WeWard · B2C · walking rewards app
Put the celebrity's face in ads and onboarding so the app feels local
Founder says better ad conversion, lower CAC and higher retention; no numbers
Workedpaid-socialonboarding
What they did
Now running paid UA, WeWard uses content featuring Venus Williams in ads and shows her in onboarding, so US users see it as 'the app of Venus Williams' rather than a foreign app.
What happened
Better ad conversion and lower CAC; retention up because users feel it is an American product. No numbers.
- Stage
- Growth (US expansion)
In their words
Sub Club by RevenueCat · How WeWard Hit 20M Users Without Paid Ads — Yves Benchimol, WeWard“if you produce a content with a celebrity, the conversion can be better and the can be lower if you do this with the face of a celebrity”
“If they see the face of Venice Williams and the onboarding, they'll say it's the app of Venice Williams.”
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More from this episode
- WeWard: Pay a PR agency $3-5K a month instead of buying ads300K downloads in 5 minutes from one TV spot; four years with zero ad spend
- WeWard: Take the PR playbook that worked in France to Italy, Spain and the USWorked in Italy and Spain; flopped in the US despite a top agency
- WeWard: Add in-app ads once you see retention hold after a big traffic spikeAds work well thanks to the large audience; says they pay at ~100K daily users
- WeWard: Promote brands like Nike and Expedia in the app for a cut of salesWorks well; Nike, Adidas, Expedia, Booking.com and Amazon signed on
- WeWard: Add a paid plan that removes ads, after ads and affiliate already workStill a small share of revenue but growing fast
- WeWard: A/B test every feature on steps walked, and don't track time in app
- WeWard: Lock TikTok and Instagram until users hit their walking goalUsers of the feature walk 10% more
- WeWard: Give a famous athlete shares to be the app's face and press voiceHelped press, hiring, CAC and retention; founder says hard to quantify
- WeWard: Rebuild onboarding to get users to commit and feel somethingBiggest win of the year: retention and LTV up a lot; unlocked more paid UA
- WeWard: Sell companies step challenges for staff, with charity donationsBiggest fail of the year; couldn't make it work
- WeWard: Keep one app everywhere; swap only the rewards and partner brands per countryLive in 29 countries without local teams
- WeWard: Ask users if blockchain matters; switch to plain points when they shrugUsers happier, engineers relieved; scaling and lag problems gone
- WeWard: Add card collecting with your own characters to keep walkers coming backFounder says retention is the highest it has ever been; no numbers
- WeWard: Move the founder to New York to crack the USSlow first two years; now 'becoming a significant app' in the US