How Mojo grows

Ran a paywall campaign for existing free users triggered on app open, with frequency capped at one paywall per week however often they open the app. Alternative trigger suggested: after a key engagement event (e.g. sharing). Checked support and did a thorough App Store review analysis for complaints. Works alongside a generous free tier.

Generous freemium tier. After a user declines the first paywall, show a paywall on app launch once a week to those free users.

Originally the first paywall screen showed yearly and monthly plans side by side. The test moved the monthly plan under a 'view all plans' button so it wasn't visible at first glance, leaving the yearly plan as the default.

Added a small line next to the yearly plan stating its monthly-equivalent price (about $10/month) so it contrasts with the monthly plan (around $25). A/B tested by market.

Used ARPU in the first 7 days (ARPU7D) as the single success metric for all monetization experiments, to optimize new revenue, shorten payback and support scaling user acquisition. Seven days covered the 3-day trial plus a few days, and was a default window available in RevenueCat charts. Also monitored ARPU7D of new cohorts in RevenueCat charts after rollouts.

For price tests, tracked the 7-day cancellation rate as a proxy for renewal rate. When a higher price won on new revenue, modeled a year of revenue at that price using the proxy; the higher price's cancellation rate was far above baseline, so kept the original price.

Tested in Japan a long scrolling paywall with lots of information, social proof/reviews and a clear free-tier vs pro-tier comparison. The same design was tested in the US, where a cleaner design with a slider, background videos and punchy messages performed better.

Used a third-party paywall platform so the PM could build and launch tests autonomously, cutting the cycle from weeks or months to days. Split new users into three geo buckets (US/Australia/Canada English, Europe, Latin America) and ran a separate test stream in each in parallel, launching on a weekly or bi-weekly cadence; each test ran 1-2 weeks until statistically significant.

After the pivot, took about two months (with two founders plus an intern) to build a glitchy alpha and launched it on Product Hunt. Added a subscription from day zero as the demand signal: $10/month (they had considered $1) with a 30-day free trial so nobody paid by accident. No onboarding paywall for the first few years, so trials reflected actual interest. Success bar set in advance: one trial from a country other than France.

One dedicated monetization hire (Michal, data-minded, documents everything) owns paywall, pricing and onboarding experiments using Superwall and RevenueCat, borrowing a developer only when needed. One focus per quarter, in order: (1) paywall position, (2) totally different paywall concepts (video, minimal text, scrolling, trial reminder/timeline), (3) localized paywalls per country, (4) smaller changes within the winning paywall, (5) price tests.

Split everything by country and by platform (iOS/Android). Day to day, attribute trial starts to the same week's ad spend. For longer-term budget allocation, use blended cohorts: users acquired by a period's spend, per country and platform. RevenueCat is one source of new-user data. Planned next: a hybrid rule that re-counts users inactive for about 30 days as new, since heavy spend re-acquires past users.

Mojo keeps a generous free tier, converts many users on day zero, and shows a paywall on app launch to retained freemium users, capped at once a week, to keep re-pitching premium features over time.

Instead of the App Store's default exchange-rate conversion of US prices, ran price tests in the top LatAm markets (Brazil, Mexico) with lower local prices.

When a test (usually in the US or Europe) produced a statistically significant winner, retested it in each other key geo segment and rolled it out only where it brought incremental revenue. Then watched ARPU7D of new cohorts in RevenueCat charts to confirm the lift held.

After Apple's App Store team told them they were not pushing the paywall enough, the first paywall experiment moved the existing paywall, unchanged, to the end of onboarding. The team had resisted because users had not tried the app yet, but users get a free trial first.

Benchmarked prices of video and photo editing apps and chose to charge more than most, targeting prosumers such as small businesses and agencies (some users run agencies on Mojo with freelancers), since casual users give weak signal in a freemium app. Raised prices through tests; annual price now around $60-70. Accepts complaints in reviews and interviews from casual users.

Noticed Turkish inflation had eroded the local price point. The monetization lead tested a +100% price in Turkey and then rolled it out.

Mojo invented animated posters in Instagram stories, a format that did not exist. When viewers saw an ordinary person post one, they asked in DMs how it was made and users recommended the app, with no referral mechanism. Advice: make the app's output visible and distinctive rather than bolting on share cards or referral features later.

With SKAdNetwork limiting attribution, the UA lead (running Apple Search Ads, Meta and TikTok on an ROI basis) gave up on predicted LTV and instead pushed the yearly plan so cohorts pay back in roughly 30 days.

Deliberately postponed CRM (lifecycle messaging) even past $1M MRR: the top five languages cover no more than two thirds of users, so localized CRM would take a lot of effort for an expected single-digit growth gain. Put the effort into monetization experiments and AI video features instead; plans to add some CRM later.

Mojo's free tier intentionally includes many features and a lot of content, less restricted than competitors, so users retain and are later converted by in-app paywall campaigns.

Before shifting to using creator content as ads, paid influencers to post on their own accounts in several countries, including Brazil.