Anyone figured out how to get more signups with dating app advertising
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So I’ve been messing around with dating app advertising lately, and something keeps bugging me. Why is it that some ads pull in signups effortlessly while others just… sit there doing nothing? It got me thinking about what actually makes people stop scrolling and decide, “Okay fine, let me try this app.” I figured I’d share my little rabbit hole of trial and error in case someone else is stuck in the same loop.
At first, I honestly thought it was going to be simple. I mean, dating apps are everywhere. You’d think people are always curious, always willing to try one more app, right? But nope. My early ads barely moved the needle. I kept refreshing the dashboard expecting something magical to happen. It didn’t. That’s when I realized the problem wasn’t the product—it was the way I was talking to people in the ads.
One thing that hit me pretty quickly is how fast people judge an ad. You only get a second or two. And if your ad looks like the usual “Find love today!” stuff, it disappears into the void. I’m guilty of using those templates at first because they felt “safe,” but safe also turned out to be boring. Nobody wants to feel like they’re looking at generic stock dating ads. The more my ads looked like actual real people having real moments, the better the reactions got.
Another thing that confused me in the beginning was targeting. I kept aiming too broadly, thinking wider net = more signups. But in reality, I was wasting impressions on people who clearly weren’t in the mood to download anything new. When I narrowed things down to specific interests and age ranges, the whole mood of the ad performance changed. I think it’s because the ad started feeling more relevant to the person seeing it—which in hindsight is obvious, but I guess you only learn this stuff after you mess it up a few times.
Something that surprised me was how much the signup page itself matters. I spent so much time tweaking the ad but barely touched the landing flow. Then I started noticing smaller details like slow loading, too many fields, or images that didn’t match the ad’s vibe. People bounce fast if they feel even the slightest disconnect. Once I made the page look cleaner and a bit more like the ad that got them there, the numbers improved.
I also played around with different ad formats. Static images were okay, but short video clips made a noticeable difference. Not the polished type, but the casual “recorded on someone’s phone” style. People seem to trust that more. I guess we’ve all developed some radar for content that feels real versus content that’s trying too hard. And dating is already personal, so the ad needs to feel like you’re not selling but more like suggesting, “Hey, here’s something that might make meeting people a bit easier.”
After weeks of testing, I stumbled onto something that helped me quite a bit. It wasn’t a secret trick or anything fancy—just a more grounded, straightforward way of putting the ad together. Someone shared this article about how to actually Get More Signups with Dating App Advertising and I realized I wasn’t alone in figuring this out. It pointed out things I was already suspecting but hadn’t fully pieced together, like how consistency between the ad and the landing page matters more than flashy creatives.
Once I stopped overthinking and just started approaching the ads the way real users think—quick, emotional, relatable—the signup rate slowly climbed. I’m not saying it’s perfect now, but it feels a lot less random. I kind of treat it like a conversation now. Instead of shouting, “Download this app,” I’m trying to show a moment or a feeling someone might connect with. Sometimes the simplest captions work best, like “Met someone interesting today?” or “Trying again doesn’t hurt.” Stuff people actually say, not ad-speak.
If I had to sum up what helped the most, it’s this: be realistic, be simple, and stay close to how normal people think about dating. Almost everyone on a dating app wants something—fun, connection, companionship—but nobody wants to feel pressured into it. And the ad should reflect that vibe. Once I leaned into that angle, the whole thing started to make sense.
I still test new variations all the time, and some of them flop hard. But now when I look at an ad that underperforms, I don’t think “bad luck.” I think, “Does this feel like something I would click on?” And most of the time, that answer helps me fix things quicker.
Anyway, that’s what I’ve learned so far. If anyone else here is experimenting with dating app advertising and trying to get those signups moving, I’d love to hear what you noticed too. It’s weirdly comforting knowing other people are figuring this stuff out the same messy way.