Rick Hermanus Antonius

adhd guy creating random stuff @ wip - previously media buyer & growth engineer

[Rick Hermanus Antonius @rickdeklein]

I checked out your products after reading this lol.

They’re definitely more customized than most vibe coded stuff, but you can still see quite a few of the same AI slop patterns in the design.

I agree with your actual point though, which is why I said “right message wrong messenger”

[Rick Hermanus Antonius @rickdeklein]

@wilczyn 100%. especially now that everyone can build.

there are probably thousands of genuinely good products sitting at 20 users rn not because the product sucks, but because literally nobody knows they exist.

distribution is the hard part.

[Rick Hermanus Antonius @rickdeklein]

If vibe coding proved anything, it’s that marketers aren’t becoming irrelevant.

You can build a pretty decent product now without being a great engineer. Describe what you want, write some prompts and you can get surprisingly far.

But now everyone can build.

Knowing what people actually want, having taste, branding it properly and figuring out distribution is still the hard part.

Making products got easier. Making people care didn’t.

[Daniel Smidstrup @DanielSmidstrup]

Who is better positioned to build in public?

The 'software engineer' doing 'vibe marketing'

or

The 'marketer' doing 'vibe coding'?

[Rick Hermanus Antonius @rickdeklein]

Someone spent $40 on Google Ads for their app, made $0, and concluded that ads weren't working.

But the ads might not actually be the problem.

Say you're paying $2/install and 5% of users make a $10 purchase.

$40 → 20 installs → 1 customer → $10 revenue.

You could optimize the campaign all day and still have terrible economics.

Sometimes your targeting/creative isn't broken. Your allowable CAC is just too low.

[pc @pcshipp]

I’m stopping Google Ads. It’s not working for me. I spent $40 on ads yes, it’s a small investment, but I got zero ROI.

The same app made $53 in revenue without ads. Why aren’t ads working? Is it just my app?

Anyone getting positive ROI from ads?

[Rick Hermanus Antonius @rickdeklein]

@solopribuilds I mean you would've known with ease if you'd have GA4 / GTM setup lol

You check where the drop-off is at, inspect and adjust and see if data gets better along the way

[Rick Hermanus Antonius @rickdeklein]

iOS / Android app paid ads are just brutal economics tbh.

You spend $40 and get 0 ROI and it feels like the ads failed, but the problem is usually the math. Apple takes their cut, only a % of installs actually pay, and your AOV/LTV is probably low as hell compared to what it costs to acquire an iOS user.

Lets say you pay $2 per install and 5% convert to a $10 purchase. You just paid $40 to get 20 installs -> 1 buyer -> $10 revenue before Apple's cut lol.

Organic making $53 doesn't mean paid traffic should work. Organic users are literally free acquisition, so the economics are completely different :)

[Rick Hermanus Antonius @rickdeklein]

@RatheeJaisal In Dutch we say: ‘You can’t always roll a six.’

[Rick Hermanus Antonius @rickdeklein]

The cool thing about SEO is that the work starts compounding while you're already building the next thing.

Put my SaaS on Google about a week ago.

12 impressions. 1 click. Basically nothing.

But instead of sitting around waiting for SEO to kick in, I can keep shipping, keep planting pages, and let Google do its thing in the background.

Small numbers now. Let's see what they look like in 3 months.

[Rick Hermanus Antonius @rickdeklein]

@tomkrcha lfgggg

[Rick Hermanus Antonius @rickdeklein]

@markbuildsbrand aint no way boy

[Rick Hermanus Antonius @rickdeklein]

@jmbynx Don't forget about the weasels taking the same picture on a jetski 🤡

[Rick Hermanus Antonius @rickdeklein]

@jmbynx Real, and its all the same corny shit tbh

[Rick Hermanus Antonius @rickdeklein]

@jmbynx Bro aint missing once 🫡

[Rick Hermanus Antonius @rickdeklein]

@abdullah4204k addx

[Rick Hermanus Antonius @rickdeklein]

@laptop_fran My g!

[Rick Hermanus Antonius @rickdeklein]

@Pranav_cuts Hell yeah

[Rick Hermanus Antonius @rickdeklein]

@Duct0x Yessirrrrrrrrrrr

[Rick Hermanus Antonius @rickdeklein]

@MB99_XAU My guy! 💪