Lose It! · B2C · calorie tracking app
Keep basic calorie counting free; put macros, keto and fasting in premium
Premium grew to 40+ features; carbs and device syncing drive most upgrades
Workedpricingpositioning-niche
What they did
Framework for new features: the free product must be enough to lose weight via calorie tracking (calories in, calories out). Macronutrient tracking, advanced diets (keto, intermittent fasting), calorie cycling go to premium, which now has 40+ features. Premium is positioned as what you need if you care about carbs; 'apps and devices' syncing is a big crowd-pleaser. Messaging and positioning are A/B tested rather than locking features.
What happened
Adding premium features has been the main way to justify price and upsell; carb and apps/devices features see a lot of adoption.
Related topics
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New tactics from the week's founder interviews, each linked to where it was said.
More from Lose It!
All 24 Lose It! tactics- Retest higher prices you once rejected; double the yearly price if it breaks evenTest broke even for the first time; rollout matched tests and gives room for paid ads
- Build in-app sales timed to each user's journey, with deeper discounts off a higher priceHigher base allows 25-75% discounts to more users; no conversion numbers
- Keep the free version good enough to reach the goal without payingRetention very stable after doubling the price, per guest
- Raise the price only for new users; keep current subscribers on their old priceAvoided an untestable churn risk; no numbers on the effect
- Add ads to the free app, one-off purchases, and affiliate partner deals
More from this episode
- Lose It!: Ask more questions in onboarding, even ones you don't use, to lift trial startsTrial starts up double digits; free-user retention also improved
- Lose It!: Let people set up premium features in onboarding, then show what they'd loseUsers who opt into the calorie-cycling feature convert more; no exact numbers
- Lose It!: Ask new users to set a carb goal during onboardingLost badly in A/B test; many premium setup steps clogged the flow
- Lose It!: Lock all macro-tracking features behind premium as a testEarned little extra money and made users angry
- Lose It!: Talk about how much people save, not about features, in upgrade messagesDiscount messages beat feature messages in tests; no numbers
- Lose It!: Spend big on paid ads to stop relying on organic users~10% predicted ROAS at scale; money burned and the push was dropped
- Lose It!: Charge about half what rivals charge, since you don't need ads to pay backPrice set by testing on organic users; about half of the main rival's price
- Lose It!: Market the free app through app store search and word of mouth, not ads50M+ users over 15 years, mostly organic
- Lose It!: Email users when they hit weight-loss milestones and ask for their storyStories feed social, email and in-app marketing; impact not measured
- Lose It!: Give users a $10 gift card when a friend they refer upgrades to premiumRoughly broke even but didn't scale; exposed users had lower LTV; killed after a year
- Lose It!: Offer steeper and steeper discounts to free users who haven't paid after 30 daysTurns cohorts that almost never convert into some revenue; no numbers
- Lose It!: Offer a deep premium discount to users on a 30-day logging streakA/B test win; big efficiency gain on a small group
- Lose It!: Show sale offers as in-app messages instead of sending email blasts10x more money for the same offer
- Lose It!: Show upgrade messages after people finish logging, never in the middleMid-task messages caused drop-off and fewer upgrades; after-task messages did better
- Lose It!: Aim in-app sales at new and returning users, with a warm 'welcome back'These users are half of bookings; first-time sales do really well
- Lose It!: Pin a 24-hour sale countdown to the top of the main screenKept the sale visible after people closed the pop-up; no numbers
- Lose It!: Try network ads inside a free app that earns from subscriptionsNot much money and a pain to manage; not worth it for a small team
- Lose It!: Pay staff bonuses only if both revenue and user weight-loss goals are met