GlamUp · B2C · AI makeup glow-up app
Let users skip paying by inviting 3 friends with a code
1.6M share/code requests; codes flooded TikTok comments; conversion barely dropped
Workedreferral-programproduct-viralitypaywall
What they did
After the (blurred) scan result, the paywall offers two buttons: 'View results' (-> paywall) or 'Invite 3 friends'. Inviting leads to a share-your-invite-code screen; results unlock free once 3 friends download, finish onboarding and redeem the code. Friends get no benefit beyond helping. Target users are 13-25 and don't want to pay, so they post codes in TikTok comment sections. Branch was used for attribution/referral links. Repeated on Sprout and the newest app.
What happened
~1.6M Branch requests of people sharing/getting codes; comment sections full of referral codes. Because getting 3 friends through is slow, many sharers ended up paying anyway, so conversion 'didn't change much'.
In their words
The Superwall Podcast · Nicole Cheung - she makes $400k/mo from ai apps (while in college)“you can either do view results or invite three friends. If you click view results, then we paywall you. But if you click invite three friends, we'll bring you to this like share your invite code”
“So, a lot of the people that ended up sharing the code actually also ended up converting.”
“Uh we do that for for my second app, Sprout, and my current app as well.”
Related topics
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More from this episode
- GlamUp: Post the same before/after makeup slideshow with one fixed hook, caption and audioFirst post hit 10M views; millions of views a day at peak
- GlamUp: Strip makeup off Pinterest photos, then add it back in-app for big contrastContrast made the slideshows go viral; founder claim
- GlamUp: Find a viral format on your own accounts first, then hire creators to copy itFounder went viral first on all four apps; scaled GlamUp to 30-40 creators
- GlamUp: Put the app name in the copy-paste referral message so TikTok search ranks itSearching 'GlamUp' on TikTok shows only their content; founder claim
- GlamUp: Triple the weekly price from $3 to $9Conversion rate went up despite the 3x price
- Raise monthly and annual prices 20%, then test another 20%Conversion and revenue per download both rose; second +20% in test
- GlamUp: When people close the paywall, show the same plans at 50% off
- GlamUp: Limit scans per week by plan, and offer a bigger plan when they run out
- GlamUp: Show a fake 'analyzing' scan with blurred results, and run the AI only after payment
- GlamUp: Ask for a rating mid-onboarding; make users tap 'I rated' to continueOther founders who copied it say ratings improved; softer version still works
- GlamUp: After each onboarding question, show a screen on how the app beats the alternativesFounder says it primes users to convert; no numbers
- Sprout: Skip the annual plan for a job-search app; sell weekly and monthly via Stripe
- Sprout: Show the paywall right after onboarding, before users can open the app+50% conversion vs letting users try features first
- Sprout: Put every new creator through a video course with a quiz after each moduleOver half go viral within 2 weeks; 100M monthly views at 200+ active creators
- Sprout: Recruit creators in influencer-run Discords and on Handshake, then vibe-check them in 15 minutesMany top creators had no experience; founder claim
- Sprout: Pay creators $10-30 per post plus view bonuses that shrink per view at scaleFounder says the decreasing tiers work best; no numbers
- Sprout: Give creators line-by-line scripts with the emotion and camera shot for each lineTrained creators averaged hundreds of thousands to millions of views per video
- Sprout: Film a 6.7-second 'War is over' clip flipping a job tracker cell to 'Accepted'Hundreds of millions of views and many conversions (not attributable)
- GlamUp: Rebuild a hit men's looks app for women, launching a rough MVP in a month1M users in 6 months; ~$150K MRR peak