A subscription app · B2C · Superwall customer
Swap the feature table for 'Try it for 50% off' and a big screenshot
+111% conversion; revenue per user also rose
What they did
What happened
In their words
Jonathan Parra - I made 4,000 app paywalls and learned this
Joseph ChoiSo I'm going to guess the right side. The 111% conversion rate increase, why why is it so much better?
Jonathan ParraYeah, this one is uh you would think that getting users to compare is a good thing, but in many cases, the whenever I have a table component in one of my paywalls, it doesn't do as well as even simple bullets, or a video, or some kind of visual cue. Um and this goes back to what I said earlier, that users just don't read.
Jonathan ParraAnd so they look at a paywall like this, and they're just overwhelmed. Um you know, you have a lot of copy um even in the product selector group here. You're doing, you know, $49.99, not $99.99, this monthly price billed quarterly. You're like, there's so much going on there, and it's like it's very confusing to the user what's kind of happening.
Jonathan ParraAnd so um if you remove that friction, then and make that simpler, uh the user's like, "Oh, okay." You know, they they just continue. A lot of the times when I when I look at how like friends and family just use apps and I'm like I'm really proud of this onboarding, you know, that I created. I really want to show it off, and I want to see, you know, what they've done. And I'm like, they don't read, they just hit continue.
Jonathan Parra[laughter] And so uh that that's It takes a lot of the psychology from what you're just doing with typical product design, and you're creating it on the paywall. So, in in this case, actually, continue takes you to another screen, um and there is uh uh more information. It's just not on uh on this slide. But um uh the the point is that when you simplify the paywall So in this case, that, "We want you to try [app name] for 50% off," uh I saw Cal AI doing this quite a bit, and I took it from what they were doing. And across the board, it was just working well.
Jonathan ParraUm I'm I'm not sure exactly why. I think it's uh or at least like the 50% off portion, but I did like the, "We want you to try [app name] for free," is what I typically do if you have a free trial product selected. Uh and that that just works well. And then just having either a video or a really nice image of the product in action just works well.
Jonathan ParraAnd, you know, here you have again that, "No commitment, cancel anytime." The button is bigger, so I like to use 65 points uh as the button height at a uh not not at a minimum, because I do use 56 points or something sometimes. But you want the call to action to be large, right? And the text in the call to uh the call to action also to be large.
Jonathan ParraSo, Jake had a lot of us in the Superwall site projects channel, um and he just sometimes like just posts gems like this. And uh you know, we just update it on uh paywalls, and of course, they work. So yeah, the it's just some of the learnings um you should have on on this. So, this is a much simpler paywall. It works a lot better, which you see the significant increase in conversion rates and and ARPU.
Joseph ChoiSo in the last one, you said 33% off, and then this one is 50% off. And then you said you okay you can also do it where you say like, "We want you to try for free," and then you present the free trial. In the paywall that you screen shared and you showed me, it was like you you presented the free trial as the intermediate step. In this case, it it seems like you would present the free trial as like the first offer um as like,
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New tactics from the week's founder interviews, each linked to where it was said.
More from this episode
- Shorten plan names, add 'No commitment, cancel anytime', and label the button 'Continue'+10% conversion over the wordier paywall
- Cut the monthly plan; offer annual plus a weekly plan with 3 free daysBig conversion jump per the slide; exact number not read out
- Put 'No commitment, cancel anytime' on almost every paywallSmall but steady conversion bump, per the guest
- Show two plans, hide the rest behind 'View all plans', preselect annualGuest's standard setup; no numbers given
- When users close the paywall, show cheaper plans, then a 33%-off yearly dealNo result given; guest's go-to for apps that already test a lot
- For week- or month-long programs, show step by step how users will changeWorks across categories for journey-style apps, per the guest; no numbers
- Keep one-time offers at 25-33% off; save big sales for Black Friday
- Make the paywall button about 65 points tall, with big text and an arrowGuest says bigger buttons and the arrow bump conversions; no numbers
- Start with a one-page paywall: headline, bullet list, reviews, buttonOne of the few layouts that performs well across categories, per the guest
- Test paywall design and plan mix first; leave price tests for laterGuest says design tests give the most mileage; no numbers
- Put a short video of the app in use on the paywallWon its A/B test; no numbers given
- Make the paywall look like a plain Apple settings screenBeat more custom designs 'by quite a long shot'; worked again for a second app
- Give the top plan a dark, premium look that switches when users pick itMore users chose the top plan; no numbers
- Show the free trial as a timeline: today, day-5 reminder, day-7 billingStill a very high performer after years of copying, per the guest
- Charge about $20 a month for an AI chat app tuned to one nicheUsers pay for it, per the guest; no revenue shared
Tags: ios, simplification, comparison-table, product-image, discount, cal-ai-style