Practitioner pattern · Trent Hommeyer (Works at Helium, the paywall builder/experimentation platform and paywall agency demoed in the episode)
Show the paywall half-empty, then slide the trial details in from the side
Wins 'really aggressively' in Helium tests, per the guest; no numbers
Workedpaywall
What they did
The paywall opens with some content visibly missing (something eye-catching), then the trial information animates in from the side. Rationale: many users hit X without reading even a trial-explainer paywall like Blinkist's, so the first job is to get them to read one word.
What happened
Guest says this pattern dominates and wins very aggressively across Helium experiments.
“The paywall shows up and some content is clearly missing, so there's something eye-catching, and then the information about the trial like swoops in from the side, that's one example of like that dominates. That wins really, really aggressively because it catches people's eyes”
“what we noticed is like what percent of people are not even paying attention to that and just hitting X? The percentage is high.”
Related topics
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More from this episode
- Put a Flappy Bird game in the paywall; higher scores unlock up to 50% offBeat the existing paywall in an A/B test on 10% of users; no numbers given
- Keep small animations moving in the onboarding background to hold focusWith animations beat without in a Helium test; no numbers
- Add a 'creating your experience' screen near the end of onboardingConversions up 11%, a founder told the host
- In a sleep-sounds app, play the sounds during onboardingConverts better, confirmed by two competing apps; no numbers
- For older users, ask 'Who referred you?' with options like 'My personal trainer' or 'TV ad'Works well with older audiences, per the guest; no numbers
- Test separate paywalls for users over and under about 35
- Run 8 or 9 paywall tests at once and keep the one that winsUsually 8 are a wash and 1 makes a difference
- Charge through Stripe with an in-app Apple Pay prompt, not a trip to SafariBetter trial-to-paid, retention and ARPU; first conversion slightly lower
- App Masters: Send buyers from the paywall to a web checkout page in SafariBig drop-off every time; did worse than Apple in-app purchase
- Build for iPad, where few competing apps bother to go$1.4M of a client's $2M ARR came from iPad
- Default to a 7-day trial; offer 14 or 30 days to people who close the paywallConverts better as a fallback, clients say; anecdotal
- Helium: Ask sign-ups for their revenue; call the big apps, let small ones straight in