Pushcroll · B2C · push-ups to unlock social media
Let people try push-up counting and pick workout times before the paywall
Founders say it builds trust and lifts paywall conversion; no numbers
What they did
What happened
- Stage
- growth
In their words
Mario Manero & Alejandro Sanchez - Our App Makes $30K/Month Profit Using This Simple Strategy (copy us)
Mario Ortiz Manero… sacrifice their time, but after all, time is money, right? And like finding out the like right direction, that's really valuable. And also, for example, we paid someone to like help us with screen time, like some screen time bugs, or we also paid someone to like develop like some do some designs for us. And that really like saved us like so much time in comparison. And we Like, when we did this, we really didn't have any money. [laughter]
Alejandro SanchezNow, this is also noteworthy. So, people can can try the the push-ups feature before they actually pay for the app. And I think this this definitely increases the trust, because many people might not think, "Oh, this might be a scam. I don't know if it can actually detect the push-ups." And so, you can actually try it, you know? It's like you can use the app, but you cannot really block any apps, right? And then, we we also tell you, "Oh, when do you want to workout? When do you want to exercise?" And this is also like a commitment. You want to like create this a bunch of micro commitments. For example, like the first onboarding, we even had like the extreme of this. We had like "Sign your commitment," like, "From this day onward, I will blah blah blah blah blah." And you sign your actual name, right? It's like you want to create these commitments, and then, you know, they're they're more likely to convert on the paywall.
Joseph ChoiThat's super interesting. Is this the final version of the of the onboarding they're showing now?
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More from this episode
- Post a 'Should I build this?' video about the app before building itBlew up on TikTok; MVP shipped 2 weeks later to a waiting audience
- Launch with a video giving free lifetime premium to anyone who installs this week~20K downloads from ~175K views (~10%); only ~$1-2K revenue afterward
- Move your launch followers into a Discord for feedback, bug reports and videos3-4K members; best feature ideas and user videos came from it
- Let your community vote on designs, and build what they ask for 20+ timesPicked a better logo and shaped features; 'minute debt' was asked for 50+ times
- DM 2,000 influencers and pay $800 flat for 4 videosDidn't work: ~138K views drove only 200-500 downloads; lost ~$2K
- Rebuild push-up tracking to work from the front so faces show on video
- Film a stranger-style 'what is this guy doing?' clip, then demo the appKept going viral; the main driver of $30K/month profit
- End videos with 'comment app' and auto-DM the download linkUp to 62K comments on one video; ~90K DMs sent, 33% clicked
- Sell the app openly in videos instead of hiding the adFull-ad videos converted far better than a cinematic version
- Put 80% of effort into the hook; aim for under ~18% skippingTheir breakout video had a ~19% skip rate; 30% means switch format
- Build onboarding as a conversation: goals, pain, past attempts, then your fixConversion rose from ~7% to ~16%; paywall reach ~70%
- Pay founders you admire to review your onboardingFounders call it their highest-ROI spend; 'completely changed our trajectory'
- Test a 7-day free trial against a 3-day one7-day trial won clearly
- Test a weekly plan against a monthly oneWeekly won, but only slightly more ARPU
- Put a short video of someone using the app on the paywallWon its test, but by a small margin
- Offer about 80% off when someone closes the paywallCalled one of their two biggest tests; no result given
- Build an Android version if most of your viewers are in EuropeAndroid earns as much as iOS or more; 120K vs 40K users
- Post from a remote-controlled US phone to reach American viewersDidn't work; shadowbanned even with the remote US phone
- Pay US students about $1,000 a month to post your winning formatJust started; no results shared
- Let people close the paywall, then charge when they want more scroll time
Tags: try-before-paywall, micro-commitments, trust