Genius Scan · B2C · document scanning app
Test the words and icon on the in-app banner that opens your paywall
One wording converted 2x the old one; a deliberate A/B test confirmed it
Workedpaywallexperimentation
What they did
The free version shows a self-promo banner on the main screen (third-party ads were removed) advertising Genius Scan Ultra; tapping opens the paywall. Its text is served from a server so it can be changed remotely, with a hard-coded fallback banner in the app. The server went down (tap counter int overflowed) so the fallback showed; purchases rose. After fixing the server they served both versions (old text vs fallback text/icon) as an A/B test.
What happened
Fallback banner (slightly different text and icon) converted twice as well; confirmed by the deliberate A/B test.
- Stage
- growth
In their words
Sub Club by RevenueCat · Bootstrapping a Subscription App to 5M MAU and 2X+ Revenue Growth — Bruno Virlet, Genius Scan“So we can change the text and, and remotely. And what happened is that the server went down.”
“We restored the, I mean, we fixed the remote server, and we served two banners, one with the old text and one with the same text as the fallback banner. And this confirmed that the text of the fallback banner was, I mean, the text and the icon was slightly different”
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More from this episode
- Genius Scan: Launch free for a few days, then switch to a $0.99 paid appDownloads fell from thousands a day to 1-2; switched back to free
- Genius Scan: Keep the app free with ads; sell a one-time upgrade that removes themStarted making real money from ads; founder gives no figures
- Genius Scan: Start charging monthly for cloud backup while keeping the one-time upgradeNo customer backlash; users understood storage costs recur
- Genius Scan: Let people who paid once keep their features when you switch to subscriptions
- Genius Scan: Drop the $0.99-a-month plan and sell only the $3 oneStill ~100 purchases a day, now all on the pricier plan
- Genius Scan: Show only the yearly plan on the paywall; tuck monthly one step deeperNearly everyone switched to yearly; no numbers
- Genius Scan: Keep the button for your top paid feature on screen, not in a menuHiding it cut paywall views ~10-20% for months; putting it back restored them
- Genius Scan: Remove outside ads from the free app, even though they paid wellFounder believes happy free users drive recommendations; no numbers
- Genius Scan: Skip the paywall at signup; show it only when someone taps a paid featureFree users convert over time and recommend the app; no numbers
- Genius Scan: Answer every support email yourselves and build what people ask for repeatedlyFounders say it gives the best pulse on problems; no numbers
- Genius Scan: Beat the phone's built-in scanner with better scans and auto-export to DropboxGrowth never stalled when Apple added native scanning
- Genius Scan: Tune App Store name and ratings but skip paying for search adsTop five for 'scanning'; can't pass rivals who buy Apple ads
- The Grizzly Labs: Hire only when founders are overloaded, and pick people who work independently10 people, little management needed and low turnover
- RevenueCat: Ask users how they heard about you, with a free-text boxRevealed ChatGPT and Claude were sending people; read daily
- RevenueCat: Check 5-10 key numbers every morning, with 30- and 90-day averages30-day above 90-day means healthy; no outcome reported