Blinkist · B2C · book summary app
Redesign the paywall to fix customers' biggest complaint
Conversion up 23% (Blinkist's published case study)
Workedpaywall
What they did
Blinkist's paywall change, published as 'How solving our biggest customer complaint led to a 23% increase in conversion'; the model for trial-reminder paywalls later copied by Resumee and Cal AI. No further detail given in the episode.
What happened
23% increase in conversion.
“How solving our biggest customer complaint led to a 23% increase in conversion.”
Related topics
Get tactics like this every Monday
New tactics from the week's founder interviews, each linked to where it was said.
More from Blinkist
All 6 Blinkist tactics- 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
- Send Taboola and Outbrain ads to a page that reads like an articleBlinkist cracked this channel; Facebook traffic gets a different flow; no numbers
- Send Taboola and Outbrain ads straight to the App StoreStore install rate stayed very low; web funnels worked better
- Send Meta ad clicks to your blog instead of the App StoreClaims to be one of the first to scale this way; no numbers
- Hook ads on a famous CEO's reading habit, then pitch the appAmong the app's most successful ads, per Thomas
More from this episode
- Put about 75% of Meta spend into web-to-app ads, the rest into install ads
- Build several apps for searched keywords; grow the one that ranks #1Winner ranks #1 for keywords at popularity 41; ~1,000 downloads/week, $35K MRR
- Grow an app nobody searches for with Meta ads~$5M since launch; App Store brand searches rose once Meta spend began
- Run an Apple Ads Max Conversions campaign with a $2 target and $30 daily budgetSlightly beat the agency's Basic Plus campaigns for a big-spending client
- Don't target by gender, age or state in Apple AdsKills impressions; seen repeatedly across accounts Steve reviews
- Optimize Meta ads for purchases, but also send paywall views and checkout startsSaid to improve results; no numbers given
- Show the paywall during onboardingSales and retention both rose; no numbers given
- Title the first trial email "Our most popular workouts" instead of a benefits pitchWorkout rate doubled
- Add "TV ad" and "lawyer" to the "How did you hear about us?" questionARPU up 30%, even without running TV ads
- Show the paywall before asking people to sign upPaywall views 40% to 94%; trials up 190%, sales up 52%
- Test a hard paywall against locking more of the app's contentSimilar numbers; hard paywall raised conversions a little
- When people close the paywall, offer 3 items for $2 one-timeEarly: that purchase is being bought all the time; no numbers yet
- Offer yearly with 7 free days, or $1.99 for the first monthConversion 19% to 25%; proceeds up 21%
- Before the paywall, add "We want you to try it free" and social proof screensResumee-style reminder screen didn't work as well; new version's results not shared
- Show a longer free trial only to people who close the first paywallClients report longer trials win only as a second offer; no numbers
- Use App Store search if people search for your app type; otherwise Meta adsSteve's rule from client data; one or two channels can reach $5M ARR
- App Masters: Find a keyword you can rank #1 for, then build the app for itOwn app now #1 for its main keywords; no revenue shared
- Momingo: Write answers to "Does [app] work?" style questions so ChatGPT recommends youFounder says he gets ChatGPT traffic; no numbers