Behind the Scenes of AppSumo Marketing (2/18/26)

Here’s a list of everything going on in marketing at AppSumo this week:

1. AI Week (Next week at AppSumo)

Giveaway ads are crushing it: 5.3k+ leads at $0.19 CPL. After strong initial results, Nick had 565 up spend and it’s paying off. We also launched UGC to diversify our giveaway ad placements.

We have 10+ YT Shorts in progress for AI Week that we’ll boost via Partnership Ads, plus 3-5 Dave Swift videos going up for AI Week specifically.

After 300K+ impressions, we found that the lighter AI Week creatives (Claude and Lovable) outperformed the darker designs, so we’ve applied that learning to all upcoming AI Week email designs.

2. Non-LTD / % Off Deals

• Moz Pro, Publer, Marblism and Magic Patterns are live.
• WisprFlow and Samcart live shortly.
• Still waiting on final details from Softr, Dub.co, and DeepLearning.AI.
• We’re also still negotiating with Squarespace, Gamma, and ConvertKit. SKU cards are in QA now, and we’re building out copy and creatives.

3. Ads

Meta: Another green week! Launched new TidyCal comparison ads targeting Acuity, Cal, and Calendly (follows our proven Headway ad format) to support new buyer growth and reduce creative fatigue. Also launched GetTerms ads after the marketing team noticed solid in-store performance and wants to test paid.

Google: Missing weekly target by 19%. Taking action to improve by re-introducing YouTube demand-gen campaigns. Launched proven Meta UGC ads to Google to see if we can replicate success. Testing a shift toward productivity/educational video style, moving away from the fast meme/loud/spammy energy.

4. UGC & Video

First drafts back from 2 of 3 TidyCal UGC creators, last one expected Wednesday.

Thumbnails: Jordan’s team is A/B testing hyper-realistic sensationalized images vs. natural vlogger/review style, experimenting with generation tools.

5. Affiliate/Ambassador

Outbound ramping hard: 261 contacts pitched, 184 more on deck. Closed 4 from outbound.

6. Email

Sumo.com promo went out Feb 10 to 20% of Plus members: 46% open rate, 14.8% CTR, 2 transactions. My recommendation is to stick with the Plus Specials page for these non-LTD offers to keep it in one place.

Re-engagement campaign for 2025 buyers who haven’t purchased in ’26 sent to 8.7K, 52 buyers, $10K in revenue. Sending another batch this week.

Coming up: Welcome Series Redesign (including a dedicated Noah page, still pending review, Feb 17), Sold-out/Back in Store flow (Feb 18), TidyCal Welcome Series Redesign (Feb 27).

7. Partner Playbook

Flexifunnels is our first partner that’s getting additional levers pulled for their campaign. What that looks like:

• Affiliate webinar scheduled for Tuesday, then Reddit engagement.
• Second SumoPulse + Dedicated Saturday Recap + additional mention in another recap email. I’m monitoring daily sales and will see if we can see any uplift from doing all of the above.

The next partner I’m meeting with is TubeOnAI next Tuesday. I’ll give you an update on how that goes and what we decide to do for them next week.

This post was written by our CMO Ilona Abramova.

Originally published as an article on X on 2026-02-18.