Case · Dating app · Tier-1
$500K+ AD SPEND A MONTH
Dating app user acquisition at $500K+ a month against Tinder, Badoo and Bumble
I joined a Tier-1 dating app (name under NDA) as its founding UA hire and built paid acquisition from scratch. I scaled it to monthly ad budgets of $500K+ against Tinder, Badoo and Bumble, with profitable spend growing 30–40% year over year.
Situation
I worked on this app for more than four years. It competed with Tinder, Badoo and Bumble on Tier-1 markets, and the task was to grow spend while it stayed profitable.
What I did
I started paid acquisition on Google Ads, then added TikTok, Snapchat, Apple Search Ads, Bing and DSPs, working directly with the Google and TikTok partner teams. I scaled TikTok to Meta-level volume. I introduced pLTV-driven acquisition, with predictive LTV models that estimate what a user will be worth from early signals, tested it against the existing models and made it the buying standard. I also took acquisition from mobile-only to App, Web and Web-to-App.
Result
Profitable spend grew 30–40% year over year on budgets of $500K+ a month, against Tinder, Badoo and Bumble.
Why profitable spend is the number to watch
At this size, blended CAC can look flat while each new dollar gets more expensive. Growth in profitable spend shows that the extra budget still pays for itself, which is what a founder needs before signing off the next increase.
Is this your situation?
This case is closest to yours if the app already spends heavily on paid, the platforms still report good numbers, and growth has slowed anyway. On the free 30-minute call we look at where the next profitable dollar could come from.
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