Duolingo · B2C · language learning app
Show more ads to free users so they either earn you money or upgrade
Unknownupsell-expansionrevenue-capture
What they did
As a large company facing rising costs for each new user, Duolingo adds more ads to the free experience. This raises revenue from non-subscribers and pushes annoyed free users to pay for Duolingo Plus or Max.
In their words
Sub Club by RevenueCat · Using Subscription App Benchmarks to Make Better Growth Decisions — Phil Carter, Elemental Growth“And so, if you look at Duolingo now, they're adding more ads to the free user experience. That means they're increasing the LTV of non-subscribers.”
Related topics
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More from Duolingo
All 61 Duolingo tactics- Cut the free trial from 14 days to 7More conversions overall and experiment results twice as fast
- Sell a one-time ad-free month at $3, $5 or $10 to test demandUptake far above expectations; led to the subscription
- Tell users on the paywall you'll remind them on day 5 of a 7-day trialWon A/B tests by easing fear of subscription traps
- Change the buy button to say 'Try for $0.00'Beat 'Try for free' on both trial starts and trial-to-paid
- Send tomorrow's reminder 23.5 hours after today's lesson, not at a time users pickBeat every other scheduling strategy tested, including user-chosen times
- Let an algorithm pick from 250 reminder messages, and A/B test adding new onesNotifications called a top retention driver; no numbers shared
More from this episode
- Compare your last 12 months of metrics to similar apps to find your weakest spot
- When users stay but few pay, fix onboarding, the paywall and price firstSeveral wins; no numbers given
- Survey free and paying users about what the free and paid versions are worthFound the free version was so good people didn't need to pay
- Give a bigger annual discount and nudge more users to the yearly plan
- Move a Facebook-dependent app toward word of mouth and SEO
- Buy users with ads that pay back in 45 days, even with low retentionProfitable despite 30% annual retention; guests warn it won't reach a big outcome
- Tinder: Offer several paid tiers and convert users fast when they won't stay longMakes up for weak retention; guest gives no numbers
- Duolingo: Spend the first 5 years on the free product, then add a subscriptionBuilt a moat; now worth over $10B