Bickster · B2C · small app studio
Test dropping the onboarding screens entirely
No onboarding won in several apps; even one welcome screen hurt
What they did
What happened
In their words
How He Built an $800K ARR App Using Simple Strategies
… almost close to the v it's kind of a little confusing but it'll work um i like it so yeah so the hero you know all that stuff is super important very very direct right and get to the point don't get fancy you know and what people want you know simple screenshots you know screenshot message screenshot message maybe something else little but don't you know all the some of the people that do like the three screenshots in a row where they extend
And, you know, maybe later you can get all crazy like that. But, you know, in the beginning, just keep it simple and get the product out as fast as you can. Right. Love it. So, yeah, we keep it onboarding really simple. And sometimes we did a test without onboarding. Right. To see what would work. And we actually found that and we find that in a lot of apps now. I'm going to even need an onboard. It actually performs better without onboarding. Right. Well, and that could be a lack of our onboarding. maybe isn't the best, but we found that some of the onboarding just drop off rate after the first
screen. It's just crazy. And we're like, what the heck? We're just asking a simple question. Hey, welcome, continue. And they're like, ow. I'm like, what the heck? So yeah, don't do too much onboarding to contaminate the promise. It should sell up to paywall. If you can't sell them up to paywall then you know change the concept or or try a different app in my opinion right uh you know and then get into a nice onboarding that kind of increases …
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More from this episode
- Turn a $5.99 paid app into a free download with a subscriptionRevenue jumped from ~$200/day to ~$2,000/day overnight
- Sell lifetime access instead of subscriptions unless the app has real running costsWorks well across their apps; subscriptions drew complaints on one
- Offer $59.99 lifetime or $39.99/year with a 3-day trial on a closable paywall~6% of installs buy; best revenue per 1,000 users of the variants tested
- Keep installs about half organic, half paid; fund only channels returning 2-3xOn track for ~110K MRR
- Use Apple Search Ads only if the cost per install fits your numbersBest paid channel for this app; too pricey for many of their others
- Run Google and Bing search ads and feed sales back to them every nightTwo of the three main paid channels; Bing small but profitable
- Test a one-screen landing page against sending search clicks straight to the App StoreDepends on the app; no general rule
- Test lifetime prices from $4.99 up to $49.99 at fixed ad spend to find the ceiling$29.99 beat $49.99 on day-one revenue; a later $39.99 now beats $29.99
- Build quick AI-coded versions of several app ideas; keep the one that sells
- Spin off an AI Bible app for chat users who asked religious questionsSold at $29.99 lifetime with little effort; ads near break-even
- Launch with a hard paywall, one offer and no free trialOne offer gave the clearest pricing lessons
- Test with exact-keyword Apple Search Ads, then scale on MetaMeta converted even better than Apple Search Ads
- Set Meta ads to find buyers, not installs, and test videos at ~$500/dayInstall-to-purchase rose from ~6% to ~18-20%
- Title the App Store page with plain search terms and put the brand last
- Test app icons first, including wildly different versionsGuest says icons move conversion most; no numbers
- Use Adapty to change prices and paywalls without an app update
- Show one offer on the paywall with a 'view all plans' link
- Lay out paywall plans side by side instead of stacked~2 points higher conversion (guest unsure of the exact number)
- Skip paid attribution tools; use Meta's own numbers, in-house tracking and Mixpanel
- Put a hard paywall with one lifetime price on an app ranking in search
- Run Meta ads at ~$150/day for a fitness app for people 65+Nobody bought after $3-5K; buyers came from App Store search
Tags: no-onboarding, drop-off