Clear 30 · B2C · app to quit or cut down weed
Ask for a star rating during onboarding, right before showing reviews
Reviews went from ~50 to almost 1,000 and keep climbing
What they did
What happened
In their words
Asher Herbstman & Thatcher Clough - I Built a $30k/mo App That Helps You Quit Smoking
Asher HirschmanYeah. You seen the review glitch that people are doing?
Thatcher CloughWe've learned this from Cal AI and breaking down their onboarding cuz we saw this slide, and when I first saw it, I was like, this is probably like from a consumer perspective, the dumbest thing I've ever seen, where you go to the slide that shows reviews and it's literally asking people for a review. It does call out that, hey, this app was designed for people like you, five stars, we have this many people in it. And then showing them reviews, but before they can actually look at the social proof in the reviews, all users that come to this point are prompted to give us some sort of rating. And, you know, as a consumer it's like, why would I rate an app that I haven't even used yet? But when we put this in, we've seen our reviews like skyrocket on our App Store page, going from, you know, like 50 reviews to we're almost at 1,000 right now, and it's just continuing to grow as more people come through the app and can really boost your rating as an app and that people just like clicking, oh, I like stars.
Asher HirschmanYeah, five stars. Stars, I like five stars. Stars, you want to get five stars? Yeah, five stars. Look at all these people doing five stars.
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More from this episode
- Grow with paid Meta and TikTok ads once the app converts wellBecame the growth engine; founders say they 'cracked paid ads' and are scaling
- Try organic posts, influencers, Reddit and SEO to get first usersUseful for early feedback, but hard to convert; the first $1K was the hardest
- Film your own funny ads that call out a very specific momentSpecific callouts grab attention; calm ads with an older speaker convert best
- Check which ages and quit reasons pay most, then aim ads at them26-30 year olds convert at almost double the 18-20 rate
- Ask users where they found the app, and also run proper ad trackingShows cost per trial by platform to rebalance spend daily; founders call it very helpful
- Track users from the first screen, not only after they sign inRevealed drop-offs; intro screen passes 85-90%
- Make onboarding a conversation: use their name, echo goals, show proof and quick winsPart of the 2-month push that took revenue from $10K to $30K a month
- Keep the slow 'what do you want to achieve?' questions in onboardingUsers spend 20-30 seconds on them with almost no drop-off
- Give users a free personal report on their habits before asking them to payFounders call it a big point of value; no numbers
- Ask new users which features they'd use, to show them off and learn
- Say up front the app costs money, next to what the habit costs themOnboarding conversion up about 3%; fewer 'it's paid' complaints
- Sign users up by phone number and text them funny, personal messagesNo results given; founders cite ~95% of texts read within 5 minutes
- Open the paywall with a day-by-day plan for the first 7 days, not featuresPaywall conversion rose from ~20% to 30% with only this change
- Tell users 'no payment due now' and remind them 2 days before the trial endsMost users choose the yearly plan with the 3-day trial; no conversion numbers
- Test $30, $40 and $50 yearly pricesSettled on $30/year; no test numbers shared
- Run ads inviting people to take a quiz about their weed habitDidn't work; tried half-heartedly while onboarding was weaker
- Study which ads Meta and TikTok spend most on, and reuse their hooksAd with a woman beat one with a man; camera-shot look beat polished
- Offer the app to universities and addiction services, and add paid extras
Tags: ratings-prompt, reviews, social-proof