Ladder · B2C · strength training app
Offer non-converted trial users their first month for $5, then $29.99
About half stay into month two at full price; consistent across cohorts
Workedpricingemail
What they did
Leads who didn't convert after trial (often zero workouts) get a $5 first-month offer that renews at $29.99/month. It is a small share of conversions but gives a user spike in month one and ARR growth in month two from those who stay.
What happened
About 50% of $5-offer takers are retained into month two at $29.99, consistently.
- Stage
- growth
In their words
Sub Club by RevenueCat · How to Use Segmentation to Maximize LTV — Greg Stewart, Ladder“The $5 deal is a good, good example where folks who claim or take advantage of the $5 offer, it's only about half of those that are retained in month two, and it's pretty consistent.”
“So, in the first month, it's a really nice spike at user growth, and in the second month, it's growth in ARR for that cohort”
Related topics
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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: Aim every feature at getting new members to 3 workouts in week oneHitting it in week one makes month-one retention very likely
- 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: Run 6-week workout series and pitch discounts to past leads before each startsFounder says deals work best at these moments; no numbers