Why Web Onboarding Should Sell The Problem, Instead Of The Solution – Leon Sasson, Rise Science

In early 2022, after ATT/IDFA disrupted app marketing, rebuilt the app onboarding on web; tried again ~6 months later. A third attempt (2024) started from the assumption the funnel should look like the app and mainly save Apple fees, which advisors quickly showed was wrong.

Treat web as a separate channel built from scratch, not a copy of app onboarding. Web visitors are higher in the consideration phase and often not app users, so instead of rushing to an aha moment or showing their plan and features, the funnel goes deeper on understanding and personalizing the user's problem (e.g. 'you're exhausted', 'sleep may be why you have these problems'), then positions the app as a solution to try; solutions come later in the app. Guided by coaching from people who had cracked web funnels; hundreds of iterations.

Most creatives are run in both web and app campaigns separately rather than making web-specific creative; creative is built around personas, hooks and value props (e.g. more creative for women over 50 because web skews that way). Web campaigns get full e-commerce-style signal without ATT/SKAN limits, so creative winners show up much faster than on app (where it can take 1-2 weeks). Running both also makes performance less correlated month to month.

On web funnels, mostly no free trial; instead a heavily discounted first period (example: first month at half price). Rationale: the ad platform optimizes on paying users rather than trial starters who cancel a minute later. Free trials still used in some cases. Guest notes results depend on the app and must be tested.

Web pricing and packaging differ from the app and skew to shorter terms (monthly, quarterly), because web users are in a different consideration phase. Everything is tested.

Creative made for a specific persona leads to a funnel customized for that persona, which app-install campaigns can't do because the download sits in the middle. Example personas: tired people wanting to be more productive in the morning vs women around 50 struggling with menopause-related sleep issues. Currently some customization, going deeper; requires tight marketing-product coordination.

When selling on web you own what Apple handled: taking payment, cancellation, plan changes, refunds, customer support and chargebacks. Rise spent a lot of time polishing the whole billing journey up front rather than 'later', because without easy cancellation trial conversion looks inflated, users get upset, reviews suffer and card networks penalize you.