A small subscription app · B2C · Thomas Petit client
Send buyers to web checkout once the store fee jumps from 15% to 30%
Works for them, per the guest; no numbers
What they did
What happened
In their words
Signal Engineering: Strategic Data Filtering for Better Ad Performance — Thomas Petit, Independent Consultant
Thomas Petit… the pricing, the how how do you charge, how do you prioritize the Apple payment versus not, and so on. Like, is like there's a lot of factors. So, the the the teams I'm working with, they're like, "Yeah, we're looking at it, we're talking to people about it, but we're going to push it into the next step of the road map, where we think we can execute faster then, and we also have a little bit more guarantee about Apple wants or doesn't want."
Thomas PetitSo, I had a couple of folks testing, and actually, in one case, it's not a big app and it does make a difference for them, so maybe even against my own advice, they went for it and it does work for them. But they just crossed the small business program, so now they're paying 30%. So, for them, obviously, was a little bit of a Below 1 million, I mean, when you're paying already 15%, I don't think like anybody should really try it, unless you're very web-based from the beginning. Like, you had a business on the web and you already have a lot of tooling, a lot of experience, and you can go.
Thomas PetitBut otherwise, yeah, I mean it's for later phases. All in all, it's great that there is the option. Like, I'm very happy that we can do more. Some people are going to go IAP only, some people are going to go web payment only, and the most sophisticated folks will be able to determine which user, which flow, which moment, which price is going to work, which obviously requires a lot more work and is not as easy as it looks. So, I think the only lie …
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- Tell Meta to value some users more or less instead of excluding themKeeps cheap under-25 reach instead of cutting it; no numbers given
- Report each user's expected value at month 13, not what they paid on day oneGuest's main advanced lever; no numbers given
- Look up each conversion's value from a server so you can change it without a releaseAvoids app releases for every price or currency change; says it makes a big difference
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- Keep at least 10 conversion events per campaign per day before filteringUnder ~10/day optimization breaks; well above it, fewer better events win
- Report low-value users as worth less and high-value users as worth morePushes delivery toward top users but hides true ROAS; has backfired when overdone
- Send every event to every ad network, then pick a different signal for each
- Compare the value you report with real revenue by country, not just in total
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- Change which events you send to ad networks, even as a young appBig uplift per the guest; details saved for a blog post
- Put all spend behind one channel and one optimization signalGrew from 0 to eight figures in two years, then had no fallback when it broke
- Let a signal specialist filter and send your ad events, and test itOne of two tests looks good, the other doesn't; not conclusive
- Tell ad networks which users reported high anxiety, since they pay far more
- Treat users who rush a 30-screen onboarding in under a minute as low valueHeld for one app; another app found its fastest finishers were its best users
- Change what you report as user value when cash matters more than long-term LTV
- Sell $5-10 top-up credits on top of subscription tiers
- Report a $1 value for non-payers who look likely to stick around
- Report your biggest spenders as mid-value so Meta doesn't stop early
Tags: app-to-web, store-fees, small-business-program