .

7- Daily post 1-2 videos at US timing if you are targeting US audience