Some consumer apps are still making tens of millions of views with slideshows.
They go viral by nailing the small tricks others don’t, such as knowing when to hide the product, when to push the CTA, and how to turn comments into the real conversion layer.
The content does not need to explain everything. It just needs to create enough curiosity, emotional tension, or relevance for the right viewer to stop, save, share, or search.
Most of these posts sell in one of three ways.
1. Hard CTA
The app is named clearly and the last slide tells people exactly what to do.
A good example is Studley AI. One account pulled more than 5M views using only slideshows with the same school photos, switching the order, and changing the grade shown on the phone.
The format is extremely easy to scale: same setting, same proof, same story, just with a different result on screen.
The CTA always lands at the end, and it is obvious. The better grad is always tied directly to "used Studley AI."
Example at 2.5M views
Widgetable has also been pushing a harder-CTA version of its slideshow strategy.
One of its slideshows hit 5.8M views by leaning into absurd couple tracking: "Counting how many times me & my bf poop in a month."
The slides after are basically product demos showing the counter inside the app.
The CTA is more visible here because the product itself becomes the punchline.
2. Soft CTA
This is where the product appears in the story, but it is not the main point of the post.
One common version is the saveable advice carousel. Instead of one big reveal, it packages the post as niche tips or advice people want to screenshot and come back to later.
The design is usually very repeatable: background image, big text box, numbered tip, then one later slide where the app gets inserted into the routine.
That is what apps like Vent Now and Scroll to Study do well.
The product is less of a punchline and more of a recommendation embedded into useful content.
You are mostly consuming the advice first. The app only appears once the viewer is already in the post.
Vent Now
7.4M views, 3M views, 2.1M views
Scroll to study
5M views
3. Product placement
Here the app is visible or implied, but the content is really built around the story and the hook.
Widgetable is a strong example here too. They’ve done millions of views with a relationship plot twist.
The opening hook set up a soft romantic frame; "everytime someone says 'awww you have such a perfect relationship'" and then the next slide break that illusion with lock screen receipts, fake notifications, and emotionally loaded messages.
2.6M views, 4M views, 3.4M views and more.
The CTA stays subtle in the background. The widgets are embedded into the lock screen.
The same logic also shows up outside relationship apps.
Symmetry, a Spanish gym app, used fake breakup-style notifications to build a fitness hook and pulled 14.7M views.
Then there is Pure. The slideshows are two pictures built the same handful of recurring Pinterest style selfies and conversation screenshots.
@datingwithmads already did over 140M views posting the same format over and over again.
Here, the CTA doesn’t even show in the slideshow itself.
The post is made to spark genuine reactions first, while the product gets pushed into the caption, hashtags, account identity, and comment section.
Where the real sell happens
There is no magic slideshow formula that works for every company.
But for consumer apps whose users already live inside TikTok and Instagram, faceless slideshows still offer one of the cheapest ways to test hooks, scale accounts, and build product discovery.
Many times, when none of those CTAs are obvious, the conversion can be pushed into the comments.
When people ask for the story, what the widget is, how it works, or where to find it.
The mistake is assuming the post has failed just because the CTA is not loud.
Tthe sell often happens later: push it in the last slide, in the username, in the bio, in the comments, or in the viewer's own search bar.