Ladder · B2C · strength training app
Add nutrition tracking to a workout app after users asked for it in the survey
Early read: users doing both convert and stay much more; no numbers yet
Workedfeature-developmentretentionupsell-expansion
What they did
Nutrition was the clearest signal in the end-of-2024 survey. Researched from first principles what methods work and what users use today; built over ~a year (started early last year) and launched. Because 100 days is too short for retention, they judge it with compressed indicators: week 2/3/4 retention and whether users log consistently on day 1 and day 2. They segment 'hybrid users' who use both workouts and nutrition.
What happened
~100 days in, hybrid users convert at a much higher rate when new and are much more retentive.
- Effort
- Roughly a year-long build, bigger than usual projects
In their words
Sub Club by RevenueCat · The Art of Driving Retention Through Product – Ben Gammon, Ladder“So, what is week two, week three, week four retention? And we're starting to get really in the weeds of, okay, if you can go upstream, if you just think about nutrition as a standalone product, how do they log? Do they log consistently in day one, day two?”
“we call them hybrid users. Those who are using both the workouts and nutrition, they're driving conversion if they're new, right?”
Related topics
Get tactics like this every Monday
New tactics from the week's founder interviews, each linked to where it was said.
More from Ladder
All 47 Ladder tactics- Offer non-converted trial users their first month for $5, then $29.99About half stay into month two at full price; consistent across cohorts
- Ask new visitors 15 fitness questions, then recommend three matching programsA million people have taken it in 18 months; fixed confused cold-traffic users
- Survey 500 users on price and talk to 100 non-payers, then cut $60 to $29.99Clearing price was ~$29 across cohorts; January 2022 became the best month yet
- Run a new coach's TikTok for them, using only videos already on their phone250K followers in 45 days, with million-view videos every week
- End TikToks with on-screen text like 'We start Monday, link in my profile'Founder says viewers follow explicit instructions; no numbers
- Send every TikTok ad click to a web quiz and track answers that mark ideal usersTargeting tightened within a week; payback in low single-digit months
More from this episode
- Ladder: Read your five-star reviews to find the result users want, then target 3 workouts a weekBecame the goal the whole product is built around; no retention numbers given
- Ladder: Let users log reps and weights, then suggest next weights and show their progress70-75% of users now log every workout; guest sees it correlate with retention
- Ladder: Have coaches tell users to log their weights mid-workout, not in a help pageJournal use climbed to 70-75% of workouts; guest calls it 10x more effective than FAQs
- Ladder: Add a home-screen calendar widget that lights up workout days, and show how to install itAbout a third of users have it; guest sees it correlate with retention
- Ladder: Give a check mark per workout and a weekly streak for 3 of themGuest says it reinforces the 3-a-week habit; no numbers
- Ladder: Run a big yearly user survey and use AI to read the answers7,500+ responses in a year; led directly to the nutrition feature