Ladder · B2C · strength training app
Offer non-converted trial users their first month for $5, then $29.99
About half stay into month two at full price; consistent across cohorts
Workedpricingemail
What they did
Leads who didn't convert after trial (often zero workouts) get a $5 first-month offer that renews at $29.99/month. It is a small share of conversions but gives a user spike in month one and ARR growth in month two from those who stay.
What happened
About 50% of $5-offer takers are retained into month two at $29.99, consistently.
- Stage
- growth
In their words
Sub Club by RevenueCat · How to Use Segmentation to Maximize LTV — Greg Stewart, Ladder“The $5 deal is a good, good example where folks who claim or take advantage of the $5 offer, it's only about half of those that are retained in month two, and it's pretty consistent.”
“So, in the first month, it's a really nice spike at user growth, and in the second month, it's growth in ARR for that cohort”
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- 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
- Price the annual plan at $14.99 a month ($179), half the monthly priceAnnual take rate rose from 20% to ~30% of new paying members
More from this episode
- Ladder: Make a separate ad and coach-led program for each type of lifterFounder says it brings in users more likely to stick; no numbers
- Ladder: Offer a 7-day free trial without asking for a credit cardUsers who finish one or two workouts convert at a very high rate
- Ladder: Aim every feature at getting new members to 3 workouts in week oneHitting it in week one makes month-one retention very likely
- Ladder: Nudge members to cheer on others so new trial users get lots of cheersCheers received correlated with workout completions and long-term retention
- Ladder: Test annual prices, lead the paywall with annual, and add annual-only featuresAnnual members now outnumber monthly; payback periods very tight
- Ladder: Pitch annual only to trial users who worked out; offer others a cheap first monthHelped make annual the majority plan; no split numbers
- Ladder: Run 6-week workout series and pitch discounts to past leads before each startsFounder says deals work best at these moments; no numbers