Samet Durgun
Growth consultant with 10+ years of mobile UA across gaming, e-commerce and subscription apps, mostly on Meta. Calls himself “the Growth Therapist” — diagnosing a company’s core growth issue before spending effort. Runs his own app in soft launch.
Strong on: Meta campaign structure for subscription apps (install-campaign creative testing → conversion campaigns), forcing spend across ads, high-RPD English-language geo bundles, custom trial/purchase events.
Bias to keep in mind: appears on Adapty’s channel (Adapty is a partner); explicitly says his setup is “the best version at this particular time” and requires experience — treat as one practitioner’s current method.
Also: what 100K+/month Meta spenders share (LTV:CAC ≥2–3×, tROAS, 10 events/ad set/day, geo tiers, install → validation → main creative flow, cost per winner) — Sep 2026 Adapty webinar.
Sources: sources/youtube/app-leaders-by-adapty/ (Dec 2025 LTV episode; Sep 2026 “Scaling past
$100K MRR” webinar).
Notes citing Samet Durgun
- How far does Apple Ads scale? Channel share, ceilings and what limits youRealistic expectations for Apple Ads volume — Thomas Petit's view that it usually ends up 5–20% of a scaled app's marketing mix (some accounts still reach seven figures/month), that return targets rather than search volume usually cap spend, and the opposing practitioner views on whether Apple Ads is a first channel or a "nice to have".
- How much Meta budget does an app need? (the 50-events math)Worked math for what a Meta ads budget buys an app — $1,000 at $2 CPI → 500 installs → 35 trials → ~10 subscribers (~$95 CAC) — and why trial optimization needs 50 events/week.
- Structure and concepts for paid app video adsThe hook → app demo → offer → App Store end-card structure for paid app ads, why to test distinct concepts per ICP before variations, and how to match ads to custom product pages.
- Tailoring paywalls to the ad source and keyword intentUsing attribution data inside the app to change the paywall by where the user came from — Adapty's keyword-tailored funnels (Apple Ads "Sora AI" searchers see a Sora-themed CPP, onboarding and paywall), higher prices for brand-intent traffic, longer trials for "free…" keywords, competitor-keyword paywalls, and Samet Durgun's no-trial paywall for Meta users.
- Testing campaigns vs evergreen campaigns for app ads on Meta — forcing spend and graduating winnersHow subscription-app media buyers separate creative testing from evergreen campaigns on Meta — Samet Durgun's install-campaign funnel (200 ads on Android → 10 on iOS → 2 hero creatives), automated rules that cap spend per ad so every ad gets tested, and graduating only on cost per purchase after the trial window.
- Testing creative formats in buckets, then iterating inside the winnerRyan Thorpe's TikTok creative process at Reflectly (2022) — produce batches per format ("day in the life", testimonial, lifestyle…), keep the format with the lowest cost per store visit, then A/B test one element at a time (creator, hook line, frames per second, CTA, not naming the product, accents), plus his celebrity-voice accident (40M views, then a cease-and-desist).
- TikTok as a UA channel for apps — broad targeting, web-event campaigns and seasonal budgets (2022 view)Reflectly's 2022 TikTok playbook (Ryan Thorpe) — broad targeting, optimising a landing-page event instead of app installs (downloads at roughly half the price of CPI campaigns, by his estimate), skipping an MMP on a mostly-organic portfolio, concentrating spend in September/January, and Spark Ads with micro creators instead of big influencers. Dated — read with the 2025–26 caveats.
- What subscription apps spending $100K+/month on Meta have in commonSamet Durgun's (Sep 2026) common denominators of subscription apps that scale Meta past $100K/month — LTV:CAC ≥2–3×, value/tROAS optimisation (no cost caps or install goals), 10 events per ad set per day, four tiered geo campaigns, install → validation → main creative flow with a cost-per-winner metric, one strong growth engine, cash planning, and the "invisible cost" of a passive UA lead; plus what separates $100K from $1M/month.
- Which countries to target with app ads — high-RPD bundles and cheap-but-paying geosCountry choices for subscription-app ads in 2025–26 — Samet Durgun's single Meta ad set covering high revenue-per-download countries with the language set to English, Adapty's case for testing cheaper geos (South Africa, Brazil, Romania, Poland) on Apple Ads, and the App Store storefront vs IP-country mismatch.
- Which event should Meta optimise on? Qualified trials and enriched eventsHow subscription apps pick the Meta optimisation event that has both volume and quality — start trial vs purchase budget math, "qualified trials" (trial not cancelled within 1–2 hours), backend-enriched events above ~$100K/month, and how to A/B test events at ad-set level.
- Why start paid acquisition with Apple AdsWhy App Masters starts most iOS apps on Apple Ads (plus ASO) before Meta or TikTok, and when that advice does not apply.