Rise Science · B2C · sleep app
Use onboarding to convince people the app will improve their sleep, not to teach buttons
No numbers; experimented a lot to nurture intent toward the paywall
Unknownonboarding
What they did
Onboarding explains how the product affects the user's life and why they should care rather than showing how to use the app ('if you need a tutorial, it's too complicated'). Because better sleep takes weeks to feel, Rise used more screens to convince users up front and nurture intent toward the paywall, and iterated heavily through experiments.
In their words
Sub Club by RevenueCat · Top Growth and Monetization Insights for Subscription Apps — Sylvain Gauchet, Babbel and Growth Gems“The job of onboarding is never to show people how to use the app. If you need a tutorial, it's too complicated.”
“they experimented a ton with the Rise uh sleep app onboarding, and they really worked to kind of nurture that intent coming in toward the the the paywall and toward, you know, getting people to actually use the app.”
Related topics
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More from Rise Science
All 9 Rise Science tactics- On the web, charge half price for the first month instead of a free trialTested better than free trials; ads stop finding people who cancel at once
- On your web funnel, spend time selling the problem before the fixWeb became where the app-first sleep app finally found success; no numbers
- On the web, help visitors see their problem before pitching the appFounder calls it super promising after hundreds of iterations; no numbers
- Test each ad in both web-funnel and app-install campaigns, separatelyAds that flopped for app installs sometimes win on web, and vice versa
- Build a separate web funnel for each ad's target personaEarly, interesting wins; not a big breakthrough yet
- Rebuild the app's onboarding as a web funnelDidn't work in two tries, 'not even close'; project parked
More from this episode
- Pok Pok: Double the subscription price, then check whether those subscribers stick aroundRevenue more than doubled and conversions rose, but the higher-price cohorts' retention quickly tanked
- PhotoRoom: Launch with only a monthly plan so you see who cancels and can ask whyNo numbers; guest says monthly renewals show real retention early, at a cash-flow cost
- Reflectly: Ship one big change every week and compare the 7 days before and after
- Canva: Rewrite the paywall to say what users get out of it, not what engineers builtOne of the year's biggest growth wins, per a podcast the guest heard; no numbers
- Let fans buy your app as a gift, especially for December holidaysAbout a third of December sales; many gifts bought by existing customers
- Burner: Survey users on which features to charge for and what they'd payNo numbers; a heavy A/B-testing team still relies on it for context
- Send a follow-up offer to people who played with the paywall but didn't buyNo numbers; guest says some convert at a 10% discount
- Ask engaged monthly subscribers to switch to yearly a few months in