u/vkjr

Almost 2 weeks since I launched my first SaaS. First customer came immediately but second one only today. So I hope it is not an accident and momentum will continue to build up 📈

My product background:
Three months ago I published a mobile app and had no idea how to get customers. After the spike created by my friends downloads totally flatted out. So I started to play with tiktok account and literally tried everything (except ai characters). But no one gave a sh*t about my "founder story" or "build in public" content. And it is quite understandable - my target audience are dancers and they watch only other dancers dancing.
But after a few weeks I noticed that few photo-carousels (dance-related) still get some views while all other videos with app showcasing are dead.

It appeared that tiktok indexes text on carousels and they appear in search a week after publishing. So I decided to double-down on this strategy and build a tool that creates tiktok carousels. So it is literally a long-tail SEO strategy that we know from web.
Main distinction - I didn't care about hook, I didn't generate pure AI content. Instead I did a deep research on what search queries my audience uses. Also I harvested tons of valuable dance advices from real dancers on reddit.
And built my personal tool that generates carousels for particular search queries and answers them with real valuable advices.
Today, after 2 months and few days my tiktok account got:
- 2448 followers (from 0)
- 2.2M views
- 730K views on top post.
And 72% of views are from search! No virality. Top post has 92% search volume.
And that brings around 30 to 50 downloads for my app per day. Not that bad for very lowkey efforts.

So I decided to make my tool public to help other solo developers promote their products.
The coolest feature that I introduced recently is a possibility to specify your product and generate carousels that automatically include subtle advertisement of it! But ads are included only to posts where it logically fits and where your product is an answer to audience pain.

And the coolest thing - this approach can be even without my tool. All you need is to make a very good research about your audience - what they search for, what helpful tips you can provide.

Of course I'm kinda promoting my product here but I also want to share my insight about seo-approach to tiktok, so you can implement it for your products.

If you have any questions on the method - please feel free to ask, would be glad to discuss and share my findings!

Almost 2 weeks since I launched my first SaaS. First customer came immediately but second one only today. So I hope it is not an accident and momentum will continue to build up 📈

My product background:
Three months ago I published a mobile app and had no idea how to get customers. After the spike created by my friends downloads totally flatted out. So I started to play with tiktok account and literally tried everything (except ai characters). But no one gave a sh*t about my "founder story" or "build in public" content. And it is quite understandable - my target audience are dancers and they watch only other dancers dancing.
But after a few weeks I noticed that few photo-carousels (dance-related) still get some views while all other videos with app showcasing are dead.

It appeared that tiktok indexes text on carousels and they appear in search a week after publishing. So I decided to double-down on this strategy and build a tool that creates tiktok carousels. So it is literally a long-tail SEO strategy that we know from web.
Main distinction - I didn't care about hook, I didn't generate pure AI content. Instead I did a deep research on what search queries my audience uses. Also I harvested tons of valuable dance advices from real dancers on reddit.
And built my personal tool that generates carousels for particular search queries and answers them with real valuable advices.
Today, after 2 months and few days my tiktok account got:
- 2448 followers (from 0)
- 2.2M views
- 730K views on top post.
And 72% of views are from search! No virality. Top post has 92% search volume.
And that brings around 30 to 50 downloads for my app per day. Not that bad for very lowkey efforts.

So I decided to make my tool public to help other solo developers promote their products.
The coolest feature that I introduced recently is a possibility to specify your product and generate carousels that automatically include subtle advertisement of it! But ads are included only to posts where it logically fits and where your product is an answer to audience pain.

And the coolest thing - this approach can be even without my tool. All you need is to make a very good research about your audience - what they search for, what helpful tips you can provide.

Of course I'm kinda promoting my product here but I also want to share my insight about seo-approach to tiktok, so you can implement it for your products.

If you have any questions on the method - please feel free to ask, would be glad to discuss and share my findings!

I'm not professionally related to marketing, I'm a software engineer. And recently I used carousel-based tiktok account to get users for my mobile app.
For my experiment tiktok carousels worked fine but key finding was that tiktok search engine indexes posts a week after publishing and they start to appear on search. That changes approach - instead of figuring out hooks - I optimize carousels for search queries of my target audience. So it is basically a long-tail SEO approach that is usually implemented on web. And I do not optimize for virality at all.

My digits after 2 months of posting 3 times a day are following:

Target audience: dancers
Followers: 2386

Total views: 2.2M

Total likes: 63K

Traffic sources: 72% from search, 27% from fyp

Best performing carousel: 710K views, 92% views from search.

As a software engineer I made an own tool for carousels production which built around idea of posts search optimization.
Initially I planned to position it as a tool for solofounders that helps bring users to their products.

But if you are from marketing, could you please tell me if your job includes carousel creating and do you make a lot of them? Or maybe you do not find them useful for marketing?
Thanks 🤝

Disclaimer: I'm not a SMM professional, but I think that my approach to carousels can be of interest to you.

So I'm a solo dev bootstrapping a small mobile app on the side. Earlier this year I shipped an iOS dance app and launched it to silence - downloads only from friends.

Of course I watched a lot of "TikTok will save your app" content. Two paths were offered: pay UGC creators ($$$) or be on camera.

But I noticed something during my own TikTok experiments: my video posts died immediately, while my carousels (of terrible quality) kept earning views weeks after posting. The reason - TikTok search was indexing them. Old posts kept surfacing for queries people typed weeks later. So it is basically a long tail SEO approach.

So I doubled down on carousels. Two months in, my TikTok account has:

- 1.6M total views

- 1,900 followers (started from 0)

- 550K on the best post

- ~45K views/day still rolling from old posts

That brings around 30-50 downloads per day. Not a huge deal, but enough to gather analytics and continue with app improvements. Without paid ads, without UGC creators, without me on camera.

Here's the 5-stage method I run:

1. Seed - I search "<niche> tips" on Reddit/X/forums and save the comments. I feed the pile to an AI and ask it to extract two things: queries (recurring subtopics people search for) and bits of knowledge (real tips, deduped) into two files.
2. Expand - I cluster the Knowledge Base by subtopic. Then I search cluster-by-cluster to deepen each one. Both files keep growing with every pass.
3. Visual research - I watch carousels in my niche to identify recurring background styles. I use AI image tools to edit reference images - remove text, swap details - while keeping the native niche feel.
4. Production - for each query, I generate a 5-7-slide carousel from the KB. Structure: hook (the query as a question) + 3-5 bits of knowledge + CTA.
5. And finally product placement - one slide per carousel, woven into the style. I don't force every post to advertise.

Recently I wrote the whole method up as a 10-page playbook with examples and prompt templates. Put it on my site - free. Sharing in case you will find it useful.
update: I put a link to playbook initially, but post was rejected, so I'm leaving it out.

Happy to answer questions about the TikTok side or how to apply this to your product.

full disclosure: I also launched a saas around this method and the playbook mentions it. But the method itself is totally independent from the tools and you can replicate it on your own.

1. Do not post on fresh account - warm it up, plenty of info on how to do it available.
2. Do not post more than 3 times a day. When starting I’d suggest to go 1 post a day for the first week, 2 posts a day for the second and 3 posts after. And continue to warmup account.
3. Do not delete posts you started to dislike - hide them.
4. Do not create an account with brand name, make it about your target audience,  not about your app.
5. Do not post “builder story” or “how I implemented…” unless your app audience is other builders. Otherwise nobody cares.
6. If you are under 1k followers, do not put a link to appstore in your profile bio - users won’t type it manually in the browser.
7. If you are above 1k followers, still do not put the link to appstore in your bio. It won’t be clickable, TikTok protects users from leaving the app.
8. Do not hope that link to your site will work. Users will click, TikTok will open internal browser with your landing, but appstore button on the landing won’t work anyway. TikTok browser still protects users from leaving. You need smarter approach - make special landing for tiktok browser. On that page show the arrow to the three dots in upper corner and instruction for users to open link in external browser. And make immediate auto-redirect to appstore on your landing.
9. Do not use texts like “download app in bio”, “use our app” on the carousels. TikTok scans slides for those and stops showing post on fyp page.
10. Do not make “download app” a main CTA. Make the screenshot of your app a part of story you tell in the carousel. Sooner or later viewers will ask in comments “what app it is”.
11. Do not put the screenshot of your app a last slide in the carousel. Small percentage of viewers will reach it. Make it second or third.

Good luck with TikTok! 📱

1. Do not post on fresh account - warm it up, plenty of info on how to do it available.
2. Do not post more than 3 times a day. When starting I’d suggest to go 1 post a day for the first week, 2 posts a day for the second and 3 posts after. And continue to warmup account.
3. Do not delete posts you started to dislike - hide them.
4. Do not create an account with brand name, make it about your target audience,  not about your app.
5. Do not post “builder story” or “how I implemented…” unless your app audience is other builders. Otherwise nobody cares.
6. If you are under 1k followers, do not put a link to appstore in your profile bio - users won’t type it manually in the browser.
7. If you are above 1k followers, still do not put the link to appstore in your bio. It won’t be clickable, TikTok protects users from leaving the app.
8. Do not hope that link to your site will work. Users will click, TikTok will open internal browser with your landing, but appstore button on the landing won’t work anyway. TikTok browser still protects users from leaving. You need smarter approach - make special landing for tiktok browser. On that page show the arrow to the three dots in upper corner and instruction for users to open link in external browser. And make immediate auto-redirect to appstore on your landing.
9. Do not use texts like “download app in bio”, “use our app” on the carousels. TikTok scans slides for those and stops showing post on fyp page.
10. Do not make “download app” a main CTA. Make the screenshot of your app a part of story you tell in the carousel. Sooner or later viewers will ask in comments “what app it is”.
11. Do not put the screenshot of your app a last slide in the carousel. Small percentage of viewers will reach it. Make it second or third.

Good luck with TikTok! 📱

1. Do not post on fresh account - warm it up, plenty of info on how to do it available.
2. Do not post more than 3 times a day. When starting I’d suggest to go 1 post a day for the first week, 2 posts a day for the second and 3 posts after. And continue to warmup account.
3. Do not delete posts you started to dislike - hide them.
4. Do not create an account with brand name, make it about your target audience,  not about your app.
5. Do not post “builder story” or “how I implemented…” unless your app audience is other builders. Otherwise nobody cares.
6. If you are under 1k followers, do not put a link to appstore in your profile bio - users won’t type it manually in the browser.
7. If you are above 1k followers, still do not put the link to appstore in your bio. It won’t be clickable, TikTok protects users from leaving the app.
8. Do not hope that link to your site will work. Users will click, TikTok will open internal browser with your landing, but appstore button on the landing won’t work anyway. TikTok browser still protects users from leaving. You need smarter approach - make special landing for tiktok browser. On that page show the arrow to the three dots in upper corner and instruction for users to open link in external browser. And make immediate auto-redirect to appstore on your landing.
9. Do not use texts like “download app in bio”, “use our app” on the carousels. TikTok scans slides for those and stops showing post on fyp page.
10. Do not make “download app” a main CTA. Make the screenshot of your app a part of story you tell in the carousel. Sooner or later viewers will ask in comments “what app it is”.
11. Do not put the screenshot of your app a last slide in the carousel. Small percentage of viewers will reach it. Make it second or third.

Good luck with TikTok! 📱

Disclaimer: my app is not a game, but I believe this post can be useful anyway.

1. Do not post on fresh account - warm it up, plenty of info on how to do it available.
2. Do not post more than 3 times a day. When starting I’d suggest to go 1 post a day for the first week, 2 posts a day for the second and 3 posts after. And continue to warmup account.
3. Do not delete posts you started to dislike - hide them.
4. Do not create an account with brand name, make it about your target audience,  not about your app.
5. Do not post “builder story” or “how I implemented…” unless your app audience is other builders. Otherwise nobody cares.
6. If you are under 1k followers, do not put a link to appstore in your profile bio - users won’t type it manually in the browser.
7. If you are above 1k followers, still do not put the link to appstore in your bio. It won’t be clickable, TikTok protects users from leaving the app.
8. Do not hope that link to your site will work. Users will click, TikTok will open internal browser with your landing, but appstore button on the landing won’t work anyway. TikTok browser still protects users from leaving. You need smarter approach - make special landing for tiktok browser. On that page show the arrow to the three dots in upper corner and instruction for users to open link in external browser. And make immediate auto-redirect to appstore on your landing.
9. Do not use texts like “download app in bio”, “use our app” on the carousels. TikTok scans slides for those and stops showing post on fyp page.
10. Do not make “download app” a main CTA. Make the screenshot of your app a part of story you tell in the carousel. Sooner or later viewers will ask in comments “what app it is”.
11. Do not put the screenshot of your app a last slide in the carousel. Small percentage of viewers will reach it. Make it second or third.

Hope you will find this useful. Let the downloads be with you ;)

I'm a solo dev bootstrapping a small mobile app on the side. Earlier this year I shipped an iOS dance app and launched it to silence - downloads only from friends.

Of course I watched a lot of "TikTok will save your app" content. Two paths were offered: pay UGC creators ($$$) or be on camera.

But I noticed something during my own TikTok experiments: my video posts died immediately, while my carousels (of terrible quality) kept earning views weeks after posting. The reason - TikTok search was indexing them. Old posts kept surfacing for queries people typed weeks later. So it is basically a long tail SEO approach.

So I doubled down on carousels. Two months in, my TikTok account has:

- 1.6M total views

- 1,900 followers (started from 0)

- 550K on the best post

- ~45K views/day still rolling from old posts

That brings around 30-50 downloads per day. Not a huge deal, but enough to gather analytics and continue with app improvements. Without paid ads, without UGC creators, without me on camera.

Here's the 5-stage method I run:

1. Seed - I search "<niche> tips" on Reddit/X/forums and save the comments. I feed the pile to an AI and ask it to extract two things: queries (recurring subtopics people search for) and bits of knowledge (real tips, deduped) into two files.
2. Expand - I cluster the Knowledge Base by subtopic. Then I search cluster-by-cluster to deepen each one. Both files keep growing with every pass.
3. Visual research - I watch carousels in my niche to identify recurring background styles. I use AI image tools to edit reference images - remove text, swap details - while keeping the native niche feel.
4. Production - for each query, I generate a 5-7-slide carousel from the KB. Structure: hook (the query as a question) + 3-5 bits of knowledge + CTA.
5. And finally product placement - one slide per carousel, woven into the style. I don't force every post to advertise.

Recently I wrote the whole method up as a 10-page playbook with examples and prompt templates. Put it on gumroad - free, no signup. Sharing in case you will find it useful.
update: I put a link to gumroad initially, but post was rejected, so I'm leaving it out.

Happy to answer questions about the TikTok side or how to apply this to your product.

full disclosure: I also launched a saas around this method and the playbook mentions it. But the method itself is totally independent from the tools and you can replicate it on your own.

I'm a solo dev bootstrapping a small mobile app on the side. Earlier this year I shipped an iOS dance app and launched it to silence - downloads only from friends.

Of course I watched a lot of "TikTok will save your app" content. Two paths were offered: pay UGC creators ($$$) or be on camera.

But I noticed something during my own TikTok experiments: my video posts died immediately, while my carousels (of terrible quality) kept earning views weeks after posting. The reason - TikTok search was indexing them. Old posts kept surfacing for queries people typed weeks later. So it is basically a long tail SEO approach.

So I doubled down on carousels. Two months in, my TikTok account has:

- 1.6M total views

- 1,900 followers (started from 0)

- 550K on the best post

- ~45K views/day still rolling from old posts

That brings around 30-50 downloads per day. Not a huge deal, but enough to gather analytics and continue with app improvements. Without paid ads, without UGC creators, without me on camera.

Here's the 5-stage method I run:

1. Seed - I search "<niche> tips" on Reddit/X/forums and save the comments. I feed the pile to an AI and ask it to extract two things: queries (recurring subtopics people search for) and bits of knowledge (real tips, deduped) into two files.
2. Expand - I cluster the Knowledge Base by subtopic. Then I search cluster-by-cluster to deepen each one. Both files keep growing with every pass.
3. Visual research - I watch carousels in my niche to identify recurring background styles. I use AI image tools to edit reference images - remove text, swap details - while keeping the native niche feel.
4. Production - for each query, I generate a 5-7-slide carousel from the KB. Structure: hook (the query as a question) + 3-5 bits of knowledge + CTA.
5. And finally product placement - one slide per carousel, woven into the style. I don't force every post to advertise.

Recently I wrote the whole method up as a 10-page playbook with examples and prompt templates. Put it on gumroad - free, no signup. Sharing in case you will find it useful.
update: I put a link to gumroad initially, but post was rejected, so I'm leaving it out.

Happy to answer questions about the TikTok side or how to apply this to your product.

full disclosure: I also launched a saas around this method and the playbook mentions it. But the method itself is totally independent from the tools and you can replicate it on your own.

I'm a solo dev bootstrapping a small mobile app on the side. Earlier this year I shipped an iOS dance app and launched it to silence - downloads only from friends.

Of course I watched a lot of "TikTok will save your app" content. Two paths were offered: pay UGC creators ($$$) or be on camera.

But I noticed something during my own TikTok experiments: my video posts died immediately, while my carousels (of terrible quality) kept earning views weeks after posting. The reason - TikTok search was indexing them. Old posts kept surfacing for queries people typed weeks later. So it is basically a long tail SEO approach.

So I doubled down on carousels. Two months in, my TikTok account has:

- 2M total views

- 2,189 followers (started from 0)

- 651K on the best post

- ~45K views/day still rolling from old posts

That brings around 30-50 downloads per day. Not a huge deal, but enough to gather analytics and continue with app improvements. Without paid ads, without UGC creators, without me on camera.

Here's the 5-stage method I run:

1. Seed - I search "<niche> tips" on Reddit/X/forums and save the comments. I feed the pile to an AI and ask it to extract two things: queries (recurring subtopics people search for) and bits of knowledge (real tips, deduped) into two files.
2. Expand - I cluster the Knowledge Base by subtopic. Then I search cluster-by-cluster to deepen each one. Both files keep growing with every pass.
3. Visual research - I watch carousels in my niche to identify recurring background styles. I use AI image tools to edit reference images - remove text, swap details - while keeping the native niche feel.
4. Production - for each query, I generate a 5-7-slide carousel from the KB. Structure: hook (the query as a question) + 3-5 bits of knowledge + CTA.
5. And finally product placement - one slide per carousel, woven into the style. I don't force every post to advertise.

Recently I wrote the whole method up as a 10-page playbook with examples and prompt templates. Put it on gumroad - free, no signup. Sharing in case you will find it useful.
update: I put a link to gumroad initially, but post was rejected, so I'm leaving it out.

Happy to answer questions about the TikTok side or how to apply this to your product.

full disclosure: I also launched a saas around this method and the playbook mentions it. But the method itself is totally independent from the tools and you can replicate it on your own.

1. Do not post on fresh account - warm it up, plenty of info on how to do it available.
2. Do not post more than 3 times a day. When starting I’d suggest to go 1 post a day for the first week, 2 posts a day for the second and 3 posts after. And continue to warmup account.
3. Do not delete posts you started to dislike - hide them.
4. Do not create an account with brand name, make it about your target audience,  not about your app.
5. Do not post “builder story” or “how I implemented…” unless your app audience is other builders. Otherwise nobody cares.
6. If you are under 1k followers, do not put a link to appstore in your profile bio - users won’t type it manually in the browser.
7. If you are above 1k followers, still do not put the link to appstore in your bio. It won’t be clickable, TikTok protects users from leaving the app.
8. Do not hope that link to your site will work. Users will click, TikTok will open internal browser with your landing, but appstore button on the landing won’t work anyway. TikTok browser still protects users from leaving. You need smarter approach - make special landing for tiktok browser. On that page show the arrow to the three dots in upper corner and instruction for users to open link in external browser. And make immediate auto-redirect to appstore on your landing.
9. Do not use texts like “download app in bio”, “use our app” on the carousels. TikTok scans slides for those and stops showing post on fyp page.
10. Do not make “download app” a main CTA. Make the screenshot of your app a part of story you tell in the carousel. Sooner or later viewers will ask in comments “what app it is”.
11. Do not put the screenshot of your app a last slide in the carousel. Small percentage of viewers will reach it. Make it second or third.

Hope you will find this useful. Let the downloads be with you ;)

1. Do not post on fresh account - warm it up, plenty of info on how to do it available.
2. Do not post more than 3 times a day. When starting I’d suggest to go 1 post a day for the first week, 2 posts a day for the second and 3 posts after. And continue to warmup account.
3. Do not delete posts you started to dislike - hide them.
4. Do not create an account with brand name, make it about your target audience,  not about your app.
5. Do not post “builder story” or “how I implemented…” unless your app audience is other builders. Otherwise nobody cares.
6. If you are under 1k followers, do not put a link to appstore in your profile bio - users won’t type it manually in the browser.
7. If you are above 1k followers, still do not put the link to appstore in your bio. It won’t be clickable, TikTok protects users from leaving the app.
8. Do not hope that link to your site will work. Users will click, TikTok will open internal browser with your landing, but appstore button on the landing won’t work anyway. TikTok browser still protects users from leaving. You need smarter approach - make special landing for tiktok browser. On that page show the arrow to the three dots in upper corner and instruction for users to open link in external browser. And make immediate auto-redirect to appstore on your landing.
9. Do not use texts like “download app in bio”, “use our app” on the carousels. TikTok scans slides for those and stops showing post on fyp page.
10. Do not make “download app” a main CTA. Make the screenshot of your app a part of story you tell in the carousel. Sooner or later viewers will ask in comments “what app it is”.
11. Do not put the screenshot of your app a last slide in the carousel. Small percentage of viewers will reach it. Make it second or third.

Hope you will find this useful. Let the downloads be with you ;)

1. Do not post on fresh account - warm it up, plenty of info on how to do it available.
2. Do not post more than 3 times a day. When starting I’d suggest to go 1 post a day for the first week, 2 posts a day for the second and 3 posts after. And continue to warmup account.
3. Do not delete posts you started to dislike - hide them.
4. Do not create an account with brand name, make it about your target audience,  not about your app.
5. Do not post “builder story” or “how I implemented…” unless your app audience is other builders. Otherwise nobody cares.
6. If you are under 1k followers, do not put a link to appstore in your profile bio - users won’t type it manually in the browser.
7. If you are above 1k followers, still do not put the link to appstore in your bio. It won’t be clickable, TikTok protects users from leaving the app.
8. Do not hope that link to your site will work. Users will click, TikTok will open internal browser with your landing, but appstore button on the landing won’t work anyway. TikTok browser still protects users from leaving. You need smarter approach - make special landing for tiktok browser. On that page show the arrow to the three dots in upper corner and instruction for users to open link in external browser. And make immediate auto-redirect to appstore on your landing.
9. Do not use texts like “download app in bio”, “use our app” on the carousels. TikTok scans slides for those and stops showing post on fyp page.
10. Do not make “download app” a main CTA. Make the screenshot of your app a part of story you tell in the carousel. Sooner or later viewers will ask in comments “what app it is”.
11. Do not put the screenshot of your app a last slide in the carousel. Small percentage of viewers will reach it. Make it second or third.

Hope you will find this useful. Let the downloads be with you ;)

1. Do not post on fresh account - warm it up, plenty of info on how to do it available.
2. Do not post more than 3 times a day. When starting I’d suggest to go 1 post a day for the first week, 2 posts a day for the second and 3 posts after. And continue to warmup account.
3. Do not delete posts you started to dislike - hide them.
4. Do not create an account with brand name, make it about your target audience,  not about your app.
5. Do not post “builder story” or “how I implemented…” unless your app audience is other builders. Otherwise nobody cares.
6. If you are under 1k followers, do not put a link to appstore in your profile bio - users won’t type it manually in the browser.
7. If you are above 1k followers, still do not put the link to appstore in your bio. It won’t be clickable, TikTok protects users from leaving the app.
8. Do not hope that link to your site will work. Users will click, TikTok will open internal browser with your landing, but appstore button on the landing won’t work anyway. TikTok browser still protects users from leaving. You need smarter approach - make special landing for tiktok browser. On that page show the arrow to the three dots in upper corner and instruction for users to open link in external browser. And make immediate auto-redirect to appstore on your landing.
9. Do not use texts like “download app in bio”, “use our app” on the carousels. TikTok scans slides for those and stops showing post on fyp page.
10. Do not make “download app” a main CTA. Make the screenshot of your app a part of story you tell in the carousel. Sooner or later viewers will ask in comments “what app it is”.
11. Do not put the screenshot of your app a last slide in the carousel. Small percentage of viewers will reach it. Make it second or third.

Hope you will find it useful. Let the downloads be with you ;)

Earlier this year I shipped an iOS app and launched it to silence - downloads only from friends.

Of course I watched a lot of "TikTok will save your app" content. Two paths were offered: pay UGC creators ($$$) or be on camera.

But I noticed something during my own TikTok experiments: my video posts died immediately, while my carousels (of terrible quality) kept earning views weeks after posting. The reason - TikTok search was indexing them. Old posts kept surfacing for queries people typed weeks later. So it is basically a long tail SEO approach.

So I doubled down on carousels. Two months in, my TikTok account has:

- 1.6M total views

- 1,933 followers (started from 0)

- 577K views on the best post

- ~45K views/day still rolling from old posts

That brings around 30-50 users per day. Not a huge deal, but enough to gather analytics and continue with app improvements.

Of course posting carousels 3 times per day is a very tedious manual task. I researched the space of AI-carousels, but most of them generate very generic AI-slop :(

So I implemented own SaaS that encourages thoughtful approach to SEO-optimized carousel creation to drive installs to your product. It uses AI to help with automation, not to produce generic slop content.

The main thing here is a 5-stage method that I run to manually prepare the content for your audience:

1. Seed - I search "<niche> tips" on Reddit/X/forums and save the comments. I feed the pile to an AI and ask it to extract two things: queries (recurring subtopics people search for) and bits of knowledge (real tips, deduped) into two files.
2. Expand - I cluster the Knowledge Base by subtopic. Then I search cluster-by-cluster to deepen each one. Both files keep growing with every pass.
3. Visual research - I watch carousels in my niche to identify recurring background styles. I use AI image tools to edit reference images - remove text, swap details - while keeping the native niche feel.
4. Production - for each query, I generate a 5-7-slide carousel from the KB. Structure: hook (the query as a question) + 3-5 bits of knowledge + CTA.
5. And finally product placement - one slide per carousel, woven into the style. I don't force every post to advertise.

Recently I wrote the whole method up as a 10-page playbook with examples and prompt templates. I think providing a link here wouldn't be appropriate, but the description above gives a good overview.

And today, 2 days after launch, I got my first paying user 🎉 I do not know why, but paying SaaS user brings me more joy than paid ios users) I think it is because AppStore creates a distance between you and people you service.

So yeah, want to share my joy with you and also hope that someone will find my method useful :)

I'm a solo dev bootstrapping a small mobile app on the side. Earlier this year I shipped an iOS dance app and launched it to silence - downloads only from friends.

Of course I watched a lot of "TikTok will save your app" content. Two paths were offered: pay UGC creators ($$$) or be on camera.

But I noticed something during my own TikTok experiments: my video posts died immediately, while my carousels (of terrible quality) kept earning views weeks after posting. The reason - TikTok search was indexing them. Old posts kept surfacing for queries people typed weeks later. So it is basically a long tail SEO approach.

So I doubled down on carousels. Two months in, my TikTok account has:

- 1.6M total views

- 1,900 followers (started from 0)

- 550K on the best post

- ~45K views/day still rolling from old posts

That brings around 30-50 downloads per day. Not a huge deal, but enough to gather analytics and continue with app improvements. Without paid ads, without UGC creators, without me on camera.

Here's the 5-stage method I run:

1. Seed - I search "<niche> tips" on Reddit/X/forums and save the comments. I feed the pile to an AI and ask it to extract two things: queries (recurring subtopics people search for) and bits of knowledge (real tips, deduped) into two files.
2. Expand - I cluster the Knowledge Base by subtopic. Then I search cluster-by-cluster to deepen each one. Both files keep growing with every pass.
3. Visual research - I watch carousels in my niche to identify recurring background styles. I use AI image tools to edit reference images - remove text, swap details - while keeping the native niche feel.
4. Production - for each query, I generate a 5-7-slide carousel from the KB. Structure: hook (the query as a question) + 3-5 bits of knowledge + CTA.
5. And finally product placement - one slide per carousel, woven into the style. I don't force every post to advertise.

Recently I wrote the whole method up as a 10-page playbook with examples and prompt templates. Put it on gumroad - free, no signup. Sharing in case you will find it useful.
update: I put a link to gumroad initially, but post was rejected, so I'm leaving it out.

Happy to answer questions about the TikTok side or how to apply this to your product.

full disclosure: I also launched a saas around this method and the playbook mentions it. But the method itself is totally independent from the tools and you can replicate it on your own.