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This AI Photo Editing App Makes $500K a Month

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App Masters10:28Open on YouTube
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The bottom line

Photo Revive AI reached about $500K a month by starting as a niche photo-restoration app while still offering the usual AI image features. Founders should start narrow to win early traction and ASO, then expand.

Key takeaways

  • Photo Revive AI earns about $500K a month. 1:37
    • Sensor Tower and AppFigures both estimate $500K a month, so that is the number used.
    • AppMagic estimates only about $300K, and no single platform is treated as more right than the others.
  • The app wins by being known for photo revival, not for generic AI generation. 2:35
    • The name and screenshots say Bring faded memory moments back to life instead of pitching text to image.
    • It still offers photo to video, text to photo and text to video, so no feature is given up.
  • Credit-based plans on the paywall keep AI costs under control and push users to higher prices. 3:11
    • There is no free trial, and plans are tiered by credits (240 on the basic plan, 570 on the next).
    • Closing the paywall shows a roughly 92% discount on the pro plan, and tapping it forces a login.
    • Per-day pricing of 13 cents a day makes a $47.99 yearly plan feel cheap.
  • Free credits and watermarks bring users in and spread the app. 5:17
    • Signing up gives 50 credits, and rewarded tasks such as sharing, notifications or an Instagram follow give more.
    • A restore costs 35 credits, and removing the watermark needs a paid plan, so free results carry the app to social media.
  • Start in a narrow niche, win early, then expand. 8:54
    • A meditation app, for example, could start with deep breathing.
    • The niche must have real search volume, so check that first.

You can be niche in the very beginning, but still provide the same features that the other apps do, but you want to be known for something.

Steve P. Young

Chapter summaries

0:00 Niche first, features second

A narrow name and focus lets an app stand out in a crowded AI image market.

  • Founders fear niching down, but it works even in a crowded space. 0:26
    • Photo Revive AI offers photo to video, an AI photo enhancer and a family album maker.
    • It chose photo revival over another text to image app.
    • The app name alone says what it does, so users know it before they open it.
    • Steve P. Young stresses that the other generator features come after the niche is set.

2:05 Screenshots, login and pricing tactics

Small flow choices, like seasonal screenshots and a well-timed login, make a niche app convert.

  • Seasonal screenshots keep the store page fresh. 2:25
    • The captured screenshots were from Christmas, with lines like Unlock Christmas blessings.
    • A second headline, turn ideas into visual stories, speaks to the generator audience.
    • Both messages sit in one set of screenshots.
  • A login works better once the user has an incentive. 4:14
    • Asking for login during onboarding has not worked well.
    • The discount offer is the reason to sign in.
    • The higher plan is $89.99, which anchors the discounted price.
  • Per-day pricing is worth testing on mobile. 3:41
    • It tends to work better on the web.
    • Few mobile apps use it yet.
    • Steve thinks 13 cents I can afford beats a yearly price that looks expensive.

5:14 Rewarded tasks and the feature tour

Small rewarded tasks get people using the app before they pay, while the full feature set sits behind the niche.

  • Rewarded tasks start the habit of using the app 5:37
    • The tasks can't be enforced. The Instagram one only opens the page where a follow is possible.
    • Apple likes users who start using a product.
    • The upgrade can come later, once they already use it.
    • The AI photo tab lists one tap restore, AI enhance and text to photo. The video tab has photo to video and text to video.
    • Steve tested it because his own app is similar and he wanted to see what the top app does.

6:35 Testing a restore and the review prompt

The restore looks natural enough to share, and the review prompt is built to collect written reviews.

  • The restored photo looks vibrant, not machine-made 7:10
    • A photo of his parents when they were much younger is the test.
    • The after image has livelier colors and doesn't look so AI automated.
    • The same photo can also get a video template, which he tried.
    • He calls the full saved image really well done.
  • Five stars leads straight into a written review 8:03
    • The prompt right after a creation reads Your five star keeps us motivated.
    • Users can still just rate and hit send.
    • Steve would take plain ratings, because fewer people are willing to rate when asked to write.
    • He will share a link showing how to open the review box directly.

In the growth library

Steve P. Young, Founder of App Masters, breaking down a competitor case study. A teardown of Photo Revive AI, an AI photo app that niched into photo restoration instead of competing as another generic AI image generator. It reportedly earns about $500K a month, and the flow shows how credit pricing, exit discounts, rewarded actions and watermarks work together.

Lessons that draw on this:

More from App Masters · The whole library, and ask it anything

Transcript264 lines
0:00

Coming [snorts] up, I'm going to share with you an AI photo app that decided to niche down instead of competing with all the other AI image generator apps [music] and it's making over $500,000 a month. Stay tuned. [music] What is up app nation? It is Steve P. young founder of appmasters.com and today I want to talk to the app founder out there that is too afraid of niching down and why I think it's so important especially in this crowded app space that we have now and how this particular app has been able to generate over $500,000 a month niching down first then providing all the other features that the AI image generator apps have as well. So, let's get into it. All right, here's the app. It is called Photo Revive AI. Ah, pretty cool name, right?

1:07

Photo revive AI, and it's what you would think it does. Convert photo to video, AI photo enhancer, family album maker, and you can take an old photo, and I'm going to share with you at the end of the video how well it does and some of the cool features. So, stay tuned for that. But I love how this app decided to niche down first into photo revive versus creating another image photo to video or text to image app. Right? So it's making according to our partners at appmagix.ro it's making about 300,000. When we look at sensor tower it's making about 500,000. And so when we look at app figures it's also making $500,000 a month. Now, not one platform is better than the other. I'm just showing you all the data of the different platforms in terms of sales. So, for me, I'm going to go with 500,000 right now since two out of three said it's 500,000.

2:05

Okay. So, let's go into the funnel and the flow. And I personally like to do it like this. So, if you guys prefer to see it on a Canva where you can get access to all of this, I'm going to share it with you. But if you want the entire PDF or the flow, just use the link below and we will send that to you as well. All right, here it is. Bring faded memory moments back to life. So you guys can see that. And they're very seasonal cuz at the time I took all these screenshots, it was during Christmas. So unlock Christmas blessings, so forth.

2:35

And then turn ideas into visual stories. So rather than catering to the text to image, text to video audience, they decided to niche down with their app name and their screenshots and also still provide the same features. That's why I really love it, right? Like you can be niche in the very beginning, but still provide the same features that the other apps do, but you want to be known for something, right? So you have this, hit continue, and you see this payw wall. I like this payw wall. Don't think it has any trials. It doesn't look like it has any trials right now. So, there's no trials, which I'm a fan of, too. For certain apps, it does work pretty well.

3:11

And as you can see that there's this basic plan, 240 credits per day, and then 570. So, if you have an AI app and you're worried about AI cost, this is one way of doing it. They've done pretty well with this. And then the cool thing was, hey, if I X out of the payw wall, they'll show me a discount on their pro plan where it's only like 95% off. And so I like charging a little bit more on this plan. So you can see this and then getting it to a higher price point. Now, a couple things I want to highlight in the payw wall. We have seen that per day pricing tends to work better on the web. I haven't seen a lot of apps use it on the mobile side of things, but I would be testing this right now and show per day pricing cuz 13 cents a day is not bad at all. Right? $50 a year. All right.

3:58

$47.99 maybe it's kind of expensive but 13 cents I can afford 13 cents. Okay, so I kind of like the per day pricing. The other thing I want to point out is the the app shows you right here. This is hovering as a premium user. So this is hovering. When I tap on that, it forces me to log in and I really like that. So I know a lot of you guys will ask people to log in first or during the onboarding. We've seen that not work very well, right? So, give them incentive. Like, now that I can get 92% off, I'm like, "Okay, I might do this."

4:33

Now, they're giving me 92% off with this pricing. So, this is the higher pricing that they we saw right here, $89.99, and they're giving us 92% off. Not much of a discount, by the way, but the messaging is interesting that they put it here. Now, you might have missed something on the payw wall, but I'm only going to save it for our appounders.co co community because I don't want it to not work. I really like the idea. If you hit rewind, you'll notice it, but I really like the idea. So, if you're part of the community, you can get access to this video. If you're not, I'm sorry. Go check it out or just hit rewind and see if you can find anything on the payw wall that seems interesting. All right.

5:11

So, I'm sorry. I just recorded the app founders only part, but I want to show you something interesting. So, I've already signed up. I tap this little GIF icon. It's very interesting. and they show me this and I really like this idea, right? I logged in so I got the 50 already, but share creation, you can hit start, enable notifications, you can hit start on that. So, this is all rewarded stuff and I really love this idea of you can't enforce it, right? Like I don't have to follow you on Instagram, but this will take me to the Instagram page where I can get a follow. So, this is a great way for users to start using your product, which Apple loves as well.

5:49

start using your product, start and then potentially try to upgrade at a later date. But it's a great way to give away some free credits and have them start to use your app. All right, so I really like this idea. All right, I'm going to go through the app itself right now. This is the AI photo section and you can see some of the features. One tap restore, AI enhance text to photo, right? I know a lot of you guys are building text to photos, but I wanted to create this because we have a an a very similar app and I wanted to see what the top app was doing in this space. All right, this is the AI video site again.

6:24

Again, photo to video and then text to video and I wanted to put this app into play and see how well it would do in restoring an old photo of ours and see if it works. So, this is these are my parents and I hope they don't mind me sharing this on YouTube. These are my parents, you know, a lot younger back in the day, but I want to see how well this would restore. And so, I hit and generate and it's 35 credits, right? I had 50 just for signing up. I love that they're getting me to try to upgrade while they have a time limit on them doing stuff.

7:01

So, I love this. Right now I can remove watermark which I'll have to pay for. But look at the difference. This is the before. This is the after. I really really think it's cool. I'm like wow. They did look make it look a lot more vibrant and it's doesn't look so AI automated. And I love especially with photo apps. I love having watermarks because it's a great way to get more users. That viral component that you guys keep asking me about. This is an interesting way of trying to go quote unquote viral or create a word of mouth system that can attract more users just through something that they created for free within their app. So I can save and then share it to other social media platforms. Here's the full image. Really well done. So they also allow you to take this photo and apply a video template on that. And so I have that. So I tried that as well. And you can see right after they I created two things

8:00

that I enjoy your our app. Your five star keeps us motivated. I love the messaging here. If I hit five stars, it takes me straight into this review. I'll create a link that you guys can use that will show you how to actually take users straight into the review, writing a review versus leaving a rating, right? I would personally just let them put a fivestar because I rather have the ratings than the written. But it's up to you guys if you want to do the written one. I just don't think people are willing to rate as much. But here you can do both, right? You can just rate it and hit send or you can put a written review. So maybe this way is better to get written reviews. Okay, that was it.

8:42

A really cool app that I showed you has all the features of normal AI image generator apps. So, if you got one of those, I wanted [music] to create this video to show you the the value, the potential of starting niche. Now, I know this niche has some search volume. So, you want to kind of look at that, but I like I always say, if you got a meditation app, start with deep breathing. start more niche so that you can start get that early traction, early revenues, early ASO traction and then start expanding because you can still have all the features that any AI image, AI photo generator app has, but the features or the audience you're catering to probably more interesting. So don't be afraid of starting [music] niche. Zap is already making half a million dollars a month. All right. [music] And if you want access to that secret, it's already available. Just re hit rewind and watch it. But if you want access to me sharing

9:40

the secret payw wall strategies that I think will be effective in the future, and I do not want Apple to start rejecting it, go check out appfounders.co. [music] A community of over 100 app founders helping each other out. We meet twice a month. We share a lot of great content. [music] We try to help each other out. We do a lot of tests. share those tests within that community. So, go check it out appounders.co. And if you want [music] access to this entire flow without the app founders coexclusive content, well, use the link in [music] the description and we'll send you these slides for free so that you don't have to download the app. Just copy what we have in there. All right, till next time. I'll see [music] you on the next video.