The $10M AI SaaS Growth Playbook
Growing an AI application to $10 million in annual revenue within just two years is no small feat, yet it’s precisely what has been accomplished through the power of low-budget social media content.
The founder of Jenny AI has built an impressive collection of edtech tools helping researchers with AI assistance, amassing over 5 million users and achieving profitability largely through strategic content marketing.
This comprehensive playbook reveals the exact steps taken to achieve this remarkable growth, offering invaluable insights for entrepreneurs looking to replicate this success.
We strongly recommend that you check out our guide on how to take advantage of AI in today’s passive income economy.
Table of Contents
Understanding the Growth Framework
Growth at its highest level simply means having more users today than yesterday, and more users tomorrow than today.
This progress can be measured through three essential pillars: distribution, conversion, and retention.
Distribution focuses on introducing potential users to your product, whether through landing pages or social media videos.
Conversion happens when viewers take action, starting free trials or making purchases after discovering your product.
Retention measures how long users continue engaging with your product after purchasing, indicating whether you’re delivering the value promised.
Even mastering just one of these pillars can create a profitable and valuable business.
This playbook specifically concentrates on distribution, examining the most successful channel that propelled Jenny AI to eight-figure revenue.
The Three-Step Process to Viral Content
Step 1: Gathering Ingredients
To create truly viral content, understanding your audience is paramount.
You must identify who your viewers are, what interests them, what they currently watch, why they watch it, and how you can create content even more engaging than what they currently consume.
This preparation work may seem tedious but can save months of effort and significantly increase your chances of creating viral content.
Directly asking users for their social media handles allows you to check who they follow and what content they enjoy consuming.
Once you identify influencers your ideal customers follow, platforms like Instagram and TikTok’s algorithms can help find similar accounts to target.
You can explore an influencer’s profile, click on “suggest similar accounts,” or examine the hashtags they use to generate a list of potential collaborators.
Creating a dedicated social media account for research purposes delivers a continuous stream of potential partners that you can either sponsor or bring in-house.
This approach mitigates one of the biggest risks in influencer marketing: paying for posts that underperform.
When selecting influencers, prioritize their potential ceiling rather than their floor.
The critical question isn’t whether they consistently achieve modest view counts, but whether they occasionally produce content that reaches millions.
Also examine whether their sponsored content performs well compared to their organic posts—if sponsored content consistently underperforms, reconsider the partnership.
Step 2: Exploring Content Ideas
After building your list of influencers, analyze what content formats they use successfully.
Study their posting patterns, especially sponsored content that performed exceptionally well, and consider why certain videos resonated with audiences.
Research competitors in your space to see what content strategies they employ.
If your product offers similar benefits, their successful approaches can provide valuable inspiration.
Use the research account created earlier to scroll through content until something naturally captures your attention.
When this happens, analyze what made you stop scrolling—was it the hook, the format, or something else?
This insight can guide your content development strategy.
Creating Effective Content
When developing content, experiment with multiple variables to identify winning combinations:
- Different presenters (influencers or friends if you’re on a budget)
- Various hooks (text appearing in the first second or opening lines)
- Separate accounts (if one account struggles to gain traction)
- Different editing styles (fast-paced versus slow-paced)
- Various production qualities (casual homemade feel versus professional cinematography)
Don’t get discouraged if initial attempts don’t gain traction.
Sometimes creating a new account with a fresh algorithm may be necessary if your existing one seems permanently stuck with low view counts.
Working With Influencers
Effective Outreach Strategies
Be prepared for rejection when reaching out to influencers.
Many entrepreneurs give up after sending just one or two messages, but persistence is key to success in this area.
Remember that content creators aren’t necessarily business professionals who check emails regularly.
Instead of relying solely on email, send direct messages as well—these typically generate much higher response rates.
Don’t abandon your outreach after a single attempt.
Follow up within a few days to bump your message to the top of their inbox and demonstrate your genuine interest in collaborating.
Your messages should be detailed and tailored while remaining concise.
Show authentic enthusiasm for their content—this shouldn’t require pretense if you’re building a product in the same space.
Highlight specific videos or messages that resonated with you and explain how your missions align.
Focus on why their audience would love your product rather than irrelevant details about your company size, funding rounds, or press coverage.
Influencers primarily care about creating engaging content and forming natural partnerships.
Even with excellent outreach, expect more than half of influencers not to respond.
The good news is that influencer marketing becomes progressively easier as you build relationships and social proof in the community.
Structuring Influencer Deals
When structuring deals with influencers, prioritize aligning incentives.
Both parties should want the content to perform well and drive conversions.
Avoid paying the full amount upfront whenever possible.
Split payments based on performance metrics like conversion rates tracked through coupon codes or UTM links.
If an influencer is hesitant about this structure, offer additional bonuses for achieving view or click thresholds.
To minimize cost per video, purchase partnerships in bundles.
Instead of paying for single videos, negotiate packages of three or ten videos at discounted rates.
This approach reduces your per-video cost and allows multiple opportunities for content to perform well.
Never base payment solely on subscriber or follower counts.
The only relevant question is whether their audience will convert and engage with your product.
In today’s social media landscape, someone with 50 followers could potentially generate more engagement than someone with 10 million followers if the content and audience alignment are right.
Negotiation Tactics
When negotiating with influencers, start by discussing a comprehensive package that includes multiple elements—exclusivity, Instagram stories, link-in-bio placement for extended periods, usage rights, etc.
After they provide their price for the complete package, strategically remove elements you don’t need to reduce the cost.
Consider requesting multi-platform posting.
Many creators publish content across multiple platforms (Instagram Reels, TikTok, YouTube Shorts).
Offering 30% more payment for cross-platform posting can dramatically reduce your per-video cost since they’re simply reposting the same content.
Propose long-term partnerships with regular monthly content creation.
This provides influencers with stable income while giving you consistent content at better rates.
Approach negotiations with transparency and honesty.
Clearly explain your pricing constraints and offer fair terms.
Most people respond positively to straightforward communication that respects their value while acknowledging your limitations.
User-Generated Content Strategy
Instead of solely relying on influencer partnerships, consider bringing content creators in-house to develop user-generated content (UGC).
This approach provides stability since you’re posting 20-30 videos monthly—it’s acceptable if many underperform as long as some succeed.
UGC deals typically include a base salary plus performance incentives.
The standard rate is approximately $2,000 monthly plus bonuses based on conversions, potentially resulting in around $3,000 monthly earnings.
When hiring established influencers as UGC creators, expect to pay $3,000-$5,000 monthly plus incentives.
Though costlier, this approach allows you to capture a percentage of their existing audience.
Always incorporate performance incentives to prevent creators from minimizing effort.
Without proper motivation, it’s natural for people to complete assignments with minimal investment, compromising content quality.
Posting Strategy Essentials
Maximize reach by reposting all videos across multiple short-form platforms—Reels, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts.
Performance can vary unpredictably by platform, with content sometimes performing exceptionally on one while flopping on another.
When reposting, avoid using content with visible platform watermarks.
Take time to rewrite text hooks within each native platform to improve SEO and make the content appear less automated.
If working with an influencer who creates UGC for your brand, initially post content similar to their personal account style.
This increases the likelihood that their existing followers will discover your branded content.
As the account gains traction, gradually experiment with more product-focused material.
Maintain a consistent posting schedule, aiming for at least one video daily.
Track performance metrics systematically, documenting different hooks and content ideas in a spreadsheet.
Eliminate underperforming approaches and expand on successful ones.
If your content consistently underperforms despite matching competitor quality, consider creating new accounts or having influencers establish accounts directly.
Sometimes platform algorithms significantly impact visibility regardless of content quality.
Defining Success and Maximizing Impact
True virality isn’t merely about views, comments, or shares—these metrics matter but aren’t the complete picture.
Genuine success means reaching your specific target audience effectively.
A video with 10,000 views that perfectly reaches users who love your product and become evangelists is infinitely more valuable than a million-view video featuring only casual engagement or easily-skipped advertisements.
When content succeeds in generating significant views and engagement, systematically track performance to identify which ideas convert most effectively.
Eliminate non-converting content and explore variations of high-performing approaches.
Creating Content Series
Once you discover a viral video concept, transform it into a series by creating multiple variations of the same basic concept.
Though it might seem counterintuitive, audiences typically enjoy consuming similar content repeatedly with minor variations.
An effective series features a consistent structure with slight modifications for each installment.
For example, Jenny AI created a successful “Point of View” series showing students realizing they had papers due and turning to their product for help.
By changing only the opening scenario while maintaining the same conclusion—using the product—they created consistent viral content.
This single series generated hundreds of millions of views, tens of thousands of paying users, and over half a million dollars in revenue.
Don’t hesitate to post variations of successful content multiple times weekly—some brands post daily variations of the same concept.
A single viral series can potentially transform a business from zero to millions in revenue.
Multi-Account Strategy
To maximize the impact of successful content, create multiple accounts posting similar material.
Once you’ve identified a winning formula, you don’t need to work with major creators—instead, find charismatic UGC creators to remake your proven content.
Jenny AI maintained five different accounts across three platforms, resulting in 15 daily videos.
Many of these accounts had minimal followers yet sometimes outperformed their main account with 55,000 followers, even when posting identical content.
This approach increases the likelihood of reaching different audience segments.
For instance, content about using AI for research might reach engineering students through one account while hitting literature majors through another, maximizing overall exposure across various platform “pockets.”
Extending Content Lifespan
When a content series begins to fade or competitors start copying it, extend its lifespan by collaborating with meme pages and aggregate accounts.
These partnerships typically cost just $50-$100 yet provide access to hundreds of thousands of followers.
While such accounts often have harsh comment sections, the extended reach justifies the investment.
Eventually, enough copycat content will emerge that you’ll need to restart the process, seeking fresh viral concepts.
Final Advice for Implementation
Influencer marketing particularly rewards extra effort and creativity—excellent news for founders with limited capital but abundant determination.
Going the extra mile to contact hard-to-reach influencers often results in less competition and more impressed potential partners.
Identifying rising stars in your industry requires significant work but yields better partnerships than pursuing established creators with agents who maximize their compensation.
Rather than providing influencers with generic scripts, incorporate their existing viral formats or inside jokes.
Allow them creative input in content development, establishing trust while ensuring your product is portrayed appropriately.
Few companies invest this level of effort in influencer partnerships, which explains why many sponsored posts appear forced or disengaged.
While your initial outreach and partnerships may be awkward and potentially unprofitable, your skills will improve with experience.
Remember that a single exceptional influencer partnership can compensate for ten unsuccessful ones, and even failed collaborations provide valuable data for future success.
The knowledge gained from each attempt compounds, leading to more frequent successes and increasingly effective campaigns.
We strongly recommend that you check out our guide on how to take advantage of AI in today’s passive income economy.
