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How to Increase In-App Purchase Conversion Rates

Shared by Caddie Library · Updated
App Masters10:15Open on YouTube
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The bottom line

Good in-app conversion comes from building the purchase and review prompts into the story so nothing breaks the experience. Maginary reached 7.5% conversion in the US and about 4,000 reviews this way.

Key takeaways

  • A product people love is the base for reviews and sales. 2:06
    • Semyon Polyakovskiy calls making something good the best advice he can give, before any tactic.
    • Reviewers wrote that the app felt different and that they loved it.
  • A review request works best at a natural pause in the story. 2:53
    • The prompt comes after an action scene, when the hero enters a tunnel and loses signal.
    • It is timed to the reader's reading speed, so it lands as the "technical break" appears.
    • The app has about 4,000 reviews on 200,000 downloads.
  • The purchase is a plot event, so it never feels like an interruption. 5:02
    • The hero hides in an arcade machine and needs a coin, and the reader pays for it.
    • Readers wrote in their reviews that this scene helped push them to buy.
  • A price that drops when the reader acts uses anchoring. 6:36
    • Shaking the machine cuts the price from $9.99 to $5.99, and a second shake shows it can fall no lower.
    • The idea came from the marketing concept of anchoring, where a price lower than expected feels like a win.
  • Readers who want to see what happens next are the ones who pay. 8:15
    • The paywall exists because the creator has to earn a living, but the goal is to make readers not want to miss what follows.
    • The US conversion rate stands at 7.5%.

I don't actually love when apps interrupt you and say okay please buy something. It just breaks the experience.

Semyon Polyakovskiy

Chapter summaries

0:00 A simple app with standout numbers

Maginary is a simple app whose ratings and conversion are far above what most apps reach.

  • The results come from a polished experience, not from a complex product. 0:30
    • The app holds an average rating of 4.7 and converts at over 7% in the US.
    • The app is simple, yet the interview treats it as a model of how to convert.
    • Polyakovskiy is the founder and creator, and the app has been featured around the world.
    • He returned after a podcast interview to show the screens and conversion rates, which audio alone couldn't convey.

1:54 Asking for reviews inside the story

The review request works because it is written into the story at a moment when the reader is happy and ready for a pause.

  • The request goes to readers who have already bought and are enjoying the book. 2:26
    • It appears at the end of a chapter, after the reader has paid and read an action scene.
    • The book itself suggests going to the App Store to rate it or leave a review for other readers.
    • The character, Michael, is the one who loses signal, so the pop-up feels like part of the plot.
    • A cool animation is built into the moment and fits the scene.
  • Many of these reviewers write real text, not just stars. 4:26
    • The ratio of written reviews to plain ratings is good.
    • Readers want to share that they had a really good experience.
    • The reviews come mostly from Russia and the United States.
    • Polyakovskiy calls the review prompt a crucial part of the app's results.

5:08 The paywall written into the plot

The purchase was planned as part of the story from the first draft, not added on afterward.

  • The paywall was designed together with the storyline. 5:12
    • Michael runs from robots and ends up inside an arcade machine.
    • The text says four chapters cost $9.99 in tokens, and readers react with are you kidding me.
    • Michael cannot act alone, so the story turns to the reader.
    • Most readers had the same shocked first thought, which sets up the shake that follows.
    • The story then offers shaking the machine as a way to try to drop the price.

7:46 Experience first, then the ask

Readers pay when nothing interrupts them, and the shake mechanic came from iterating on a plain scene.

  • Success came from the whole experience, not a sales push. 8:05
    • Asked why conversion is so high, he first answered the people.
    • A good experience makes people want to keep reading.
    • Reviewers called the integration flawless because nothing interrupted them.
    • Only on reflection did he name the paywall as part of the reason.
  • The shake mechanic was added after the first version. 8:55
    • The first version had only the arcade machine, with no strong storyline around it.
    • He proposed anchoring to the team, who said let's create something cool here.
    • The team loved the shaking idea and saw it work.
    • The change made readers want to keep going.

In the growth library

Semyon Polyakovskiy, Creative Entrepreneur and founder of Maginary, an interactive story app. 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.

More from App Masters · The whole library, and ask it anything

Transcript227 lines
0:00

what is a bad nation welcome to another amazing at masters virtual summit thank you guys for all the great feedback I just read an email we're loving this content and I'm love been doing this because I get to talk to so many great entrepreneurs and forget the fluff go straight into the content share some amazing visuals with you guys and today I've got a phenomenal guest we did a podcast interview after that podcast interview I was like send me on you got to come back for this virtual summit share with us all the screen share with us all the conversion rates how you've been able to really get some amazing conversion rates for your app which is a very simple app to be frank but it's doing phenomenally well so I wanted to bring them back and we're gonna do all of this talk about I got so many reviews how he's been able to get amazing conversion rates over 7% in the US he's got more than four thousand reviews so

0:49

without further ado let me introduce this phenomenal guest his name is Simeon Holley young Goff's key sorry abou that name he is the founder and creator of an app called imaginary has been featured all over the world like I said seven percent conversion rates over four thousand reviews with an average rating of 4.7 so how is he able to do this how is he creating such a flawless experience within his app we're going to learn all about that but without further ado Simeon it's a long intro but I think you really deserve it Simeon welcome back hi I still nice to see you again yes thank you for inviting me again to share my experience with you I really appreciate that yes so let me yeah a couple of things I want to get to as well since we have all the visuals the how do you manage to get all these reviews these positive reviews so beyond like creating that optimal experience that people want to leave your review is

1:51

there anything that you're doing within the app to prompt people to get more reviews as well yeah yeah sure so I just got here some reviews like people people told that this is what was something different and they loved it so I think of course the first reason is to create something good this is the best advice I could give but still there are some methods like you can see I'm sorry just some advertising here let's keep it I just wanted to show you something okay so here you can see the moment where we it's the end of the chapter for so the user has already bought the book he is reading he loves everything there was some action scene before him and there is this moment where like Michael the character of the book he comes into the tunnel yeah you can see this yes yeah so he enters the tunnel and there is like poor signal and it says technical brake yeah and at this moment it says like they both lost

3:06

its connection it couldn't know what was happening so using the boss the book suggested to go to the App Store to rate it or leave a review for the other readers yes and as I told about the reading speed right at the moment where he here was reading like that L could go yes right at this moment the pop-up alert telling if you imaginary please rated so this was again like you I think this was the top point of users experience because first of all there was a action part beforehand there was this cool animation it was integrated properly again like the tunnel the technical brake okay the good moment for a pause why don't we ask you to leave the review and again we used reading speeds to put it right at the moment when you were reading like why don't you just try to rate us and here we go if you want you can wait it yes so and I think this was a crucial part like we have we have about 4000 reviews it's

4:12

it's Russia and United States overall but let's say on 200,000 downloads so I think the ratio is pretty good nice it's one to 58 thing to pretend we have it yeah and we have a quite good ratio of reviews to ratings I mean those who really write something on the app store because people really want to share that they had really good experience yes and that they enjoy this like a minute yeah yeah the thing I want to talk about that's amazing I love it and I love this visual part of it because I think it really speaks to you because we talked about on the podcast we couldn't really see it and now I got to see it that's really cool the next thing is the monetization I love this trick and I really want that visual for the audience too as well okay okay so speaking about the monetization the visual cue is also crucial actually because this was the monetization as I told you before this these the way we wanted to monetize it was

5:14

thought from the beginning I mean like just when I started I integrated it into the storyline like when Michael was running away from some robots which were running after him he here is the moment you can see it here like like the letters falling yeah so he runs away from the robots and he finds himself in the arcade machine whole like there somewhere CAD machines and he understands that he needs to keep reading he needs to put a coin inside the arcade machine and to make this happen of course he cannot do anything by himself but the reader can pay for the coin so the reader reads and he sees okay so like the book says that the J could finish reading them reading four chapters and 999 dollars was the tokens prize and when he read this there was like are you kidding me was the first thought that an in touch to the crossed readers mind like we reach his minds yes but I think most of readers thought like

6:34

this and then we say that likely he could usually shake the arcade machine just to try to drop the price and you can see here what was happening so I like when the user shakes the price actually drops so like $9.99 falls to $5.99 and the book says like the machine bus and the price fell down to $5.99 and then we say again something Havel thought that something told that he should try and shake it one more time and she shakes one more time and the price falls again and it sells that it couldn't fall any lower like some little joke there yeah so and people wrote in the reviews that this was one of the things that made them buy this book because it was integrated really flawless again I want to repeat this world like nothing interrupted them and they loved it and they said that this was really great and this was actually you know one of my intentions because I don't actually love when apps try to win apps interrupt you and say

7:51

okay please buy something it just breaks the experience and I wanted to create the whole experience and I am you know I one guy asked me about why do you think the conversion rates are so high I told him about the people of course but then I thought that you know the only reason I wanted the people to keep going I I wanted them so much to purchase the full version because I really wanted them to see what's going to happen next I really wanted to show them that those beautiful things which were further and I couldn't show this to them without paywall because I needed to make something for living but I really wanted to make them want to keep going just not to miss these beautiful parts so I think yeah I think this was really crucial for me and as I told if you create good experience I think people will to keep reading and love to keep going and this thing was shaking it wasn't at the beginning there was just this part

9:00

about their cat machine and like in certain it wasn't a greater timbi storyline but this thing was shaking when I read about you know there was such thing in marketing like anchoring when you see that the price is lower than you thought and it works and I told to my fellow team teammates and I told them about this and they it says said let's create something cool here so that people wanted to keep going and we came up with this idea that he shakes the like you shade their Cadmus chin to to lower the price yeah yeah also this worked yes and we loved it and as I told you before and I want to show it here yes we have really cool it's actually let me show you the real results if I say United States here then it will show you that it's at the moment at seven seven point five percent yes so it's really good check out the videos on the side if you want to see more of our amazing content and also don't forget to

10:01

hit that like button and hit subscribe and leave a comment below with some of the content that you want to see I want to make sure all your questions are answered either by me or one of my expert friends