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Paid social creative testing for apps — levers, hook/hold rate, 3-day tests

The levers of paid social (Meta/TikTok/YouTube) for apps, hook-rate and hold-rate targets, and Ivy's 3-day creative test (4 creatives per themed ad set, $50/ad set) run on highest-converting weekdays.

Updated 2026-10-23·1 source·user-acquisitionpaid-socialcreative-testingmeta-adstiktok-adsmetrics

Paid social creative testing for apps

TL;DR

  • Levers: campaign setup, audience (keep broad), placements, creative (video vs static), optimization (start trial), attribution, scaling and testing strategy, onboarding/paywall, store listing, budget. Creative fixes most problems.12
  • Targets: hook rate 30–40%; hold rate depends on definition (see below).3
  • Test: 3-day window, 4 creatives per ad set, ad sets split by theme; simplest version: one ad set at ~$50/day.4
  • Run the 3 days on your highest-converting weekdays; kill what doesn’t perform.5
  • Budget for 2–3 months of losses before it works.6

Details

Metrics (add as custom columns in Meta Ads Manager).7

  • Hook rate — target 30–40%. Steve doesn’t define it on screen (“just ChatGPT this”); the usual definition is 3-second video views ÷ impressions.
  • Hold rate — two definitions: 15-second views ÷ impressions (low numbers expected, as Ivy used), or 15-second ÷ 3-second views (then ~30–40%). Pick one and be consistent.3

Ivy’s testing method (as relayed by Steve; she reached ~$20K/day at positive ROAS):46

  • 3-day test period, $200–250/day total across several ad sets.
  • 4 creatives per ad set; each ad set = one theme (e.g. for Cal AI: “calorie deficit”; or women-only vs men-only).
  • Simple version: one ad set, ~4 creatives, $50/ad set/day.
  • If a creative doesn’t perform within 3 days, drop it.

Pick the 3 days from your data. One of Steve’s apps converts best Sun–Tue; health & fitness tends to peak early in the week; games may peak Thu–Sat. Use your trial-activation-by-day data.5

Store page alignment. Matching ad creative to screenshots works well, but is a margin optimization once at scale.2

Disagreements / caveats

  • Ivy’s numbers are one founder’s method at high spend; Steve promised a deeper setup video later.5
  • Steve still recommends Apple Ads first because it has far fewer levers.1

See also

Footnotes

  1. Do This Before Running ANY Paid Social Media Marketing @ 00:00 — Steve P. Young ↩ ↩2

  2. Do This Before Running ANY Paid Social Media Marketing @ 01:35 — Steve P. Young ↩ ↩2

  3. Do This Before Running ANY Paid Social Media Marketing @ 02:37 — Steve P. Young ↩ ↩2

  4. Do This Before Running ANY Paid Social Media Marketing @ 03:49 — Steve P. Young ↩ ↩2

  5. Do This Before Running ANY Paid Social Media Marketing @ 04:51 — Steve P. Young ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  6. Do This Before Running ANY Paid Social Media Marketing @ 02:37 — Steve P. Young ↩ ↩2

  7. Do This Before Running ANY Paid Social Media Marketing @ 03:49 — Steve P. Young ↩