How Loper Scaled From Isolated Viral Hits to 180+ Million Views (And What Made the Difference)

Loper is a free college discovery app targeting Gen Z high school students. The app is designed to help students “match” with colleges that fit them, research and learn about different options, and help prospective students through the application process. 

The audience lives on short-form video. The app helps students with an emotionally charged, high stakes decision, and the app’s overall feel lends itself well to UGC. Loper understood this early.

Between May 2022 and December 2024, Loper posted over 800 videos across their TikTok and Instagram accounts (@get_loper on both platforms), and the viewership was impressive:

• Over 71.7 million views

• 9 videos exceeding 1 million views, with the top three netting over 26M, 10M, and 7M

• 32 videos netting 100-600k views

You couldn’t say Loper was struggling to find product-market fit on social. They’d already found it.

Yet, coming into 2025, they were still operating just one primary account per platform. The viral hits came, but the system to actually capitalize on them at scale didn’t exist, but that changed in early 2025, when they began shifting to a multi-account, multi-creator distribution model. 

Within months, they added another 110 million views, more than doubled student signups year over year, and climbed to #44 in the App Store Education charts - a very competitive category with the likes of Duolingo and Turbo AI.

This breakdown explores what Loper built before their 2025 shift, what exactly changed, and what the data reveals about the difference between occasional viral success, and systematic scale.

Phase One: Consistent Output, Sporadic Scale (May 2022 to December 2024)

From May 2022 through the end of 2024, Loper maintained a steady presence on TikTok and Instagram through their primary account: @get_loper. 

Their posting cadence was consistent, averaging 26 videos per month across platforms, and their content evolved over time from polished brand material (typical for the time) towards more native, UGC-style formats.

Their results were generally strong, and their breakouts weren’t one-off events. They had a few viral hits, though it’s worth noting they had the biggest success on TikTok:

Beyond these million-view videos, 32 additional pieces landed in the 100k - 1M range. It’s safe to say they weren’t struggling to find traction.

The 2024 dip in viewership, despite increased posting volume, is worth looking into. More content was going out, but the viral breakthroughs were less frequent. Their single-account model appeared to be reaching it’s ceiling.

But this constraint wasn’t necessarily creative. It was structural. 

All of Loper’s output flowed through their primary accounts. When a video went viral, there wasn’t a network of accounts to amplify it. There weren’t any parallel creator voices running variations of winning formats and hooks. There wasn’t a systematic redistribution strategy.

Each viral hit existed in isolation rather than as a part of a compounding system.

The Shift: Late 2024 to Early 2025.

At the end of 2024, something shifted. Looking into the company’s LinkedIn, Loper hired a dedicated ‘Head of Growth Marketing’. The impact of this began to show in early 2025. 

In March, Loper launched multiple new accounts such as @the_loper_app and @loper_collegeguides on TikTok, or @app.loper on Instagram. They also began working with external UGC creators rather than relying purely on internal content. @college.advice.with.ava started posting organic UGC content up to five times per week on TikTok, and the same creator was posting from @college.tips.with.ava on Instagram. @academicswithandra also started posting Loper content around the same time, though her account seems to have stopped posting in May.

It feels like March itself was a “setup” month. Viewership actually dipped around then as the infrastructure was being established, but the foundations were now in place.

Phase Two: Breakout (April to May 2025)

April and May delivered the results.

On the 3rd of April, a @collegewstephy posted her first video on Tiktok and Instagram, and over the following days, her content started ramping up. Her first two videos gained 41.4k and 31.1k views, and then, on the 5th of April, she posted the following video:

This hit almost 13 million views, and the format was ridiculously simple: 

• Hook: Relatable text overlay (“You found your dream college in less than an HOUR?”)

• Synced with a “similar” relevant audio

• Followed by a quick app demo.

On the 20th of April, the original @get_loper account posted a demo-style video that hit 26.1 million views with a straightforward hook: “Don’t know where you’re going to college? This app’s for you.”

On the 13th of May, @the_loper_app posted what would become their highest-performing video: a reaction-style piece with the text overlay acting as the hook:

This hit 41.7 million views.

Monthly viewership started to reflect Loper’s strategic shift: 

• 1.6M views in April. 

• 9.9M views in May. 

US App Store downloads jumped:

• 9k+ downloads in April 

• 32k+ downloads in May. 

And Loper peaked at #44 in the Education charts.

The biggest difference now, when compared to their previous viral hits, wasn't the quality of the content being published, it was the content distribution system they built to amplify their reach.

Rather than a single account trying to go viral - Loper now had multiple accounts running variations simultaneously, and doubling down on winning formats. Winning content was also being reposted across accounts and platforms. For example, the 26.1 million view video from @get_loper was reposted to @the_loper_app, generating an additional 6.5 million views on the same platform.

Phase Three: Sustained Scale (June to December 2025)

Loper’s total views (year to date) have now exceeded 110 million, with over 1.5M engagements, and this is still growing.

The platform split is heavily skewed towards TikTok, with 103.1 million views versus Instagram’s 7.6 million views. TikTok is clearly the primary growth driver here, but Instagram still serves a valuable function as a redistribution channel.

During this period, Loper’s creator expansion continued. New accounts launched in October (e.g., @chloecollegetips, @taniya_collegetips) through to December (e.g., @collegehelpwelle, @collegetipswithmal), and some of those accounts only started posting a few days before writing this breakdown.

Not all experiments persisted though, and several were abandoned after limited runs:

• @loper_parents: six weeks (May to June)

• @academicswithandra: two and a half months (March to May)

• @loper_collegeguides: Two months (March to May)

• @Taniya_collegetips: Three weeks (October)

Content Analysis: Winning formulas

Examining Loper’s top-performing content revealed a tight creative approach.

1. The dominant format is reaction-style video with text overlay, typically followed by an app demo. Many of their top videos followed this template. The hook addresses a pain point (“spending hours Googling colleges”), positions the app as the solution, and demonstrates the product within 15 seconds. Although, they did also find a lot of success with the other hooks described above.

The variations on the high performing hooks is definitely good practice:

• "Me seeing so many juniors spending hours Googling colleges but there's an app..." (41.7M views) 

• "Me seeing juniors spending hours googling colleges to apply but there's an app..." (3.4M views) 

• "me seeing so many juniors spending hours researching colleges but there's an app..." (3.3M views) 

• "when people tell me they spent hours googling schools to build their college list when this app exists" (2.4M views) 

Once Loper identified a winning hook, they distributed it at scale with minor wording adjustments. Their strategy prioritised replication and distribution over constant novelty.

2. Cross-platform redistribution: The majority of the content posted on TikTok was reposted to Instagram, which is excellent practice, as you’ll always reach audiences that may not have seen your video otherwise. In some cases, viewership on Instagram or other channels (e.g., Snapchat, YouTube shorts) might even surpass TikTok, but that’s (the rare case)

Downloads and Viewership Correlation

Loper’s App Store downloads showed clear correlation with viewership peaks:

(Note: App downloads are estimate figures)

Loper’s highest single-week downloads occurred in September with nearly 11.6k. This aligns with the college application timeline: students typically research during summer, and college applications open in Autumn. Loper’s content timing maps well to this window.

Google Play shows a different pattern. Loper’s downloads didn’t spike until August (7k+), with an earlier peak in April (1k+) following the first viral breakout. Loper actually hit #1 in the Google Play Trending Education chart at the start of this year, and they’ve periodically returned to the top 20 since.

What Changed: Single-Account vs. Multi-Account Distribution

Loper’s pre-2025 and post-2025 phases produced similar quality content. The difference was in the structure.

(2022-2024)

• Single primary account per platform

• Viral hits occurred but were somewhat isolated

• No systematic redistribution of successful content

• No parallel creator voices running variations

• Average 26 posts/month, ~71.7M total views over 2.5 years

(2025)

• Multiple accounts across platforms

• Winning content redistributed across the network

• External creators replicating proven formats simultaneously

• Dedicated marketing leadership driving strategy

• 110.8M views in under 12 months

The product fit and the content formula were proven years ago. What changed was the infrastructure to capitalise on its impact.

What the Data Suggests is Working

Doubling down on successful hooks. Rather than constantly running dozens of unique angles, Loper identified a few high performing hook structures and scaled them horizontally through multiple creator accounts.

Redistribution as a multiplier. Reposting winning videos to secondary accounts extends reach without any additional production cost. This is underutilised by most brands running UGC. 

Consistent & relevant account naming. Handles like @collegetipswithmal and @college.advice.with.ava are discoverable search terms. Students searching for college advice may come across these accounts fully organically. 

Seasonal timing alignment. The March launch, April/May breakout, and sustained summer presence map well to when the target audience is most actively researching colleges. 

What Could Be Improved 

Late adoption of multi-account distribution. The viral hits in 2022 and 2023 demonstrated what was possible. A multi-account approach implemented earlier could have massively compounded their results.

Gradual scaling pace. New accounts are being added incrementally (October, December) rather than in coordinated waves. This may reflect internal capacity constraints or deliberate caution, but it also means slower compounding

Instagram underutilisation. With 103 million TikTok views versus 7.6 million Instagram views year-to-date, the platform split is heavily skewed. Instagram appears to function primarily as a repost channel rather than a distinct growth driver. 

Final Words

Loper's trajectory isn’t simply a company that discovered the power of UGC. It is a story of what happens when a company finally builds the infrastructure to scale what was already working. 

The numbers make this clear. 

Before 2025: 

• 71.7 million views across 840 videos 

• Multiple viral hits 

• Strong creative instincts

After the shift to multi-account distribution: 

• 110.8 million views in under a year

• More than doubled downloads

• Their strongest growth period to date. 

The content formula was proven by September 2022. The scaling infrastructure arrived in early 2025. The results followed immediately. 

For apps considering a similar approach, Loper highlights both the opportunity and the constraint.

• The opportunity: a proven format, distributed through multiple authentic voices, can deliver sustained eight-figure viewership and meaningful download growth. 

• The constraint: this requires dedicated resources and infrastructure that most early-stage teams do not prioritise until the evidence becomes overwhelming. 

Loper had the evidence for over two years before really capitalising on it. The question for other apps is whether they need to wait that long.