Pingo AI · B2C · AI language speaking app
When someone backs out of a 3-day trial, offer 7 free days at a lower price
Converts better than showing the 7-day trial first; exact lift not given
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… to do, like you don't have to worry. So like our OG, what we ran forever was basically this paywall. This was it. Like, "One-time offer," like start your It wasn't trial. We didn't have one, but like, "This much a month, build this much a year. Claim your offer now." What we've then tried is with the success of that timeline paywall, here's the timeline. It changed. So this is without intro offer. If you have an intro offer, it looks like this.
Morrie Schonfeld"Here's your one-time offer for 55% off," and again, here's what you can expect in terms of your like trial length, like your your trial experience. And then here's like the monthly price, billed annually. And like this performs better. It de-risks it for them. Something else interesting I found, so our 3-day trial, it performs maybe equal in the US, but like internationally worse. People want the 7-day trial. But when they have a 3-day trial and their transaction abandoned is a 7-day trial, that converts higher.
Morrie Schonfeld… will improve conversion, but like I wonder how they convert after the trial. Like that's an experiment we have to run. Superwall, I know like, talks about like this like choose your trial model that we want to run, which is like you can have like a no trial or a short trial or spend five bucks for like a 30-day trial. Like there's a lot of things to experiment, and I think it's been kind of fun for me learning like they all play into each other.
Morrie SchonfeldLike if you especially if you have multiple paywalls, like transaction abandon and main, like maybe we add more, but like whatever you show on one like will impact how they convert on the other and vice versa, which has been a cool finding, which makes sense, but like I didn't really think about until I saw it. And then I was like, oh, wait, like, yeah, if you offer someone 3 days and then they say no, and you say, "Here's it cheaper and 7 days for free," they go, "Oh, that's a good deal." Like, yeah, that that kind of is a little intuitive. Like cool. Like we should do more of that.
Morrie SchonfeldLike give people like layer your messaging so that they get a really they feel good about the deal they're seeing and the price and whatever they're being offered that they really want to take it.
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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
- Offer the free trial only on the yearly plan and hide the monthly one
- 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)
- 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: transaction-abandon, trial-upgrade, layered-offers