Meaning, spending $300-400 per month on various dating apps. Dating apps are effectively places to put your ad up, hence thinking of it as ad spend. It's a combination of paying for the subscription, the premium swipes, the boosts. Over the duration of the month that adds up, especially if you're on 3-4 apps at the same time.

Wow that is what I thought OP meant but I thought surely they don't spend that much on dating apps? I have nothing against meeting online, but paying that much to? Do people not meeting organically anymore, be it online or IRL?

My particular city / state has been under lockdown for the last year and has been pleading people to avoid meeting anybody outside of their household for about as long.

In 2020 and beyond, at least until vaccinations are fully rolled out, you don't go to bars, clubs or any kind of social gatherings with strangers. Online dating is about the last option people have to meet someone new until things return to normal. Especially if you're working a lot and find yourself in a new city with no existing connections.

I wonder the optimal way to allocate ad spend is here: which platforms and which features result in the most conversions to dates per marginal dollar?

Spamming Super Likes on Tinder has worked well for me, but I'd be curious to hear others' experiences.

That's a pretty decent chunk of change to spend every month on dating apps. Do you find it's worth it?

I handle it the same way I do fund raising or hiring for a position. You don't slowly drip the work over the years, instead you go all in and try to get it over with as soon as possible.

In other words, that spend tends to be spiky. You go all in for a couple of months, swiping, boosting, super-liking, building a giant funnel top. Hopefully a few people make it through and you both agree in the end that it's a long-term match, and you can immediately delete the apps and focus on building something meaningful together. Ideally to never have to swipe again, at least at this point in my life.

The same can work if you're trying to "play the field", it's just not where I'm at anymore at this point.

Fair enough. I just figured $300-400 a month meant upwards of $5k/yr to possibly increase the number of matches you get. Could you compare what that kind of spending gets you versus going to picking up dates the old fashion way? I've tried Tinder in the past and it was fine but I never really felt obliged to spend money on it. Maybe because I was in college and didn't have much cash on hand.