this app built a farm of TikTok accounts to automate acquisition…
Cray Cray.
An app that lives on the edge of online and real-life interaction, providing deep and uncomfortable (remember this word) questions to strengthen the connection of a couple.
It was released in January of last year (14 months ago), and has been sitting at #52 in the French App Store for a while now.
They’re running one of the largest networks of TikTok accounts we’ve ever seen, doing 139M views and counting, and before you ask…
Yes, 100% faceless.
No faces. No filming. No UGC. Just carousel posts and vibes.
In this issue, we’re breaking down their carousel formats (there are over 20). Then we’ll see the mass scheme they use to produce, test, and replicate viral hooks.
… It’s a faceless world
Cray Cray’s team is streamlining all formats across platforms. This means that for each account, they’re focusing on one design for the slideshows and copy-pasting it with different hooks and text content.
All formats are ranked by views:
Starting off strong with a French account, so you get a chance to test if your Duolingo streak is leading to any progress or if it’s just for show.
This is their best-performing account => 87 million views, across 1,172 videos.
Engagement rate is within average (6.86%)
Formula:
• Aesthetic photo of a couple in love (Pinterest) in muted colors
• Text hook top middle of first slide in pink + white font
• App screenshots with red background on the following slides
• Last slide includes a black arrow pointing towards the app name
They repeat each cover image more than once, changing only the hook and giving it 1-2 weeks in between each.
Runner up is (surprise), using the exact same format as #1, but with hooks in English.
This account did 13M views across 619 videos. Slightly higher engagement rate (7.83%).
They’re not posting the exact same image on both accounts, which is interesting. Images repeat in both accounts, but are posted on different days.
This one had slightly fewer views than the one above (12.3M views), but across ⅙ of the videos. Average views are way higher (68K vs 21K), and it also happens to be the account with the highest engagement rate (12.4%).
It’s a dead simple format, that can be copy-pasted ad nauseam:
• Pink background with black, fine line drawing of two hands held together
• Text hook in black font, right below image
• App screenshots but with pink background and slightly different layout around question cards
• Similar style of little arrow pointing to Cray Cray name on last slide only
10.9M views over 203 videos and yet another impressive engagement rate of 11.05%.
This is the exact same structure as before, except for the first cover image.
Dark grey background with orange gradient circle in the middle, where the text hook is written in black font. The layout of the following slides has a similar color scheme, and once again, the little arrow at the end.
This one’s a graphic illustration of a couple hugging under the moon, in shades of dark blue, purple, and white. The rest you can guess by now.
3.5M views across 128 videos, engagement rate of 10.87%.
#6 – tt@craycrayquestions22 – 2.2M views, pink with orange bar image
#7 – tt@craycrayquestions19 – 1.5M views, same as #3 but purple
#8 – tt@craycrayquestions486 – 1.3M views, pink striped background with illustration
#9 – tt@craycrayquestions06 – 1.2M views, orange hook on orange background
#10 – tt@craycrayquestions04 – 933K views, same as #3 and #7, different colors
All accounts have a CTA in bio – “Search “Cray Cray” on the App Store”
They’re operating 16 other faceless accounts, which have lower views.
You can see all of the remaining formats here:
On to the hooks…
Let’s play the game of – How many times will they use the same hook?
Hook dataset of 1,190 videos:
| Hook | Video count | Total views |
| X questions to ask him | 129 | 1,297,670 |
| X questions you should ask her | 93 | 1,125,348 |
| X questions for your partner | 79 | 5,946,910 |
| X questions you should ask [him/her] according to Cray Cray | 72 | 1,304,547 |
| Brave questions to ask in your relationship according to Cray Cray | 13 | 45,409 |
| X uncomfortable but healthy questions to ask your (…) | 78 | 1,050,092 |
| X questions for deep convos | 11 | 476,981 |
| X questions for your soulmate | 13 | 153,763 |
| X questions for late night talks | 34 | 125,129 |
| X questions I want to know but I’m afraid to ask | 54 | 265,538 |
| X life-changing questions to ask yourself during your alone time | 5 | 21,564 |
| X cute questions you have to ask them | 11 | 2,124,833 |
| X questions for couples | 47 | 241,343 |
| X romantic questions to fall in love again | 4 | 27,512 |
You’ll notice how the structure is always the same.
Numbered lists work well for slideshows and have the plus of being extremely shareable. This kind of content is built to be shared between couples and friends on TikTok, and that’s the secret to their consistently high engagement rates.
Their best played card is the use of “uncomfortable” as a trigger to stop-scrolling. Viewers see it as a challenge to their own relationship.
“Could I see myself asking my bf/gf these questions? Let me check them.”
This is the desired effect. On top of that, on their most viral videos, you’ll see that a lot of them will simply stop and reply to one (or all) of the questions as if someone had just asked them to.
Don’t underestimate the power of a question in your hooks. You’d be surprised how much people love to share about their own lives with strangers in the comments section.
If you wanna do the same, here’s your options:
Path #1 – In-house
You roll up your sleeves and start on your own.
Don’t think about it as an all-or-nothing approach; you don’t need to do 26 accounts to start. Start with 3 and gradually increase by 1-2 every week.
As long as you’re able to keep the rhythm of 1 post daily, it pays off to increase the number of accounts, at least until you find your winning formats.
Hooks & text content
• You’ve seen how you can do so much with a limited number of hooks, but if you’re low on content ideas for the remaining slides and your app doesn’t provide a bottomless source of questions, use chatgpt/inspo/remix from other account as your content assistant
• Make a list of all hooks and variations and track which formats you’ve used on each account
Something like this will help you make sure you try every possible combination:
| Hook | Format 1 – Orange & white font | Format 2 – Pinterest couple | Format 3 – … |
| 6 questions for your bf | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Brave questions for yourself | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| … | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ |
Design
• Canva: great for building similar cover images if you don’t have much experience
• Figma: bulk produce once you create your template, it allows for wider options in customization
• ChatGPT (or associated API): to produce any illustrations you decide to use. Add a sample image as image-to-image in your prompt for a better outcome.
Path #2 – Scale with distributed network / farm
As always, there’s a cheat code for all of the above.
Get a designer to create 3-4 templates on Figma for the formats you’ve selected. Or automate content production with AI workflows.
Then you’re just gonna hire some offshore/U.S. VAs that can post and manage the accounts for you.
Or do it like Cray Cray did with an automated phone farm in-house. They’re talking about it here. Just be careful not to overdo it, especially before finding a repeatable format.
Don’t outsource the hooks. With a framework like this, you won’t need to create new hooks every day. So it’s best if you focus on crafting a dozen really good viral hook candidates and use them in your briefing when you delegate the clipping/production/posting.
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Until next time,
The Social Growth Engineers Team
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