A user acquisition agency that does not open with a media buy.
Underboss Media is a user acquisition agency for consumer apps that treats paid UA as the second step. It builds short-form video formats on the app's own Instagram, TikTok and YouTube accounts, so people come looking for the app by name. Paid budget then goes only behind the pieces that already worked organically, on the app's own ad account.
Want to know how much of your user acquisition could come from channels you own?
This is organic user acquisition for consumer apps. You get video formats on your app's own accounts, judged on branded search. Winning pieces get paid budget on your ad account. The method goes into a playbook, and your team learns to run it over twelve months, month to month. You can walk away in any month and keep all of it. Paid UA campaign management and ASO are not sold here. Your first step is a free written teardown, back in three days, with no call.
Show me what you would doFour reasons a UA budget never turns into an asset.
Paid UA works, and for some apps it is the right first move. The trouble starts when it is your only move. The networks know less about each phone than they once did, and one privacy setting showed how much that knowledge was worth.
“A user you bought has to be bought again next month. An audience you built is still there.”
Two things that keep acquiring users after the invoice stops.
Each one is set up under your app's name before the first video goes out.
The Engine
Short-form formats made for your app and posted from your own Instagram, TikTok and YouTube accounts. Each format has one job: get more people to type your app's name into a search bar or a store. Formats that do it stay. The rest are cut. You approve the topics, and your accounts stay under your control throughout. When a piece has proved itself for free, paid budget goes behind it on your ad account, with your team holding the login.
The Playbook
The working notes of the engine, kept as it runs. It covers how a topic is picked, what the first line of a video has to do, how each piece is filmed and cut, and the test a format must pass to stay. A person on your team takes over one part at a time, so the knowledge sits inside your company and not with a vendor. You can read it at any point and see exactly what is being done and why.
The one app record we can open is our own.
A dating app we built and ran ourselves collected a 10,000 person waitlist in five months of active collection, after three months of preparation, at $0 paid. The same build grew 18,000 Instagram followers and 12,000 on TikTok. Next to it, roughly €4,000 of produced and paid UGC converted 0 users. This is a waitlist from before launch. It says nothing about installs or retention, so read it as a waitlist and no more. On the client side, the average cost of acquiring a customer fell 35% across portfolio engagements. The largest client record, 50M organic views in five months at $0 paid, belongs to a Series A gaming marketplace. It is filed under gaming and is not presented here as an app result.
“The dating app on this page is mine. I built the waitlist, and I also paid for the UGC that converted nobody, so I have watched both approaches with my own money. I write your teardown myself. If paid UA is the right first move for your app, it will say that.”
Verify on LinkedIn →Organic in month one. Paid when a video has earned it.
- Month 1
Baseline, then the first formats
Before anything is posted, you get a count of how many people search your app's name each week. Then the first formats are filmed and posted from your accounts. Every later claim is checked against that starting number, so you never have to take a result on trust.
Output: Search baseline noted, first formats posted
- Months 2 to 9
Cut the weak, fund the strong
Formats that lift branded search stay and the others go. A piece that worked for free gets budget on your ad account, and no other paid work is done. The person you name on your team picks up one task after another, with each piece checked before it goes out.
Output: Proven pieces funded, your team taking over tasks
- Months 10 to 12
Run from inside your company
Your team chooses the topics, films and posts, with a weekly review of the numbers from our side. The year has done its job when your search line keeps rising without outside help. You can stop in any month before that and keep everything built so far.
Output: Engine run by your team
A typical user acquisition agency vs organic first
Updated November 2026- First deliverable
A typical UA agencyA media plan and a budget request.
You, with usFormats posted from your own accounts.
- How it is judged
A typical UA agencyCost per install, as the network reports it.
You, with usBranded search for your app's name.
- Where paid sits
A typical UA agencyIt is the whole service.
You, with usBehind videos that already worked, on your ad account.
- When the budget pauses
A typical UA agencyNew users pause with it.
You, with usYour channels and formats are still posting.
| Dimension | A typical UA agency | You, with us |
|---|---|---|
| First deliverable | A media plan and a budget request. | Formats posted from your own accounts. |
| How it is judged | Cost per install, as the network reports it. | Branded search for your app's name. |
| Where paid sits | It is the whole service. | Behind videos that already worked, on your ad account. |
| When the budget pauses | New users pause with it. | Your channels and formats are still posting. |
Before you ask.
Most user acquisition agencies buy installs across ad networks and report a cost per install. Here the work starts one step earlier, with video formats on your app's own channels, so people look for the app themselves. Paid is added behind the videos that worked. You keep the channels, the formats and the notes.
No. Paid UA management is not sold here, and neither is ASO. The only paid work is budget behind videos that already did well organically, on your own ad account. If your app needs a full-time media buyer or a store listing specialist, your teardown says so and you hire one.
Sometimes, and not for every app. An app people talk about and can show on camera can get far on its own channels. An app in a category nobody films will lean on paid for longer. The honest answer for your app is in your teardown, which is free and comes before you commit to anything.
Your first month sets one KPI the work controls, most often branded search for your app's name. If the KPI we name is not climbing by month six, the next month is free. Cost per install is not that KPI, because your store page and your onboarding shape it as much as the videos do.
Only consumer apps. If people download yours for themselves and you can show it in a short video, it may fit. Apps sold to companies are not a fit, and the answer to those is no. Games, marketplaces and apps that have not launched yet are all in scope.
No price is published. After your teardown, and only if there is a fit, you get a written quote for a twelve-month build. It runs month to month and you can cancel in any month. No share of your ad spend is taken, so nobody here earns more when you spend more.
Nothing. You send a link to your app and to the channels you post on. Within three days a written teardown arrives: where your users come from now, and the first formats worth making. There is no call and nothing to sign, and you keep the document whatever you decide.
- Organic app growth strategies that build on each other →Most apps buy users before they test organic. 4 organic app growth strategies in the order to run them, so each makes the next cheaper. 50M+ views at $0 paid.
- How startups get distribution without an ad budget →How startups get distribution without an ad budget: channels that build on themselves, the metric that proves it, and 50M+ organic views in 5 months at $0 paid.
- How to promote a mobile application without ads →How to promote a mobile application with no ad budget: one channel, repeatable formats, a waitlist, then launch week. A 10,000 person waitlist at $0 paid.
Organic growth, or the next month is free.
We name one KPI we control for your company in your first month. If the KPI we name is not climbing by month six, the next month is free.
One KPI, named in month one.Picked for your company once there is a baseline and written into the contract, so there is one number to hold us to.
You read it off your own numbers.Your analytics and the platforms' own reporting. Nothing of ours in the middle.
Send the app. See what it could acquire without an ad.
Send a link to your app and the accounts you post from. In three days you get a written teardown of where your users come from today and what to build first. It is free, and it is yours to keep whether or not you ever hire anyone.
Two minutes. No call. No numbers.