Surfline · B2C · surf forecast and cam app
Publish a surf report page for every beach so searchers land on you
SEO is the biggest channel after word of mouth; no numbers
Workedseocontentword-of-mouth
What they did
Every surf report for a location is a page; surfers visiting a new area Google the conditions (e.g. 'surf conditions at El Porto') and land on Surfline's spot pages. An editorial arm also writes about conditions, news and other topics. Word of mouth from the decades-old brand and App Store traffic are the other main sources.
What happened
A lot of traffic to spot pages and surf reports; SEO is a main acquisition source alongside word of mouth.
In their words
Sub Club by RevenueCat · How to Succeed with Freemium and Hybrid Monetization — Paul Ganev, Surfline“So it's a lot of word of mouth, but SEO is a pretty big one. We're getting a lot of traffic through the App Store as well.”
“they'll Google what are the surf conditions at El Porto or wherever, and they'll land on Surfline or a competitor's page. So there's a lot of traffic coming into those spot pages and individual surf reports”
“We have a big editorial arm that writes not just about surf conditions and kind of what's happening there, but we write a lot about news and other topics as well.”
Related topics
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More from this episode
- Surfline: Give surfers free daily forecasts, then sell the full version to the keen onesGrows with zero paid ads; free-to-paid conversion up a lot over five years
- Surfline: Let free users use a few features without limits instead of capping visitsTested both; guest prefers unlimited use of free features, no numbers
- Surfline: Keep adding paid features and new surf cams for free users to upgrade toShort spike from early adopters, then a higher baseline conversion
- Surfline: Play a short video ad before free users can watch the surf camEarns from free users; host remembers an ad years later
- Surfline: Get brands to give subscribers exclusive discounts instead of showing them adsWell received; outperforms banner ads for brands, no numbers
- Surfline: Cut market research down using your own free users' data and surveys
- Surfline: Aim the paid plan at surfers who go often; leave casual ones to free apps