Campus Social App – 25M views, 12.3% engagement rate

Viral, But Local Yik Yak is an anonymous social app built for campus culture. SideShift amplified its viral momentum, turning raw community energy into scalable content that drove installs and engagement.

Barriers

• Niche appeal: Viral on some campuses, but growth was uneven.
• No creator pipeline: Needed creators who could match its irreverent, anonymous tone.
• Paid ads didn’t fit: Traditional ads felt off-brand.

Approach

• Tone-matched creators: Ran content across multiple schools to find what stuck.
• Campus format testing: Built formats that teased the app’s experience without showing it directly.
• Native visuals: Content that felt native to the chaos.

Results

• 23.6m views
• 3k total posts
• $25k in spend // $1.1 CPM
• 1 month campaign
• Top 10 on the appstore
• Repeatable engine for campus-by-campus growth

Conclusion Yik Yak worked because it leaned into its niche. SideShift helped turn viral moments into a scalable strategy by matching tone and building formats that felt native to the feed and the dorm.