Ladder · B2C · strength training app
Price the annual plan at $14.99 a month ($179), half the monthly price
Annual take rate rose from 20% to ~30% of new paying members
Workedpricing
What they did
Used surveys of non-converters and campaign-offer data to find cognitive clearing prices (familiar anchors like $9.99, $14.99, $19.99). Moved the annual from $19.99/month equivalent to $14.99/month ($179/year), 50% off the $29.99 monthly, aiming for more cash without giving up too much ARPU.
What happened
About 30% of new paying members now choose annual at checkout.
- Stage
- monetization
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 46 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
- Run a big yearly user survey and use AI to read the answers7,500+ responses in a year; led directly to the nutrition feature
- 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
- 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
- Offer a 7-day free trial without asking for a credit cardUsers who finish one or two workouts convert at a very high rate
- Nudge members to cheer on others so new trial users get lots of cheersCheers received correlated with workout completions and long-term retention
More from this episode
- Ladder: Split every dollar 50/50 with fitness coaches who have 10K-100K loyal followersTook the app to $1M ARR; each coach's signups faded after the first weeks
- Ladder: Give each coach a tracked link-in-bio page that sends fans straight into their programStill the setup for all coaches; lets Ladder track every coach's signups
- Ladder: Ask new visitors 15 fitness questions, then recommend three matching programsA million people have taken it in 18 months; fixed confused cold-traffic users
- Ladder: Check what quiz takers ask for, then recruit a coach for the missing styleNew bodybuilding programs became some of the fastest-growing on the app
- Ladder: Stock $50K of scarce kettlebells and sell them only to people who start a trialGave coaches a timely hook during COVID; no conversion numbers
- Ladder: Let people start the free trial without entering a card
- Ladder: Spend seed money on Facebook ads through an agency right after raisingFailed; unit economics never worked and spend paused after 3 months
- Ladder: 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
- Ladder: Go back to everyone who said no, with the new lower price, in JanuaryJanuary 2022 was the best growth month to date
- Ladder: Only test growth channels you have a real reason to win, and run them in-houseKilled SEO as too slow; found TikTok as the engine
- Ladder: Try TikTok early with one coach's account before putting money inEngagement was high and link-in-bio trials came once past 1,000 followers
- Ladder: Publish AI-written exercise how-to pages that feature your app's videos3 pages hit Google page one in 60 days, but too slow; shelved
- Ladder: 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
- Ladder: End TikToks with on-screen text like 'We start Monday, link in my profile'Founder says viewers follow explicit instructions; no numbers
- Ladder: Link all coach accounts to your ad account and turn their best posts into ads fastSpark ads were 'explosive' almost immediately; no numbers given
- Ladder: Crack organic TikTok first, then start paid with a small budgetTrials and paid members came far faster than on Facebook
- Ladder: 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
- Ladder: Check that untracked App Store installs rise with quiz signups, then steer by the quiz3 untracked installs per quiz taker, moving in lockstep; held through 5-8x budget
- Ladder: Double or triple TikTok budgets in a day and adjust several times dailyThe moves worked despite rep advice; founder calls it make-or-break
- Ladder: Judge ad spend by how fast you earn it back, not by lifetime valuePayback in low single-digit months, improving as spend grew
- Ladder: Sell monthly only until retention is clear, then show an annual option side by sideAnnual went from ~0% to 20% of new paying members
- Ladder: Put users in coach-led team chats and get them chatting earlyTop retention on RevenueCat benchmarks; team chats are 'wildly popular'
- Ladder: Run six 6-week themed seasons a year, with a badge for 20 workoutsGives six urgent start moments a year for marketing; no numbers
- Ladder: Read all 16,000 App Store reviews and write ads in customers' own wordsFounder says no one understands this customer better; no numbers