Semyon Polyakovskiy
Creative Entrepreneur and founder of Maginary, an interactive story app
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Semyon Polyakovskiy is the founder and creator of Maginary, an interactive story app with a 4.7 rating and about 7.5 percent US conversion. The thing most worth learning from him is to write the paywall and the review request into the story so neither interrupts the reader.
I don't actually love when apps interrupt you and say okay please buy something. It just breaks the experience.
How to Increase In-App Purchase Conversion Rates
Semyon Polyakovskiy: the story and the lessons
1Semyon Polyakovskiy and the Maginary results
Polyakovskiy built a simple story app that beats most apps on conversion. Maginary holds a 4.7 average rating and converted at 7.5 percent in the US at the time he showed the figures. The app has been featured around the world.
He came back after a podcast interview to show the screens and conversion rates, which audio alone couldn't convey. The results come from a polished experience, not a complex product.
2How Polyakovskiy wrote the paywall into the story
He planned the purchase as a scene from the first draft. The paywall was designed together with the storyline. The hero, Michael, runs from robots and hides in an arcade machine, needs a coin, and the reader pays for it.
The text says four chapters cost $9.99 in tokens. Readers wrote in reviews that the integrated purchase helped push them to buy.
He showed a high price first so a lower one felt like a win. The $9.99 price draws an 'are you kidding me' reaction. The reader shakes the phone to shake the machine, the price falls to $5.99, and a second shake ends with a joke that it can't go lower.
The idea came from the marketing concept of anchoring: a price lower than you expected feels like a win.
He added the shake mechanic after the first version. The first version had only the arcade machine, with no strong storyline around it. The shake came later, once he proposed anchoring to the team.
Using a device gesture makes the discount feel earned, not just given. Wrapping it in a story beat and a joke keeps the reader inside the experience.
He gave his team a marketing concept, not a spec. After reading about anchoring, he told his teammates about it and asked for something cool built around it. They came back with the shaking arcade machine.
The team loved the shaking idea and saw it work.
3How Maginary asks for reviews
Polyakovskiy asks for a review at a natural pause after a high point. The prompt comes at the end of a chapter, after the reader has bought the book and read an action scene. Michael enters a tunnel and loses signal, a 'technical break' appears, and the story suggests rating the app for other readers.
The ask goes only to readers who have already paid and are enjoying the book. A cool animation fits the scene, so the pop-up feels like part of the plot.
His team timed the rating pop-up to reading speed. They measured how fast people read so the alert appears just as the reader finishes the line about the tunnel and the lost signal.
That avoids showing it mid-sentence or at a random moment. He calls the prompt a crucial part of the app's results.
He tracks review volume against downloads and watches written reviews. Maginary has about 4,000 reviews on 200,000 downloads, which he puts at one to 58. The reviews come mostly from Russia and the United States.
The ratio of written reviews to plain ratings is good, because delighted readers want to share a really good experience.
4What Polyakovskiy credits for the numbers
He says a product people love comes before any tactic. He calls making something good the best advice he can give for getting reviews. Reviewers wrote that the app felt different and that they loved it.
Asked about conversion, he first named the overall experience. Only on reflection did he name the paywall as part of the reason. In his words: "of course the first reason is to create something good this is the best advice I could give".
He builds desire for what comes after the paywall. The paywall exists because he has to earn a living, but his aim is for readers not to want to miss what happens next.
"I really wanted to make them want to keep going just not to miss these beautiful parts."
How to Increase In-App Purchase Conversion Rates
A story app built its paywall and review prompt into the narrative itself, so neither feels like an interruption. That approach reached about 7.5 percent conversion in the US, a 4.7 rating and more than 4,000 reviews.
Polyakovskiy built a simple story app that beats most apps on conversion. Maginary holds a 4.7 average rating and converted at 7.5 percent in the US at the time he showed the figures. The app has been featured around the world.
He came back after a podcast interview to show the screens and conversion rates, which audio alone couldn't convey. The results come from a polished experience, not a complex product.
He planned the purchase as a scene from the first draft. The paywall was designed together with the storyline. The hero, Michael, runs from robots and hides in an arcade machine, needs a coin, and the reader pays for it.
The text says four chapters cost $9.99 in tokens. Readers wrote in reviews that the integrated purchase helped push them to buy.
He showed a high price first so a lower one felt like a win. The $9.99 price draws an 'are you kidding me' reaction. The reader shakes the phone to shake the machine, the price falls to $5.99, and a second shake ends with a joke that it can't go lower.
The idea came from the marketing concept of anchoring: a price lower than you expected feels like a win.
He added the shake mechanic after the first version. The first version had only the arcade machine, with no strong storyline around it. The shake came later, once he proposed anchoring to the team.
Using a device gesture makes the discount feel earned, not just given. Wrapping it in a story beat and a joke keeps the reader inside the experience.
He gave his team a marketing concept, not a spec. After reading about anchoring, he told his teammates about it and asked for something cool built around it. They came back with the shaking arcade machine.
The team loved the shaking idea and saw it work.
Polyakovskiy asks for a review at a natural pause after a high point. The prompt comes at the end of a chapter, after the reader has bought the book and read an action scene. Michael enters a tunnel and loses signal, a 'technical break' appears, and the story suggests rating the app for other readers.
The ask goes only to readers who have already paid and are enjoying the book. A cool animation fits the scene, so the pop-up feels like part of the plot.
His team timed the rating pop-up to reading speed. They measured how fast people read so the alert appears just as the reader finishes the line about the tunnel and the lost signal.
That avoids showing it mid-sentence or at a random moment. He calls the prompt a crucial part of the app's results.
He tracks review volume against downloads and watches written reviews. Maginary has about 4,000 reviews on 200,000 downloads, which he puts at one to 58. The reviews come mostly from Russia and the United States.
The ratio of written reviews to plain ratings is good, because delighted readers want to share a really good experience.
He says a product people love comes before any tactic. He calls making something good the best advice he can give for getting reviews. Reviewers wrote that the app felt different and that they loved it.
Asked about conversion, he first named the overall experience. Only on reflection did he name the paywall as part of the reason. In his words: "of course the first reason is to create something good this is the best advice I could give".
He builds desire for what comes after the paywall. The paywall exists because he has to earn a living, but his aim is for readers not to want to miss what happens next.
"I really wanted to make them want to keep going just not to miss these beautiful parts."