Hily · B2C · dating app
End onboarding with a $3 one-time profile boost, not a subscription paywall
Said to lead payers into subscriptions later; no numbers shared
Workedpricingonboarding
What they did
At the end of the dating-app onboarding, instead of a subscription paywall, show a one-time purchase: 'Boost your profile, 10x your profile visits', $3 one time. Rationale: a small first payment makes people more likely to pay more later.
What happened
Host relays Hily's view that small first payments convert into subscriptions later; no figures.
- Stage
- Scale (scaled app)
“on their onboarding, they have this one-time in-app purchase, right?”
“instead of hitting them with a subscription paywall, they hit you with a a paywall that says, "Boost your profile, 10x your profile visits, and it's just three bucks," right?”
Related topics
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More from Hily
All 24 Hily tactics- Send pushes about real events like 'someone liked you', not generic come-back offersGeneric promotional pushes did 4-5x worse than real-event pushes
- Ask dating users to sign up first instead of pitching or letting them browsePitch screens and account-free browsing both converted worse than plain signup
- Sell a cheap one-time 'be seen 10x more' boost right after onboardingWorked better than folding the boost into the subscription; no numbers
- Launch a dating app in California only, then add Texas, to keep users closeCAC ran about 3x LTV for 6-9 months; didn't fix economics alone
- Put most ad spend on Snapchat with creator videos made for SnapchatMuch lower CAC than other channels; 1-1.5M downloads a month until rivals copied
- Cut side features and focus everything on better matches and dates20-40% yearly growth in daily users and revenue; top 3 US dating downloads
More from this episode
- Offer a one-time purchase under $5 to people who skip the paywall1-2 one-time sales a day on one app; no data on later subscriptions
- Show people searching one keyword a store page with matching screenshotsAbout $200 extra within 2-3 days; app already ranked well for the keyword
- Grow with only App Store search and Apple Ads, no other channelsHost says it achieved 'a lot of success'; no numbers
- Advertise in one less crowded country like Brazil or Thailand, not the USHost says clients did well; no numbers
- SocialPeta: Start free, then add small creators, Product Hunt, and paid ads once funded
- Film ads split-screen, with a creator on the top or bottom halfUsed by ~80% of AI app ads in ad-tracking data; no performance numbers
- Mention making money or cash rewards in your adsGuest says these ads perform well in games and AI apps; no numbers
- Run Google search ads that open a web signup, not the App StoreMost AI chat apps doing web-to-app use Google; no performance numbers
- BetterMe: Send ad clicks to a web quiz that builds a plan, then to the appCalled the typical web-to-app example; no numbers
- Perplexity: Time your biggest ad push with good news, like a top-100 listGuest calls it smart; no results shared
- Perplexity: Target the US first, then big cheaper markets like India and BrazilUS, India and Brazil were its top ad regions; no results shared
- Perplexity: Open ads with 'I deleted ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini' to pitch one appAmong its top-ranked creatives; no numbers
- Vidia: Open ads with a strange first 3 seconds, then show the app in useAmong its top creatives; guest expects high CTR, no numbers
- Canva: Make holiday ads, like Easter or St. Patrick's Day, that show the productShown as top creatives; no numbers