Thirty days. Three gates. Scale, fix, or kill.
The KPI-gated sprint we run on every app we publish. The criteria are signed before we spend, so we are always looking at the same numbers.
Voodoo tested around 2,000 apps in a recent year and kept 42. That discipline, test cheap, kill fast, scale the winners, is what generated hundreds of millions in revenue. The discipline is the product. We adapted it for non-game apps, shrank it to a single 30-day sprint a solo maker can actually run, and put our own money behind it. The point of the Method is not to spend. It is to find the truth fast and refuse to spend on hope.
The three numbers that tell us if your app can scale.
CPI, can we get attention at a price that pays back?
$0.80 to $2.00
Cost per install against your real LTV. Target band $0.80 to $2.00 depending on category and monetization. If the market does not respond to the concept after two or three creative iterations, no amount of optimization fixes a positioning problem.
Activation, do users reach the moment that matters?
25 to 40%
The share of installs that hit your core action. Target 25 to 40%. Traffic without activation is expensive vanity. This is usually where the fix lives, in onboarding, not in the ad.
Day-7 ROAS, does the math actually close?
30 to 50%
Return on ad spend measured across day 1, day 7, and day 30, not at a single point. Day-7 in the 30 to 50% range, day-30 climbing toward payback, is the signal that scaling is mathematically sound rather than wishful.
What the 30 days actually look like.
- Week 1
Intake and first launch.
Persona work, angle hypotheses, first creatives generated. First campaigns live, first click data, first call with Vincent.
- Week 2
First data, first iterations.
Phase 1 KPIs consolidated. Creative refresh if needed. The first gate: kill on the numbers, or move to activation.
- Week 3
Activation diagnosis.
Onboarding and day-1 retention adjustments if the data points there. Kill or continue at the gate.
- Week 4
Monetization tuning.
Day-1 and day-7 ROAS in focus. The final gate: kill, iterate, or graduate to a Publishing Deal.
The most valuable thing a publisher does is say no.
Before we spend a dollar, we both sign the kill criteria, the exact thresholds below which the sprint stops. That one document is what turns ad spend from a gamble into a diagnostic. It protects you from a partner who keeps you spending on hope, and it protects the capital so it goes to the apps where the math closes. When we stop, it is because the data said so. When we scale, same. And either way, you do not leave empty-handed. Every Launch Test ends with the Scale Report, your 30 days in writing: the numbers, where your funnel breaks, the verdict and the reasoning, and the specific changes that would move it. If the verdict is fixable, that report is your roadmap. Apply every recommendation in full, then re-apply, and a fully implemented update earns another funded round. If it is kill, you saved yourself months, and the door stays open for the next app you ship.
In 2026, the creative is the targeting.
The old playbook was make one great ad and let the cookie find the audience. That playbook is four years out of date. Cookie-based targeting is gone, and the algorithm now learns from the creative itself. So the work is not one hero ad, it is 10 to 20 persona-tailored variations per campaign, enough material for the algorithm to find the people your app is for. The software generates the volume. Vincent brings the judgment, business to ICP to persona to angle to campaign. That thinking layer is the part the AI tools cannot fake, and it is the part that decides whether the volume is signal or slop.