Ladder · B2C · strength training app
Aim every feature at getting new members to 3 workouts in week one
Hitting it in week one makes month-one retention very likely
Workedproduct-activationonboardingretention
What they did
Workout completions are the input metric instead of LTV; target is three workouts per member per week, with most iteration on the first week: what users see first, getting them through the first workout on the right program fast, then the second, and pacing the introduction of chats/social features so newcomers are not overwhelmed. Roughly 90% of iteration time goes to activation vs 10% to deals.
What happened
Members who hit the week-one target are exponentially more likely to repeat in week two and to retain at month one; conversion is extremely high for those passing the first/second workout.
- Stage
- growth
In their words
Sub Club by RevenueCat · How to Use Segmentation to Maximize LTV — Greg Stewart, Ladder“If you're hitting that metric in the first week, the odds of doing it again the second week are exponentially higher. The odds of retaining at the end of one month if you're a monthly member are very high.”
Related topics
Get tactics like this every Monday
New tactics from the week's founder interviews, each linked to where it was said.
More from Ladder
All 21 Ladder tactics- Run a big yearly user survey and use AI to read the answers7,500+ responses in a year; led directly to the nutrition feature
- Let users log reps and weights, then suggest next weights and show their progress70-75% of users now log every workout; guest sees it correlate with retention
- Have coaches tell users to log their weights mid-workout, not in a help pageJournal use climbed to 70-75% of workouts; guest calls it 10x more effective than FAQs
- Send ad clicks to a web survey and flag likely payers to TikTok and InstagramWorking really well, host says, even with fuzzy web-to-install tracking
- Target serious runners with training plans that adapt after every runWon the race-training niche; later bought by Strava
- Read your five-star reviews to find the result users want, then target 3 workouts a weekBecame the goal the whole product is built around; no retention numbers given
More from this episode
- Ladder: Make a separate ad and coach-led program for each type of lifterFounder says it brings in users more likely to stick; no numbers
- Ladder: Offer a 7-day free trial without asking for a credit cardUsers who finish one or two workouts convert at a very high rate
- Ladder: Nudge members to cheer on others so new trial users get lots of cheersCheers received correlated with workout completions and long-term retention
- Ladder: Test annual prices, lead the paywall with annual, and add annual-only featuresAnnual members now outnumber monthly; payback periods very tight
- Ladder: Pitch annual only to trial users who worked out; offer others a cheap first monthHelped make annual the majority plan; no split numbers
- Ladder: Offer non-converted trial users their first month for $5, then $29.99About half stay into month two at full price; consistent across cohorts
- Ladder: Run 6-week workout series and pitch discounts to past leads before each startsFounder says deals work best at these moments; no numbers