Duolingo · B2C · language learning app
Aim winback messages at back-to-school and New Year's resolution season
Guest calls these the most important times of year; no numbers
Workednotificationsemail
What they did
Build reactivation campaigns around moments that match users' mental model of the product: back to school (people get into a learning mindset even if not in school) and the start of the year (learning a language is a common New Year's resolution). The end-of-year review brings users back just before resolution season. Guest values timing plus the right message over the specific creative.
What happened
Back to school and New Year are 'always very big' for Duolingo.
In their words
Sub Club by RevenueCat · How to Time Reactivation Campaigns for Maximum Impact — Jackson Shuttleworth, Duolingo“So like back to school, always very big.”
“Same thing, beginning of the year, New Year's resolutions.”
Related topics
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More from Duolingo
All 45 Duolingo tactics- Cut the free trial from 14 days to 7More conversions overall and experiment results twice as fast
- Sell a one-time ad-free month at $3, $5 or $10 to test demandUptake far above expectations; led to the subscription
- Tell users on the paywall you'll remind them on day 5 of a 7-day trialWon A/B tests by easing fear of subscription traps
- Change the buy button to say 'Try for $0.00'Beat 'Try for free' on both trial starts and trial-to-paid
- Let trial users pick which day they get the reminder before being chargedTested; added friction but built trust and delayed cancel decisions. No numbers given
- Ask new users in onboarding if they want to learn with or without adsSignificantly higher uptake; one of the biggest wins of the year
More from this episode
- Duolingo: Send one practice reminder for each missed day; stop after day 7Reminder efficacy drops sharply by day 7; users gone past day 3-4 rarely return
- Duolingo: Send tomorrow's reminder 23.5 hours after today's lesson, not at a time users pickBeat every other scheduling strategy tested, including user-chosen times
- Duolingo: Email lapsed users a weekly progress report comparing this week to lastGuest says simple activity stats get most of the value; no numbers
- Duolingo: Let a learning system pick which reminder wording each user getsPractice reminder copy under test for 6 years; no lift numbers shared
- Duolingo: Send even long-gone users a fun, personal year-in-review of their statsGuest says personal hooks perform much better than product updates; no numbers
- Duolingo: Ask active users to bring back friends who stopped using the appOne of the best-performing winbacks; beats app-sent messages, even from leaderboard strangers