Pingo AI · B2C · AI language speaking app
Offer the free trial only on the yearly plan and hide the monthly one
What they did
What happened
In their words
Morrie Schonfeld - How I built a $500k/mo ai app (so you can just copy me)
Morrie Schonfeld… a new language with Pingo. We'll remind you 2 days before your trial ends, and then here's a timeline." This is not the OG. This is what has worked best so far. So we keep these two pages constant when we're testing so far. We'll test them again at some point, but right now like our biggest impact we see is here, and so we'll test this copy. So this is the newest one that worked best. I actually took this, I think, from a Superwall podcast,
Morrie Schonfeldbut it was like, "Today, you unlock Pingo. In 5 days," just a variable, "you get a reminder and you'll be charged, and try it for free." You get the annual and then like a weekly equivalent because like, you know, $100 a year is like daunting. We really push the annual plan, like there's higher LTV, higher ARPU, like we incentivize the annual plan. You don't get a trial on the monthly plan, and we don't even show it. We hide it behind another page. If you go down here, if you were to click on "View All Plans," then you get to this like monthly area where you can see 12 months or 1 month, but you get no trial. So we really push annual.
Morrie SchonfeldBut like $99.99 a year is like daunting to people, so we try a few different ways. We show like the monthly, we'll show the weekly. So like one thing we do is like, okay, this worked really well, let's break it down. Like let's try it without this copy. If we change this to a monthly copy, how does that work? Some other things we tested that also work well are it's like yearly monthly comparison. So again, like this is the same first two pages …
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More from this episode
- Only build an app whose main feature looks interesting on videoTalking to the AI became the core of every video; app reached ~$500K/month
- Film yourselves talking to the app on TikTok, one account per languageReached $20K MRR in about 3 months with almost no outside creators
- Show people using the app in every video, not just talk about the topicLanguage-topic videos without the app flopped; app-demo videos went viral and converted
- Tie videos to beginner lessons and culture moments, like K-dramas or the TikTok banA 'basic Korean quiz' got 77K views; a TikTok-ban/RedNote video got 1M
- Film the AI tutor roasting a learner until they cry on cameraTop video hit 52M views; the format has worked in every language since September
- Let users write their own scenes for the AI so creators can script funny videosCreators found the viral 'mean Pingo' format with it; users now ask for a mean mode
- Post language-tip slideshows that end with a pitch for the appSome hit 1M views, but accounts burned out fast; weak-CTA slides converted far worse
- Have assistants DM small creators learning the language, then move them to emailBuilt a roster of ~100 creators across ~20 languages
- Pay creators a base per video plus bonuses at 50K to 1M viewsKeeps creators paid for their time and chasing viral hits; no numbers
- Treat creators like investments: drop the weakest, keep the stars, train the middleTop 20-30% of ~100 creators drive most views; cut 30-50 who drove none
- Coach creators on lighting, camera angle, sound and doing something on cameraJust started; small tweaks tend to help good creators, no numbers yet
- Scale winning formats through a pay-per-view creator network; test ideas with core creatorsWinning variations get scaled quickly; spend is easy to flex; no numbers
- Make viral videos for learners of RussianAbout half of new users came from Russia and couldn't pay; Russian content killed
- Show a timeline on the paywall: free today, reminder before billing, cancel anytimeBeat social-proof and yearly-vs-monthly paywall versions; no numbers given
- Test a 3-day against a 7-day free trial, US and abroad separatelyNear-even in the US; 7-day converted ~2% better internationally (early data)
- When someone backs out of a 3-day trial, offer 7 free days at a lower priceConverts better than showing the 7-day trial first; exact lift not given
- Bill US users through web checkout to keep more of each sale
- Join Y Combinator, then raise quickly on strong revenue and CAC/LTV~100 investor meetings booked; round closed in about 3 days
Tags: annual-plan, hidden-monthly, weekly-equivalent, trial-on-annual-only