23,494 of Deepstash's 25,034 Ads Bypass the App Store: Inside the Quiz Funnel
fekdaoui · x · 2026-10-17
A teardown of microlearning app Deepstash's user-acquisition funnel: 23,494 of its 25,034 ads (94%) skip the App Store entirely, instead sending users to a quiz on their website.
- First screen: same promise as the ad ("Replace doomscrolling with microlearning"), a 2AM doomscrolling cartoon, one button, one positioning line — "TikTok vibes but for smart people."
- 33 screens before any ask: age, goal clarity, self-doubt, introvert/extrovert — one tap per screen, easy questions first, sunk cost by the end.
- Every answer gets a personalized reply, building a feeling of being understood.
A contrast the author draws in a quoted tweet: Wispr Flow angles its ads per buyer type, while Deepstash runs 9,662 ads all selling the single idea of "the TikTok alternative for smart people," changing only the first few seconds of hook. Their oldest ads have run for 170 days.
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