We review a lot of slideshow decks from app teams. The same dozen mistakes show up in most of them, and none of them are about talent. They are habits carried over from landing pages and ad creative. Here they are, with the fix.
1. Slide one is page one
The cover reads like the first line of a document: "Introducing our new feature." Nobody swipes on that. Fix: make slide one a situation, a question or a mistake the viewer recognizes. The feature can wait until slide four.
2. The whole deck is one color
Eight slides of white text on the brand color. It looks like a template because it is one. Fix: alternate light and dark slides, put a real photo or screenshot on at least two of them, and let the closer look different from the body.
3. Text sits under the interface
Headlines in the bottom fifth of the frame or along the right edge get covered by the caption block and the like button. Fix: keep type above the bottom 500 px and inside the left 80 percent. Run the slides through a safe zone checker before posting.
4. Tiny type
A paragraph of 28 px body text on a phone is unreadable at feed speed. Fix: one headline per slide at 90 px or larger, at most one short supporting line at 40 px.
5. Every slide makes the same point
Slide two restates the hook, slide three restates slide two. Fix: one new idea per slide. If a slide does not add information, cut it.
6. The screenshot is a store banner
App Store marketing art with mockup frames and taglines is not a product screen, and viewers can tell. Fix: use a clean in-app capture in the viewer's language. If you do not have one, use typography instead of a fake.
7. Claims the slides cannot back
"Loved by millions," "the number one app," "guaranteed results." Fix: say only what a fact in your product profile supports. Specific and modest beats grand and vague, and it keeps you out of trouble.
8. The closer is an ad
The last slide shouts DOWNLOAD NOW with a store badge and a price. Fix: end on what the viewer does next, in their words, and name the app once. A save or comment prompt outperforms a hard sell on reach content.
9. Same deck shape every day
Hook, three benefits, CTA, every single post. The audience learns the pattern and swipes past. Fix: rotate story shapes: problem-solution, mistake-correction, how-to, comparison. Rotate the visual treatment too.
10. Stock photos that look like stock photos
Studio-lit models smiling at phones. Fix: choose photos of hands, objects and places over posed people, search with specific nouns, and never let a photo be a decoration. If it does not show the moment the slide is about, drop it for a typographic slide.
11. Posting when nobody is awake
A US-focused account posting at 4 a.m. Eastern because that is when the team in another time zone finishes work. Fix: schedule for the audience's late morning or evening. Consistency in one slot beats guessing.
12. Judging a slideshow at two hours
Slideshows have a longer tail than video because they get saved and re-opened. Pulling a post or changing strategy after two hours throws away the data. Fix: read completion and saves at 48 hours and compare posts against each other, not against a viral outlier.
The pattern behind the list
Almost every mistake here is the same one: treating a slideshow like a landing page instead of like something a person made for other people. The decks that travel look hand-placed, say one thing per slide, and end on a next step rather than a sale.
ViralSlides bakes these fixes into the generator: safe zones, one idea per slide, real screens only, rotating story shapes, and a closer that names the app once. Generate a deck and check it against this list yourself.