A year solo on my baby tracker: 450 downloads/mo, $150 MRR, and why I lose money on ads on purpose

I'm an iOS developer. For ten years I wrote code for other people, then decided to build something for myself. I've spent the last year building Malyatko, a baby tracker for parents. Building it was the easy part.

Here are my numbers first — I'd rather you see them than read another success story with the losses edited out:

- 450 downloads last month (250 paid, 200 organic)

- Organic growing ~10% MoM

- D1 retention 45%, D7 20%

- MRR: $150

- 4.9 from 113 reviews (5.0 from 81 in Ukraine)

- Free-to-paid conversion ~2–3%

I spend ~$350/month on Apple Search Ads and earn $150. So yes — I lose money every month, on purpose. Here's why.

Why I built it

My son Yarema was born prematurely at 29 weeks — almost three months in hospital I'll never forget. After discharge he ate badly and gained weight slowly, so we logged every feed, weigh-in and measurement in a notes app to show our pediatrician. At some point I thought: this should be a real app. I went looking on iOS.

I went through ~20 apps. Some looked five years untouched. Some opened with a 40-question quiz and a hard paywall before you could log anything. Many had no Ukrainian localization. The good ones were expensive. So I built my own.

Five months of building

Idea to release took five months — 2–3 hours every evening after my day job, or at night once everyone was asleep. The principles, because I was also the user:

- No registration. None.

- No quiz before you can use the app.

- Any entry in a couple of taps.

- Tracking is free for everyone.

- Clean, modern, light interface — no clutter.

- Always designed for a mother who hasn't slept in weeks. If she can't work it out half-awake at 4am, it's wrong.

Malyatko shipped localized into 29 languages (screenshots and store descriptions included), and I shipped improvements almost daily for six more months. Today it has daily tracking, skills by month, developmental milestones by week, exercises and games, sleep sounds, sleep prediction, charts, AI insights, and shared access for both parents. Data stays on your device and in your own private iCloud — never on my servers.

Attempt one: $800 on Meta Ads

First three months I ran Meta ads — ~2,000 users and great feedback. Static creatives I drew in Figma landed ~$1/install. UGC video took off: $0.15/install. I thought I'd cracked it. Then it climbed to $0.60 — audience burnout. My target (mothers with kids under one) is narrow, and Ukraine's birth rate is low. Poland and Germany came out 4–5× more expensive. The unit economics were never going to close.

Attempt two: $300 set on fire in Apple Search Ads

I launched a broad campaign with Search Match on, without understanding either. A month later: $300 gone, a couple dozen downloads, zero insight into which keywords mattered. That's when I realized I needed a strategy, not a budget.

The reframe: ads as a research instrument

In my niche parents genuinely search the App Store for a baby tracker — the intent is there, I just need to be findable. So I use Apple Search Ads not mainly to acquire, but to research ASO. With 29 localizations, I go slowly: 2–3 countries/month, $300–400.

The loop per country:

1. Generate every plausible search combination for that market (I built a Claude skill that produces the full set).

2. Launch an exact-match campaign, wait a month.

3. See which keywords converted — then analyze who holds them (Title vs Subtitle, how densely). If a phrase sits in several top competitors' Titles, don't waste the slot.

4. Rewrite Title, Subtitle and Keywords for that locale based on real data. Next country.densely). If a phrase sits in several top competitors' Titles, don't waste the slot.

4. Rewrite Title, Subtitle and Keywords for that locale based on real data. Next country.

When a keyword hits position 1–3, I pause ads on it — organic is already coming.

What I've learned

- Data threshold differs by market: big markets → judge by downloads; small ones (Slovenia, Slovakia, Croatia) → impressions are enough.

- Some countries (Malaysia, Vietnam) only produce impressions on English keywords — don't bother with local keyword research there.

- Expect a 4–8 week dip after changing metadata. Don't panic and revert on week two.

- Free ASO tools are directional, not conclusive — I found real traffic where they showed none.

What it costs

A full pass across 29 locales ≈ 10 months and $2–3k. What I get is tested ASO per locale — verified data, not tool hypotheses. That's why I'm fine spending $350 to earn $150: it's the price of data I can't get any other way. When every market's done, I'll keep only the proven keywords and run ~$300 just to hold a download rate that accumulates ratings.

Will it pay off? Don't know yet. Competition is enormous; my realistic plan is to break even within a year. Ask me again in a year.

If you're also dragging an app along solo and have ASO/ASA questions, ask in the comments — happy to answer.

Malyatko: https://malyatko.app ·
App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6757263634