First budgeting apps campaign checklist

A first budgeting apps campaign at founder scale. Numbered so you can stop lying to yourself about which step you skipped.

Confirm a live listing whose first screenshot is one envelope and a remaining dollar amount actually closes. Creators cannot fix packaging.
Write the avatar in a sentence: US English, 23-34, already bounced off YNAB’s learning curve and Mint’s corpse, watches ‘I make 55k and have 200 in checking’ and overdraft-fee videos on payday night.
Write the problem in their mouth: I cannot spend a Saturday categorizing last month when rent is due Tuesday.
Write what they already quit: Mint until it died, YNAB for one free month, and a color-coded spreadsheet they stopped opening.
Write what they watch: overdraft-fee rants, ‘YNAB is a second job’, paycheck-to-paycheck recaps, ‘I cancelled after the free month’.
Write the reject: the finance bro with a rented car in every thumbnail who is selling a $997 course.
Write adjacent so the phone does not smear: overdraft shame, rent math, not FIRE and not crypto.
Put that sentence into the brief
Scroll as them on a fresh Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube account. Example to look for: someone showing the YNAB onboarding wall and then paying a late fee the same week. Signal: the same payday-night recap face two Fridays in a row.
Keep a 50k average-view floor. Below that, $700 a post for 1k views is a money sink.
Skip #budgetwithme as a roster method.
Email. The contact is usually in a Stan store under a budgeting course; write that this is a paid app post, not an affiliate lesson. Name a real video. Ask for the phone number.
If they won’t give a number, move on. Course-sellers quote $700 because the post is a funnel, not a utility demo.
On the call, Minimum View Guarantee. Example: $2000 / 4 posts / 1M views. Talent extra.
Send the contract while the yes is still warm. Scout $1,500 / Outreach $2,500 / Dealmaker $5,000.
A working log they can add this week’s paycheck to without linking every bank.
Tell them what to film: add this week’s pay, assign rent, close it. If that took a webinar, the app is not ready. Do not ask for a full monthly budget-with-me. Ask them to log one paycheck and one coffee.
Give each creator their own code. Unique App Store codes, not a budget-with-me that never shows your download.
Do not run a launch day on the same morning if you wanted isolation.
Two follow-ups, then stop. If you do this right, ie at scale, you will have many other creators to choose from.

Doing the scroll by hand is kind of soul-crushing. One like on a Lamborghini finance guy and the phone will leave overdraft content for a month. No demo. No download guarantee. You approve every creator and every rate.

Paycheck-to-paycheck recaps already have the audience; an envelope that does not require a weekend of setup can sit in that recap.

First budgeting apps campaign checklist

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