Practitioner pattern · Trent Hommeyer (Works at Helium, the paywall builder/experimentation platform and paywall agency demoed in the episode)
Charge through Stripe with an in-app Apple Pay prompt, not a trip to Safari
Better trial-to-paid, retention and ARPU; first conversion slightly lower
Workedpayments-checkoutpaywall
What they did
When the user taps a plan, show the Apple Pay prompt directly (payment processed by Stripe) so it feels like a normal in-app purchase, rather than redirecting to Safari or opening a Stripe link. Enabled by the Epic rulings; avoids Apple's 15-30% cut. Helium has tested app-to-web variants for years.
What happened
Guest: trial -> paid and retention higher than IAP, initial conversion slightly lower on aggregate, ARPU better. Host: App Masters sees conversion almost the same as normal IAP. Historically app-to-web lost ~30% conversion.
“I can I can one-up you on this. We're seeing better conversion rate on on Stripe.”
“people convert from a trial to paid more. Um, the initial conversion, I think, can be slightly lower on aggregate, but the trial conversion rate being higher and the retention being higher means the average revenue per user is better.”
“we're seeing like almost similar conversion rates to a normal in-app purchase, but now it's happening through Apple Pay through Stripe”
Related topics
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More from this episode
- Put a Flappy Bird game in the paywall; higher scores unlock up to 50% offBeat the existing paywall in an A/B test on 10% of users; no numbers given
- Show the paywall half-empty, then slide the trial details in from the sideWins 'really aggressively' in Helium tests, per the guest; no numbers
- Keep small animations moving in the onboarding background to hold focusWith animations beat without in a Helium test; no numbers
- Add a 'creating your experience' screen near the end of onboardingConversions up 11%, a founder told the host
- In a sleep-sounds app, play the sounds during onboardingConverts better, confirmed by two competing apps; no numbers
- For older users, ask 'Who referred you?' with options like 'My personal trainer' or 'TV ad'Works well with older audiences, per the guest; no numbers
- Test separate paywalls for users over and under about 35
- Run 8 or 9 paywall tests at once and keep the one that winsUsually 8 are a wash and 1 makes a difference
- App Masters: Send buyers from the paywall to a web checkout page in SafariBig drop-off every time; did worse than Apple in-app purchase
- Build for iPad, where few competing apps bother to go$1.4M of a client's $2M ARR came from iPad
- Default to a 7-day trial; offer 14 or 30 days to people who close the paywallConverts better as a fallback, clients say; anecdotal
- Helium: Ask sign-ups for their revenue; call the big apps, let small ones straight in