Clear 30 · B2C · app to quit or cut down weed
Run ads inviting people to take a quiz about their weed habit
Didn't work; tried half-heartedly while onboarding was weaker
What they did
What happened
- Effort
- Low; 'we didn't put our all into it', onboarding was weaker at the time
In their words
Asher Herbstman & Thatcher Clough - I Built a $30k/mo App That Helps You Quit Smoking
Host… onboarding and paywall. You're like guiding them through pain, agitate, solution, and there's a lot of copy, there's a lot of like visuals. It almost feels like your ads are just bringing people in the door and not really talking too much about the pain points or the solution, or any of the product or anything, and then you kind of mainly talk to the user through the onboarding instead of the content in the ad. Is that how you think about it?
Asher Hirschman… you can to give them an incredible experience and then make them want to make this change in their life. A great thing you can do with ads is, and like I know a lot of people are already doing this, but you know, see what your competitors in your field or market or niche are posting and see what's working for them. We have this one competitor called Reframe, which is like an alcohol quitting app, it's not the same niche, but it's a same similar thing in the industry, they were running something that was like, take our quiz to see what alcohol type you are. You don't always have to say, "Hey, get this app, change your life, do all this," because people might not be ready for that. But if you say, "Hey, just take the quiz, see your relationship percent with weed," and then use that as your opportunity to sell them, can be really huge.
Thatcher CloughAnd I will say that it wasn't super helpful because the intent of people coming in, I think we our onboarding was not as good at the time, does framing the onboarding as a quiz get more people to convert? While it didn't work for us, it totally could for a different product or like a different introduction, or if it's just done better, because to be honest, we didn't put our all into it, we didn't have our focus on like, okay, let's focus on getting more people in and converting all of them. If that became a focus, then I'm sure that we would put in enough work for this to work.
HostThis is super helpful. I love how deep into all the sales training and marketing frameworks you guys go. There's a reason behind every single like micro decision that it seems like you guys are making. I'm kind of curious to see if you have the same mindset around ads, too.
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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
- Ask for a star rating during onboarding, right before showing reviewsReviews went from ~50 to almost 1,000 and keep climbing
- 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
- 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: quiz-funnel, competitor-inspired