App Masters · B2B · app marketing agency
Price utility apps at $5 a week, $20 a year, or $30 once
What they did
In their words
Live App Teardowns: App Growth Optimization
In-App AudioEight years he gave this place.
Steve P. Young… the UK maybe you leave it the same, but in US audience like maybe think about like 20 bucks annually and then $30 lifetime. That's what we're gonna try with our utility apps that have way probably less features than yours, and I'll give you the feedback on that. But that's based off of Chris's interview. And so my my sort of like mentality moving forward is take all the things that we learn from these podcasts, and I know you guys learn a ton, too, and try to implement them right away, and then try to give you guys data back on like, "Hey, here's what's working." So we have a few tests right now: that two-paywall tests I'm running for one of my apps right now with a hard paywall, and then Chris's strategy about the $29.99 being the optimal lifetime price for his apps, I'm trying that out with a lot of our utility apps. So we have $5 a week, $20 a year, and $30 lifetime. Now, I'll tell you how that works. Okay, Joe's got some feedback for you. "This paywall is off. I keep staring at the animating reviews and my attention is nowhere at the bottom where the user pays." I agree with you, and you already have an X up here, Shane, so you don't need to You're too, you know, you're too British, bro. But like you you're trying to be too nice. I would just keep it here. And I agree with Joe, that's why I hate anything scrolling, because your eye Like a magician, you think about a magician, right? They're like, "Hey, look over here," and then I'm hiding something with my other hand. It's you know, like so don't have things moving, cuz the eye will go to whatever is …
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More from this episode
- Put the brand word you target first in the App Store keyword fieldReached #2-3 for 'Apple Wallet'; one app, anecdotal
- Run Apple Ads in every country except the US to find where buyers areFound the Netherlands: same keyword popularity as the US, difficulty 17 vs ~60
- Give Apple Ads max-conversion 5-10 top keywords, a high tap bid and a target install costAgency says it works across clients ($80K for one); 'Basic Plus' setup sometimes beats it
- Drop the $1.99 monthly plan because 90% buy the $10 yearly oneSales went down; the monthly price was the anchor that made $10/year look cheap
- Show only a yearly plan on the paywallMonthly plan was back within 2-3 weeks; observed from outside
- Add a hard paywall to an app that used to be freeWorked well for revenue, but brought many 1-star reviews from people who reinstalled
- Give ad-driven users a hard paywall and App Store searchers a closable oneFounder said it worked really well; no numbers
- Give free lifetime access through the Indie App Santa promotionUsers emailed feature requests and said the icon made them download; no numbers
- Test different app icons on a new utility app
- Ask gender in onboarding and show one matching testimonial on the paywallIn use; an A/B test vs ratings was mentioned but the result wasn't stated
- Grow with Meta ads alone before adding any other channel$4M+ ARR for one client and ~$1M MRR for another, Meta only
- Give existing users 3 months' notice before charging for a free app90-99% of existing users happy to pay; new users complained
- Find UGC creators on Collabstr and work with micro-influencersDeveloper calls it a great success; one creator had a big impact; no numbers
- Switch from a paid app to free with purchases, then to subscriptionsMade more money at each step, per the friend; no numbers
- Show different prices depending on what people answer in onboardingHeard it works really well; app unnamed, no numbers
Tags: app-store, lifetime-plan, price-test, utility-apps