What to do when your product isn’t ‘sexy’ — and still needs to sell [Case Study]

When I worked on creatives for Cleo — a finance app that spots you up to $250 when you're low on cash —

we didn’t try to make budgeting or credit scores look glamorous.

I leaned into the actual experience:

That gut-punch moment when you check your account and see $4.52…

and you’ve still got five days left in the month.

And the best-performing creative?

A 9-second CapCut skit.

So bad it was good.

Filmed on an iPhone. Messy lighting. Cringe template. Zero polish.

Text overlay:

“When you are low on cash for groceries and Cleo helps you spot $250 when you

are mostly in need’’.

That one ad alone brought in 430 new users.

Problem → solution.

Over and over. In different trending formats.

Text overlays. Skits. POVs. Memes.

“Was so broke I couldn’t pay gash → Cleo spotted me up to $250.”

“Had $4.00 in my account → Cleo saved me from overdrafting.”

“Rent is due in a week → Cleo helped me out.”

I made multiple variations of that format —

and they all converted.

Because TikTok doesn’t reward high production value.

It rewards clarity. Relevance. Familiarity.

You might think it’s easier to sell cosmetics on TikTok than a finance app —

but that’s only true if you don’t understand platform-native positioning.

The truth is:

If you identify the problem of your consumer and can sell the solution

by using market psychology and real life scenarios you will always convert.