Launch an influencer campaign for calendar apps
I scroll Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube under a fresh account if I’m marketing a calendar app. I try to put myself in this person’s shoes: US English, 26-38, already bounced off Fantastical's price and Google Calendar they keep despite hating it, watches 'I paid for a calendar and still miss dentist appointments' and time-blocking-collapse videos Sunday night. Linger, save, like, and comment as if I were them. Once the algorithm is trained I take whoever keeps showing up. Ideally over 50k average views. Below that they quote $700 a post for 1k views. That’s a money sink.
You really need to do this for hundreds of creators a day, because the market is not efficient. Some dumb startup is paying thousands for hundreds of views. I scroll as the person who would download this on real phones. Scout is $1,500/month. We find creators. Outreach is $2,500 if I should send the emails. Dealmaker is $5,000 if I should negotiate and paper the deal. Creator fees extra. No demo. No download guarantee. I wrote the long version at How I find influencers.
Where people actually look
How I actually launch
01
Not a demographic. I designed a perfect week on Sunday and by Wednesday I was back in Google missing the dentist. They already tried Fantastical until the subscription stung, a time-blocking YouTuber's template, and Google Calendar they complain about weekly. Skip the CEO-of-one time-blocking creator whose calendar is a product screenshot for a course. Adjacent is missed dentist, Sunday panic, not maker-vs-manager Twitter. Steal the brief if you want.
02
Fresh account. Real phones. Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. Linger, save, like, comment as if I were them. Once the algorithm is trained I take whoever keeps showing up. Ideally over 50k average. Example: someone showing a rainbow time-block week that was abandoned by Wednesday. Signal: the same Sunday-night collapse face two weeks in a row.
03
I prefer email. The contact is usually in a bio under a Notion planner; say this is a calendar-app post. Just send a short note. Name a real video. Ask for the phone number. Don’t start the deal over email. Productivity coaches quote course prices for a calendar tour. If they won’t give a number, move on.
04
Pay $X for N posts with a floor of Y views. An example that is easy to hold: $2000 / 4 posts / 1M views. Then send the contract while it’s still fresh. A working day view they can use Monday morning. Add the dentist, set an alert, close it. If they needed a course, stop.
Why most first calendar apps campaigns stall
01
Productivity coaches quote course prices for a calendar tour. You needed a lot of other names so you could move on. Sunday-night reschedule panic already has the audience; a day view they will actually open Monday is the product.
02
People tag #calendarapp when they want brands to find them. A database tells you who exists. Your customer lives in a feed you never opened. A color-coded week that is obviously staged.
03
Many times I have read something unprofitable like “$700 a post” from a creator that gets 50k views. On a call I can explain a Minimum View Guarantee. Over email you just get the first number. Do not ask them to time-block a fake CEO week. Ask them to add the dentist and a commute.
What you actually buy
Every plan includes the scrolling. Pay more and I do more of the emailing and the paperwork. Creator pay is extra. No demo. No download guarantee. A live listing that talks to the calendar they already have, not a new religion.
Scout
$1,500/month
We find creators.
Most people start here
Outreach
$2,500/month
We find relevant creators, and do outreach.
Dealmaker
$5,000/month
Outreach, then negotiation and contracts.
Billed monthly, cancel anytime. Creator compensation is not included. You approve every creator and every rate. Measurement is App Store installs with a unique custom code.
Questions
You can learn vocabulary that way. People tag what they want brands to find. I still scroll as the person who would download this on a fresh account and take whoever keeps showing up. The method essay is How we find creators by scrolling a real TikTok avatar.
No. Anyone who does is lying or running paid. I do the scrolling and, on Outreach and Dealmaker, the contacting. You still approve every creator and every rate. Talent is extra. No demo. No download guarantee.
Productivity coaches quote course prices for a calendar tour. I want roughly 50k average views or the economics usually break. Below that, $700 a post for 1k views is a money sink. On a call I can explain a Minimum View Guarantee. Example: $2000 / 4 posts / 1M views. Over email you just get the first number. If they will not give a number, move on. If you do this right, ie at scale, you will have many other creators to choose from.
No. It is a different job. The tag is productivity coaches selling time-blocking PDFs. I read the session the person who would download this actually gets served. Product page for the general job: campaigns.