26 new tactics from 2 episodes this week. Here are the 12 with the most detail to copy.

WeWard · B2C · walking rewards app

Hire a PR agency instead of buying ads, and pay it after six months

300K downloads in 5 minutes from one TV spot; four years with zero ad spend

How: WeWard asked a PR agency it knew for its $3-5K monthly retainer with the first six months' fees deferred. The press hook: an app that pays you just for walking. No Meta or Google ads for four years.

“it was one of the biggest show in France on prime time. I think it was in less than five minutes, we got 300,000 downloads.”

Sub Club by RevenueCat, 2026-09-30 · Read it in context

WeWard · B2C · walking rewards app

Take a press playbook that worked at home to new countries

Worked in Italy and Spain; flopped in the US despite a top agency

How: WeWard repeated it with TV and press in Italy and Spain. In the US, even a top agency failed: journalists wanted a story beyond 'one of the biggest apps in France'.

“we did also that in other countries and it works in some country like Italy, Spain, but in the US, unfortunately, we didn't manage to have this success in press”

Sub Club by RevenueCat, 2026-09-30 · Read it in context

WeWard · B2C · walking rewards app

Add ads to a free app only once retention holds up

Ads work well thanks to the large audience; says they pay at ~100K daily users

How: After its TV spike, WeWard checked that retention beat the market average, then added ads. The founder says ads start making money at around 100,000 daily users.

“Now let's take a look at the retention to see how it goes. And the retention was very high compared to the average market, and so we put ads.”

Sub Club by RevenueCat, 2026-09-30 · Read it in context

SideShift · marketplace for hiring UGC creators

Promote your best creators to managers who recruit, coach and review

Guest calls it the most effective way to find a good manager; no numbers

How: SideShift hands top creators manager tasks (recruiting, strategy, coaching, video reviews) and builds the team around what each does well. They already know the content. No good creators yet? Hire an outside manager first.

“The playbook that we're running right now is just taking our top creators and turning them into managers. And I actually genuinely like still believe to this day that that is the most effective way to find a really good manager.”

The Superwall Podcast, 2026-09-30 · Read it in context · Listen from 36:06

WeWard · B2C · walking rewards app

Promote brands inside your app for a commission on the sales you drive

Works well; Nike, Adidas, Expedia, Booking.com and Amazon signed on

How: WeWard pitched affiliate platforms and brands directly. Brands pay only on tracked sales, so it's an easy yes. WeWard turns down brands that clash with a healthy lifestyle.

“We have Nike, Adidas, Expedia, Booking.com, all of Amazon, it's part of the clients of reward.”

Sub Club by RevenueCat, 2026-09-30 · Read it in context

WeWard · B2C · walking rewards app

Lock users' social apps until they reach their daily goal

Users of the feature walk 10% more

How: WeWard's walking mode locks the apps a user picks, like TikTok and Instagram, and unlocks them once they hit their step goal. Its head of growth vibe-coded and shipped it.

“we already measure that people that use these features walk 10% more”

Sub Club by RevenueCat, 2026-09-30 · Read it in context

WeWard · B2C · walking rewards app

Give a famous athlete shares to be your app's face and press voice

Helped press, hiring, CAC and retention; founder says hard to quantify

How: WeWard met Venus Williams by chance at lunch and pitched her. She wanted shares, so she became an investor and ambassador; press pitches now offer a conversation with her.

“at the beginning I was looking for kind of an ambassador endorsement and then she said, "Okay, I want shares, so I want to be also investor." And we did this dual deal of ambassador and an investor, which means that we can use her image, we produce content together.”

Sub Club by RevenueCat, 2026-09-30 · Read it in context

WeWard · B2C · walking rewards app

Keep one app in every country and localize only the rewards and partners

Live in 29 countries without local teams

How: WeWard runs the same app and reward mechanics in all 29 countries, changing only the currency, reward catalog and partner brands per market.

“We don't need a full local team.”

Sub Club by RevenueCat, 2026-09-30 · Read it in context

Practitioner pattern · Canyon Pergande

Pay a creator manager a $2-4K monthly trial plus 5% of creator bonuses

Guest says it attracts good managers who push quality; no numbers

How: Canyon Pergande hires one once a program passes about 10 creators, ideally a creator who has gone viral. They review videos, check in daily and push new formats, about 10-15 hours a week.

“You could give that manager, call it 5%, I think is a pretty good baseline, of all bonuses that the creators get on the campaign.”

The Superwall Podcast, 2026-09-30 · Read it in context · Listen from 5:33

Practitioner pattern · Canyon Pergande

Brief creators with reference videos and hooks, not scripts, and approve every video

Guest says it avoids paying for videos that won't convert; no numbers

How: Canyon's briefs are one scannable page: reference videos, hook ideas, where the call to action goes, and messaging themes. Early on, every video gets reviewed before it posts, with Loom walkthroughs of what to fix.

“I strongly believe in reviewing every single video before it goes live.”

The Superwall Podcast, 2026-09-30 · Read it in context · Listen from 15:51

Practitioner pattern · Canyon Pergande

Test new video formats with Latin American creators at $15 a video

~40% cheaper per video than US creators; less competition, likely higher conversion

How: Apps Canyon works with pay about $15 a video in Latin America versus $25 in the US for similar quality, find winning formats there, then take them to other markets. Start with 3-5 creators and a Spanish-speaking manager.

“they'll use a lot of these international markets as testing grounds to try to find new winning formats, because they can get a much cheaper cost per video out there”

The Superwall Podcast, 2026-09-30 · Read it in context · Listen from 33:06

Practitioner pattern · Canyon Pergande

Run as ads the creator videos with 5-10x normal views and 8%+ engagement

Guest says these videos naturally do better as ads; no numbers

How: Get usage rights and run them as Spark or partnership ads from your account; comments asking about the product are a good sign. Test some organic flops too, and consider paying creators a share of ad spend or revenue.

“if I have a creator that posts a video that gets 5 to 10x the normal number of views that they get, gets 8 to 10% or more engagement and has strong comment sentiment, meaning people asking about the product, people mentioning the product in the comments, those videos will naturally perform much better from a paid ad standpoint.”

The Superwall Podcast, 2026-09-30 · Read it in context · Listen from 50:10

Browse every tactic on GTM Sauce, each with the conversation around its quote.

Episodes this week

• Sub Club by RevenueCat: How WeWard Hit 20M Users Without Paid Ads — Yves Benchimol, WeWard (2026-09-30)
• The Superwall Podcast: Canyon Pergande - How To Grow Your App 23x Faster Than The Competition (2026-09-30)