Profitable growth in a post-identifier world | UGC & video ad creative production to drive ROAS & scale

I help mobile app companies–including gaming companies like Applovin, East Side Games, Jam City and Scopely, and apps like Bumble, Lingokids, Mojo and FitMind(among others) –acquire new users and achieve profitable, scalable growth in a Generative-AI world.

Offering both managed user acquisition services and done-for-you creative production for teams running their own ads, our clients have continued to not only grow after Apple’s privacy changes, and many have seen their ROAS improve by an avg. of 20-40%.

The secret to our clients’ success is the combination of our deep expertise from having produced 10k+ ads and managed over $100M in ad spend, and our ability to rapidly produce UGC and video ads at volume that can be used to dial in exactly what works, and discard what does not.

📹 HOW WE DO IT📹 

Leveraging a combination of both human and AI creators, we’re able to rapidly produce UGC & video ads that are based on rock solid strategy and research. By testing 50+ (or more) variants a month even at small budgets with our signature rapid testing and iteration process, we’re able to rapidly isolate key elements of winning UGC. This is essential, with our data showing that the tiniest changes can lead to outsized performance.

💻AI VIDEO YOU ASK?💻

Yes, AI video. Now not just AI video, we use both human and AI creators. With the advent of AI we’ve been able to rapidly scale and test in a way we could not before. While many in the industry worry that AI 
Creative appears robotic and doesn't invoke emotion, we’ve found it depends on the inputs you give and the strategy behind your ads. 

📈 RESULTS CREATED📈 

-70% ROAS uplift and 69% CPI improvement for Adventure Communist, an idle-clicking game.

-Tested 100+ creatives for Games2Win, drove 350K+ installs, and 100% increase in ROAS.

-Unlocked month on month growth for hampr, a hyperlocal laundry app while improving cost per purchaser by 55%.

🏎GET STARTED🏎

Reach out here on LinkedIn to get a free consultation on leverage AI-fueled creative production to supercharge your growth.

Email us at: hi@rocketshiphq.com

Shamanth M. Rao

🧠 This is the breakthrough that made AI headshot generation possible

📍 We often think of AI progress as magic - but it’s really a story of simple extrapolation.

I spoke to Rohan Khadatkar, Head of Marketing at InstaHeadshots, on Intelligent Artifice, about how one key technological leap unlocked the entire category of realistic AI headshots.

Here’s how he explained it 👇

ChatGPT made “text to text” easy to grasp.

You type a prompt (text input) and get an intelligent text output. 💬➡️💬

Now, extend that same logic - 
🖼️ text → image
🎵 text → music
🎙️ text → voice

That’s where the next wave of AI breakthroughs began.

In the text-to-image world, the first big leap came when researchers built models that could take a text description - say “a red apple on a table” - and generate a photo-realistic image that looked like a real apple. 🍎

The next leap - the one that made AI headshot generation possible - was even bigger.

It was the ability to take just 8-10 images of a person and train a model to learn their identity. 🧩

Once that became possible, tools could generate realistic portraits that looked like the same person - across different poses, styles, and lighting.

That was the foundation on which the 2023 headshot generation revolution was built. 🚀

From a few sample photos → to a full digital identity.

A tiny dataset - a massive leap.

🎧 Full conversation with Rohan Khadatkar on Intelligent Artifice:
https://lnkd.in/dKSbwGJG

🚀 20-40% ROAS increase for mobile apps in 60 days | AI-fueled UGC & video ad creative production 📹 | 3x Exits | $100m+ ad spend | Meta, Google, TikTok partner

📬 I analyzed 70 ads for Fyxer AI ($17mm ARR AI app)

52% of their ads focus on this BIG emotional trigger….

Relief from overwhelm:

→ Inbox zero before 9am
→ "Drowning in emails?"
→ How I sleep knowing my emails are drafted and organized.

Which probably means... it's working. 

But there's more going on behind the scenes - so I ran it through my Sherlock Holmes Investigator Agent. 

It analyzed every single frame and conducted semantic analysis across the entire ad library - and then I checked it against what I was seeing manually. 

This is how their ads break down:

📝 𝗡𝗮𝗿𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗙𝗹𝗼𝘄
↳ Problem → AI solution → transformation
↳ Storytelling showing time saved and productivity gained

💢 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺s
↳ Endless unread emails draining focus
↳ Feeling buried in work emails
↳ Losing hours to inbox triage

⏳ 𝗨𝗿𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗰𝘆
↳ "Experience inbox zero by 9am"
↳ "Start your free trial"
↳ "Overdue replies"

📈 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆
↳ "Start your free trial, no card required"
↳ User testimonials and trust markers

🌸 𝗔𝘀𝗽𝗶𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀
↳ Get to inbox zero by 9am.
↳ Calm mornings and nights.
↳ Get more done without opening another tab

In our full breakdown, I share insights from the ad analysis our system ran, including:

✅ Effortless productivity: "Inbox Zero in minutes, not hours"
✅ Liberation from overload: "Reclaim your time from endless emails"
✅ Smart automation: "Your AI that manages replies while you focus on real work"

Full Notion analysis is here: https://lnkd.in/dsZ7S86c

And if you want me to analyze your competitors ad libraries and see what angles we can find... drop me a DM / email: shamanth@rocketshiphq.com

Happy to run a few for free.

𝗜 𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘇𝗲𝗱 𝟱𝟬+ 𝗕𝗮𝗯𝗯𝗲𝗹 𝗮𝗱𝘀 𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗲-𝗯𝘆-𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗲 with AI. Every subscription app founder going into Q5/Q1 should internalize these 5 learnings.

When I ran them through 𝗕𝗿𝘂𝘁𝗲𝗙𝗼𝗿𝗰𝗲 𝗔𝗜 frame-by-frame, I found 5 psychology patterns that drive their wins.

𝟭. 𝗔𝘁𝘁𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗲𝘁𝗶𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀 𝗪𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗩𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗱 𝗔𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗼𝗴𝗶𝗲𝘀 
↳ "Switching from my old language app felt like going from a rustmobile to a Ferrari" 
↳ They reference 'gamified apps' without naming competitors.

𝟮. 𝗨𝘀𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗰𝗿𝗲𝘁𝗲 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘀 
↳ "Have real conversations in three weeks" 
↳ Not "learn fast" 
↳ Not "fluent soon"
Three weeks feels achievable but ambitious.

They show it across formats. 
↳Suspense hooks. 
↳Interactive ads. 
↳ Before/after split screens with date labels.

𝟯. 𝗛𝗮𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗢𝗻𝗲 𝗖𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗮𝗹 
↳ "Built by 200+ language experts" 
↳ They repeat this across every ad format 
↳ Travel testimonials, creator POV, competitor contrasts

Repetition compounds trust.

𝟰. 𝗘𝗺𝗽𝗵𝗮𝘀𝗶𝘇𝗲 𝗘𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀 
↳ "You only need 10 minutes a day"
↳ Morning coffee rituals
↳ Freelancer on the go 
↳ Pre-work routines

They show real people fitting lessons into everyday life.
Removes excuses before they form.

𝟱. 𝗨𝘀𝗲 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗲 𝗣𝘀𝘆𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘆 

↳ "The pronunciation is too good" 
↳ Frame benefits as complaints
↳ "I regret learning too fast"
Every ‘complaint’ is actually a flex.

It subverts expectations. Makes benefits more memorable.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗶𝗴𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗼𝗻:
Show them what life looks like after switching. Make the contrast impossible to ignore.

That's why these ads work longer and power Babbel's creative engine that has driven 18 million subscribers.

Want the full breakdown with actual examples you can apply?

Drop "𝗕𝗔𝗕𝗕𝗘𝗟" in the comments 👇

I'll send you the complete analysis.

The Meta Game

I help social impact businesses improve their marketing efficiency and scale as an independent consultant and advisor.

I also write about and coach creative strategy and growth marketing at themetagame.us 

Specialties: Creative Strategy, Paid Social, Media Buying Strategy, Attribution, Signals, Automation, AI in marketing, Monetization, Onboarding, Privacy, General Growth Strategy

Consultant and Advisor

10 Scale

Media Buying & Performance creative designed for scale
10scale.co

President

Calm

Drove 1.2mm subscriptions
Reached ~1bn people
Led creative direction and production for 5500 ads

Focused on Paid Social & Creative Strategy/Production, working cross functionally with Data-sci, Data-eng, Product, Content, Marketing teams

Director, Growth Marketing

Sr. Manager of User Acquisition

User Acquisition Manager

Defeat by Tweet

Raised $7mm for community organizers in PA, GA, MI, WI, AZ, NV & CO by using Donald Trump's tweets against him.

Advisor

PlayQ

• Scaled monthly UA spend from $500k to $2MM: Facebook, Google, Rewarded Video Networks, DSPs
• Decreased mean cost per purchase by ~40%. Core wins: Value Opt & Min ROAS bidding (Facebook), Publisher level bidding, Network level LTV segmentation & portfolio optimization

Alphabit Trading

Operated data-driven yield curve and calendar spread desk in electronic U.S. treasury cash and futures markets, resulting in 40 months of consecutive profitability and 259% average year-over-year profit growth. Regularly maintained positions of roughly $10mm in notional risk with allocated limits exceeding $40mm. Primary strategies include: Relative Value Arbitrage, Spread Arbitrage, Statistical Arbitrage & Discretionary Positioning.

Sr. Fixed Income Trader

University of Northern Colorado

•Voted Team Captain by Peers
•2012 Football Scholar-Athlete of the Year

Student Athlete

Performance Marketing Designed for Scale, Ex-Calm | Creative Strategy and Paid Social Consulting & Coaching @ themetagame.us | Fully Scaled Creative Services @ 10scale.co | Meta, Google, ASA and TikTok ads

I started my career in derivatives trading and turned my knowledge of markets for the better, making the world happier and healthier at Calm as a Growth Marketing leader.

Now I am an agency owner, consultant, coach and advisor supporting products that make a positive social impact.  Over the years I have supported hundreds of millions of dollars of media spend on life changing products and political campaigns.

I am a student of the game and love both learning and teaching others. Check out my blog where I spill all the secrets at blog.themetagame.us!

On a personal level, I’m passionate about mindfulness, making art, the outdoors, and other people. My mission is to make other people's life better by leveraging technology and creativity.

Nick Candler

Silicon Valley often talks about how deflation is a natural outcome of technology.

While this is partially true, much of the low inflation in the early 21st century in the U.S. has been a result of globalization and platforming all of retail into consolidated online marketplaces. 

These are all one time trades of temporary price reductions and convenience for our shared leverage and ownership in the economy. The result to society has been abundance of treats at the cost of meaningful equity.

The deal today between Netflix and WB is a reflection of the trend toward the monopolization of everything.

The outcome of this trend will not be rapid innovation, but a slow stagnation of the economy and persistent, sticky inflation as competition dries up, consumers lose their leverage, and corporations choose rent seeking as the best bet to maximize shareholder value (which at this point, is becoming the dominant trend anyways).

I hope this deal doesn’t go through, and that the U.S. seriously pursues more anti-trust practices.

Performance Marketing Designed for Scale | President @ 10scale.co | Meta, TikTok, Google, ASA, + | All our secrets free @ Blog.TheMetaGame.US

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