Hey — It’s Nico.

This is yet another installment of Behind Tactics 🧠, where I explore various strategies startups employ to capture their markets.

This week’s edition is brought to you by Dofollow.com, the SaaS link-building specialists.

Back in January, when OpenAI launched the GPT Store, I talked about the big opportunities this new store had for new and existing businesses.

Since then, we have seen an explosion of new custom GPTs being created — there are now more than 159k GPTs in the store.

Today, I want to focus on how VEED has leveraged the potential of the GPT Store and how they are acquiring over 400k users per month with a single custom GPT.

Let's dive into what this GPT does, how it funnels users back to the VEED platform, and how you can apply this strategy 👇

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The Strategy

From GPT to VEED

On November 14, VEED launched Video GPT by VEED. 

This custom GPT allows its users to create social media videos from text prompts using AI. The user describes the video they want to make (the topic, style, tone, visuals, and music), and the GPT creates the video in a matter of seconds.

Let’s take a look at this example I made:

1. I started by describing the main idea of the video. Video GPT will ask for some additional information to better understand what you want.

   

2. GPT creates a script and then suggests different avatars. You can edit the script and then pick the avatar you want.

   

3. GPT shows a link to the video in the chat, but you can only watch or edit the whole video on the VEED platform.

   

Most users will likely want to check their creation, so there is a high probability that a significant percentage of GPT users will be redirected to VEED's platform.

From there, they can edit the video if desired. Most of VEED's video editing features are free, but some, such as "Clean Audio" or, more importantly, the watermark removal option, are only available to paid users.

At this point, my video is almost finished, and it is looking good. There is only one issue: that annoying watermark. Luckily, becoming a paid user is only $12, so I did not hesitate much before signing up.

And that is how I went from playing with a silly GPT I found on the GPT Store to becoming a paid VEED user in a matter of minutes. 

Realizing the power of VEED’s strategy, I started investigating how profitable this GPT is.

Unfortunately, the founder has not disclosed how many people coming from ChatGPT have become VEED’s customers and how much money this GPT generated for them.

But with some simple math, we can make an educated guess:

• In January, they had 400,000 people users in Video GPT.

• If only 0.25% were willing to pay to remove the watermark (a conservative estimation in my opinion), that is 1,000 paying customers in that month.

• At $12/mo, that’s $12,000 of revenue for building a simple GPT that acts as an interface for their platform.

Should I?

Why This Works

• You are leveraging ChatGPT’s huge user base. Last month, ChatGPT had approximately 180 million users. While many of these users do not have access to custom GPTs (since it’s a paid feature), even a small fraction of Plus subscribers constitute an immense number. At the same time, the fact that only Plus users can use GPTs means that they’re all people willing to pay for software (they are already paying for ChatGPT). Eventually, Open AI might open GPTs for free users. This can increase the usage of GPTs, so you want yours to already rank well in the GPT Store.

• You ride the AI wave. Two weeks ago, I wrote about how Gamma had powered its WOM by riding the AI content wave, getting featured in thousands of AI newsletters and directories. By creating a GPT, you can also ride this wave. You’ll probably get listed in GPT directories, like GPTs Hunter, and AI-focused newsletters, like Superhuman.

• GPT Store keeps growing. It is true that nowadays, the GPT Store is not huge in terms of users. Still, I would not bet against Sam Altand and OpenAI. Since the GPT Store’s launch, they’ve been releasing plenty of updates. Last week, they added reviews and social profiles for the GPT builders. Revenue-sharing is coming at some point in Q1. So, apart from being able to get paid users for your SaaS, you may be able to generate some revenue with the GPT itself.

How to Apply It

1) Create a GPT That Integrates With Your Tool

Think of how you can use GPT’s power to satisfy your user’s needs.

Ensure it meets the needs of the user while reserving certain advanced features for other users who are willing to pay extra.

If you can, you should also try to redirect the users to your main tool. The best way of achieving this is by following VEED’s example and providing some extra functionalities that only work on your platform.

2) Optimize Your GPT to Rank Well on The GPT Store

GPT Store Optimization (GSO) is becoming a thing. Though the exact ranking factors are unclear, they likely include the GPT name and description, user engagement, reviews, and ratings.

To optimize:

• Choose a name that includes your main keyword (e.g., "Video GPT by VEED" includes the keyword “Video”).

• Craft an optimized GPT description with desired keywords (e.g., VEED's: "AI Video Maker. Generate videos for social media - YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and more!").

• Design an eye-catching GPT logo.

• Market outside the GPT store — share with existing customers, promote on social media, and utilize GPT directories and newsletters.

• Enhance the GPT continually — ensure no errors, optimize speed, and provide useful conversation starters.

Yes, But

• The GPT Store is still only being used by a few paid users and does not have much appeal to the general public.

• To find new GPTs, users have to search the Store, which means that you have to invest resources in optimizing your GSO.

• Furthermore, the store’s search engine seems to behave a little bit weirdly.

• This might change in the future. ChatGPT might start suggesting the user to use a specific GPT based on the user’s input.

• The support for GPTs seems to be lacking. This is expected, considering it is a new platform that has experienced exponential growth, and the support team is likely overloaded.

Keep Learning

Others Playing It

Canva has created a GPT for creating visual content.

• Clicking on the images drives you to Canva, so you can keep editing the image. The idea is great and works similarly to what VEED is doing, but the integration is not as seamless because it requires users to sign up or log in to Canva.

• Personally, I would make the editor accessible with no account and then limit the download of the image. They could, for example, limit downloads to low quality for free users.

• That being said, according to Canva’s Head of Ecosystem, they are mostly using the GPT to learn from users’ behaviors rather than as a user acquisition channel.

Whimsical has created a custom GPT that creates diagrams based on prompts.

• Similar to Canva, if you want to edit the diagram, you must head into the Whimsical platform.

• An account is not needed to do edits, but it is to download the image.

Typeframes is doing something similar to VEED.

• You can create an AI-generated video on the GPT, and then edit it on the Typeframes platform.

• He is getting 100-200 visitors from this.

Go Deeper

• Learn more about how Canva is using GPTs.

• Start learning about GPT Store Optimization.

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That’s all for this edition.

Cheers,

Nico