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Proven App Monetization Strategies Backed by Data

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App Masters17:33Open on YouTube
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The bottom line

Apps earn more by converting the downloads they already have, using a longer paywall shown early and often, with urgency and win-back offers. Most buyers decide before using the app, so more paywall exposure lifts revenue without extra downloads.

Key takeaways

  • Most buyers pay before they use the app, so the paywall belongs in onboarding and on the home screen. 2:46
    • Around 61% and up to 80% of buyers pay before using the app, because they are warm leads who already read the reviews and screenshots.
    • Almost 90% of conversions come from two places, the home screen and onboarding. Showing the paywall first lifted sales 234% in one test.
  • Less friction and more paywall views mean more sales. 5:24
    • Showing the paywall before account creation gave one client a 50% increase in conversions.
    • Diminishing returns start around the seventh paywall view. Another client who reworked onboarding saw 52% more sales.
  • A longer paywall that sells benefits converts better than a short one. 7:31
    • One app earned 12x more revenue with a very long paywall, and another went from $250 to $1,000 a month on about 15 downloads a day.
    • It needs a strong headline, benefits instead of features, social proof, FAQs and a floating checkout button.
  • Urgency and win-back offers recover users who first say no. 10:25
    • Countdown timers and a discount after the user closes the paywall push people to decide. Headway shows 70% off after two refusals, and that plan is its third most popular.
    • Moving from one cart-abandonment push notification to three raised conversion 13x for a magazine app.
  • A hard paywall can multiply revenue, but it must be tested for each app. 13:26
    • One app went from a couple of thousand dollars a month to $10,000 in its first full month. Hard paywalls earned about 2x the soft version, and a cops' reporting app saw 3x.
    • Niche apps can afford to be more aggressive. Apple later forced an X back into one of the paywalls.

If you got some downloads, you don't need more downloads to make more money, you just need to convert those downloads.

Steve Young, App Masters

Chapter summaries

0:00 Paywall during onboarding

Onboarding is the best place to sell, because users arrive warm and only need a reminder of the benefits.

  • The paywall goes at the end of onboarding, before the main screen. 1:26
    • Calm runs stats, account creation and notifications, then shows the paywall before the home page.
    • Headspace and NoMoMo, a robocall blocker, follow the same pattern.
    • Calm's onboarding stats are uneven on purpose, such as 92 percent.
    • Calm's paywall is a pop-up, and it is held up as a good one.
  • Onboarding should remind users of the app's benefits, not its features. 3:30
    • Users may have downloaded the app and forgotten what it does.
    • A resume builder says make a resume that wins interviews and lists a recruiter-tested cover letter model.
    • It avoids listing a bunch of templates and every feature.
    • Calm shows that an app can force sign-up after payment, since users cannot use it without an account.
  • The paywall must not be buried in settings or the hamburger menu. 4:11
    • Many apps hide it behind if you want to buy, go ahead, and lose sales.
    • Calm lets users X out of the paywall, so the early placement still costs nothing.
    • Skipping the forced account step is the same friction fix.

5:43 More paywall views, longer paywall

Showing the paywall on every open and making it longer lifts revenue with no extra downloads.

  • Showing the paywall on every app open brings in more sales. 6:03
    • Headway and Blinkist show it on every open, and Headway gives a 50% offer from the second open.
    • One client added a remove ads line to the paywall, so closing it shows an ad and adds ad income.
    • Reworking one client's onboarding gave a 190% increase in trial activation.
    • Retention stayed strong despite the extra ads.
  • Longer paywalls convert better than short ones, on web and on mobile. 7:22
    • People read what they want to read, but they need information before they pay.
    • The checkout button must float so it stays visible while users scroll.
    • Course creators like Russell Brunson also say long pages work better.
    • The revenue chart for one client shows no added downloads, only more revenue.

8:47 Building the long paywall

Borrowed proof and light motion make a long paywall work even for a new app.

  • A new app can borrow social proof it doesn't have yet 9:24
    • For a pink noise app, a quick Google search for the memory-benefit stats gave usable proof.
    • A subtle animation, like a wink, also lifts conversions.
    • Reflectly's icon blinks, and Headway's button pulses.
    • A friend's longer, text-heavy paywall saw a 50% increase.

10:25 Urgency and win-backs

Deadlines and repeated follow-ups catch people who are already invested but haven't paid.

  • A deadline pushes undecided people to act 10:25
    • This is the urgency principle from Cialdini's Influence: stuck people don't move on their own.
    • Aptiv shows a discount with a red countdown after the paywall is closed.
    • Steve bought Calm's lifetime plan on the last day of a seven-day sale.
    • Fast Stick and ClassPass use countdowns too, and 10 minutes is probably a good length.
  • People who refuse once still buy a second offer 11:44
    • Apple lists an app's most popular plans, so the best-selling plan is visible.
    • The $89.99 onboarding plan sells most, and the $29.99 win-back plan is third.
    • Revenue from the win-back is unknown. Only its rank is visible.
    • A magazine app guest waited before the first cart push, then sent another a day later.

13:18 Hard paywalls

A hard paywall can beat a soft one, but the right choice depends on the app.

  • Skepticism about hard paywalls proved wrong 13:42
    • A hard paywall has no X, so users pay or leave.
    • Steve's co-founder built it that way, and Steve feared it was sleazy.
    • The app had strong organic downloads but undercharged.
    • Calm and Headway sit in between, with some free content and the rest locked.
    • The more niche the app, the more aggressive it can be.

15:26 Revenue beyond the paywall

Email, affiliate links and in-app messages add revenue on top of subscriptions.

  • Other channels earn money from the same users 15:26
    • Calm sold Steve a lifetime plan by email, just as his annual plan was about to expire.
    • An app with a physical-product angle added Amazon affiliate links in settings.
    • A meditation app sold a $3,500 coaching program through an in-app pop-up.
    • The affiliate app already earned from in-app purchases and ads.
    • CleverTap can run the pop-ups.

In the growth library

Steve P. Young, Founder of App Masters, app growth consultant and podcaster. Seven data-backed ways to raise subscription revenue without buying more downloads, mostly by changing when, how often and how the paywall is shown. The payoff is a set of client and own-app results, including a 12x revenue lift from a long paywall and a 2x lift from a hard paywall.

Lessons that draw on this:

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

Transcript480 lines
0:00

Jewish on social media I appreciate that pretend to be talking how about that we've got the slides going all right we're gonna talk all about revenues and the Seven proven ways we've tested a lot of things through our clients and through our own apps and I'm gonna digest them all and I'm Gonna Get You On off to lunch as well let's wait for it all right well the slides load I'm gonna just give you guys a little brief intro so I've been doing apps since 2011 2013 on the side by the way I started a podcast so been podcasting for like 10 plus years and through that app Masters thank you through that I've you know been able to work with a lot of different apps work with a lot of big names but I've been able to interview a lot of people and six months after starting the podcast people started coming to me no I had a job already for marketing help now I started the podcast because I knew nothing about apps I wanted to see if I

0:57

can learn from my heroes in the space to figure out if this side business of apps could actually turn into a real business and I could finally be the entrepreneur that I dreamed of when I was in elementary school selling cassette tapes wrap cassette tapes by the way all right so a lot of cool people that have interviewed the co-founder Shazam the creator of crossy Road Stevo here John's been on there and then Keith tier who's co-founded TechCrunch you know Michael gets all the credit though all right number one if you do nothing else and you go home and you've got a subscription-based app if you do nothing else and you show your paywall your pricing page during the onboarding process I guarantee that you will increase your subscriptions or James will buy you dinner all right I guarantee that and you can reach out to them all right I just give you some examples calm you know you can see towards the end the paywall

1:48

right pop up it's a good paywall by the way you got the onboarding you got some stats they're not like all even stats you know they're 92 percent and then you've got uh account creation notifications and then the paywall towards the end before you even hit the home page the main screen of the app so there's the paywall if you can't see it headspace same thing we got nomoromo which is a robot call robot call blocking app and they show the same paywall now I'm gonna play a game because I want to make it interactive my dream job is to be a game show host frankly so I don't know why I'm doing this but how many of you guys think that people of the people who buy that they buy on the onboarding process do you think it's over 50 percent do you think it's under 50 percent okay I know there's more everybody has two hands okay I mean thank you all right you don't want to look dumb by getting wrong yeah no you're getting

2:45

nothing James will buy you lunch I promise so over around 61 and as high as 80 of all the people who buy buy actually before using your app and that's because they're a warm lead they did the research right we're not looking to download more apps they've looked at your reviews they looked at your screenshots they're coming in really hot and heavy all right so we're gonna play another game hopefully I get more participants because you know there's some hands in here so here a the app just the first thing you see is their paywall B you get a couple of different screens before you say the paywall who thinks it's a thank you who they should be all right yeah it's definitely B it's 234 increase so number two tip definitely here's a little stat on there have an onboarding experience right remind users because they may have downloaded your app after a night out with John and been like oops I forgot

3:43

what this app is all about to just remind them what it was all about and you can see this is a Resume Builder he puts all the benefits it's not features by the way it's benefits make a resume that wins interviews a recruiter tested cover letter model resume templates so make it easy it's not like hey you know a bunch of templates and all the features it's all about the benefits all right next of the people who buy do not please because I see a lot of apps do not hide your paywall your pricing page under the settings a lot of you like to be like if you want to buy go ahead it's you're gonna find it in the hamburger menu no because almost 90 of all your conversions are coming from two pages that's your home page your main screen and the onboarding experience so make sure all right we're gonna play another game now I like this example because I've dealed with a lot of apps and they love to force me to create an

4:41

account before they show me a paywall right and I was like don't do that and I I wanted to show this example real quick so who do you think won a which forces you know column just says hey I have you know you can't sign up but then you can pay me later or B you can pay me and then you can sign up if you want so a show of hands please all right B show hands please thank you this is coming alive I like it all right it's actually B so one of my clients did this he just flipped the two he showed this paywall before he made you sign up now granted column can you can X out but I like com's example because after you pay guess what you got to do you got to sign up you can't use the app unless you sign up so it's a really good example but 50 conversions increase in conversions actually sales he got a way bigger increase in conversions by showing the paywall before asking users to sign up because to the earlier you want to lower the

5:35

friction right it's all about lowering the friction I'm waiting for you you better answer the next one all right good all right next one number three more paywall views equal more money I just did a live stream got a YouTube channel you want to check it out at masters.com YouTube but we just did a live stream this morning we talked about more pay walls leading to more review more revenues the missionary diminishing returns really starts around the seventh paywall view but I still like to just load the paywall every time a user opens the app because you built a great app right Karina you loved it right you launched it in six months so show the paywall on every app open and one of my clients started moving things around and you know oh sorry this is the a different one but he saw when he moved things around he saw a 40 increase in paywall not a forty percent you went for 49 3 in paywall views after

6:30

I moved the onboarding stuff around all right and then 190 increase in Activation so that's like trial activation to the 52 increase in sales this is what I meant to get to all right on every app open Headway really big app kind of likes blinkus they show on every open if you guys can literally do this right now okay second open and every open afterwards they give me an offer they give me a 50 offer all right it's crazy that's how aggressive they are one of the things we just did with the client too was you know we would pop up the paywall if they didn't buy and we say remove ads on the paywall right and so they can hit X guess what happens when you hit X you see an ad and he made more money through ads too retention's still strong don't worry all right brother than back which that's one a little shorter pay wall B longer paywall a please show Vans there you go finally got you to do something all right and

7:27

then V show Vans cool actually it is B so longer pay walls are performing better on the web and they're also performing better on mobile you know if you follow any of like the digital course creators like Russell Brunson any of those guys they say longer pay walls work better because why we'll read what we want to read but we need some information before we give you money and so they'll just scroll scroll scroll scroll one of the key things you've got to be aware of when you're doing a long paywall is make sure that checkout button is floating so let them read but make sure that checkout button is floating all right yeah okay good thank you more information so this was this was the app we worked with and he just I love showing this that because I could say 65 but I could actually show you the 65 and you can see the no additional downloads but more revenues that's what I'm all about right

8:24

this app we worked with a B 12x more revenues went really long right more information now to your point that date back there or no no okay all right here's another one 4X more refugees I love this example because this guy just emails me out of the blue from YouTube he's like Steve been following your stuff for a while look at what I just did I went from 250 a month to a thousand dollars a month with just 15 downloads that's one five 15 downloads a day by the way that's what I've been saying like yo if you got some downloads you don't need more downloads to make more money you just need to convert those downloads all right here's another example not even super long but more text we saw a 50 increase is one of my friends all right so that was number four go long and kind of give you guys an example is you want a good headline right you want your paywall above the fold as we say on the web you want your benefits not features some

9:22

social proof testimonials downloads whatever if you don't got social proof and you're just starting out borrow it you know I have like a pink noise app and it was like scientifically proven to increase your memory yo I just Google that right as a pink noise stats that's it throw it up on the that's social proof for me future stable more testimonials pricing again you want to have that FAQs and then this floating button summary nobody wants to take oh sorry here you want me to go back all right we will I'll go quick on these we've also seen that little bit of Animation not overbearing by the way a little bit of Animation like a little wink here and there does a little something for the soul it actually increases conversions so a little bit of animations you can see the 50 is kind of sliding off a sweat you see on reflectly the little icon is blinking here the button's going crazy right for

10:23

Headway so six if you ever read Robert C and Deanie's like influence book one of his core principles is urgency we gotta push people to move because you know why things stuck in stuck not moving don't move all right so I saw aptiv do this pretty well they gave me this paywall and then when I X out of it they're like whoa whoa whoa whoa you wanna you wanna you wanna discount and they hit me with that too and then you see the you see the the countdown and that that 15 downloads a day case study I had had if you guys can't see it from way far back but there's a little countdown at the very bottom in Red so ads emergency it works I actually bought com's lifetime because they gave me a seven day sale and I bought it on the last chance the last day so it works here's some more examples this is fast stick you can see the countdown and then class pass you can see the countdown here too 10 minutes is probably a good time you got

11:20

to make that decision quick all right I think this is under utilized promotions and win backs I've actually seen pretty good case studies on this so I'm gonna go through headways example real quick I really love their app there's not much in terms of free content so this is their reading so I picked up a book that I want a summary for and then they show me hey if I want to listen or read I have to pay fine but here's their here's all the offers by the way there's a little link that says view other plans that's all that so if I X out of both they hit me with another offer I was like what 70 off what that's cool so I don't know how well it's performing but I can just show you from my market research here's how well they're doing right according sensor Tower and then here it's their third most popular the cool thing about Apple is if you look on any app you can see their most popular plans that people are buying I can see that

12:19

most people are buying on the onboarding right that's the 89.99 look at the third most 29.99 is the third most popular plan now again I have no idea how much they're making from this but I just know it's the third most popular why because people already invested right they're in the flow they're in the flow they said no win them back and then here's another example from the podcast guests she did some cart abandonment through push notifications and so she sent out a reminder she waited a little bit because you know we're shy we're like we don't want to be super aggressive right so she said okay you abandoned your cart this was a a magazine you can buy magazines digital magazines so you abandoned your cart one after abandoning it they hit you with the push notification a day another push notification another push notification don't forget to remind them she saw a 13x increase in conversion rate by

13:11

moving from just like hey one time push notification to three and just push you know right all right I'm gonna give you some bonus so hard paywall if you were here yesterday you saw Jillian talk about semi-hard paywall I'm gonna just go hard on this pay wall and a hard pay wall just means there's no X all right you can't get out you either pay freedom free to download by the way you either pay or get out right here's one of our apps that we have so here's what happened my developer co-founder said hey we built this app it's a hard pay ball I was like what that's ridiculous that's that's not gonna work I don't want to be that guy I don't want to be sleazy let them use it first and then they want to pay us let them pay I was wrong here's the hard paywall we went we bought this app we went from a couple of thousand dollars a month that's when you can see from March and April was still implementing our stuff but it came into

14:05

our account but when we launched it in our first full month we got ten thousand dollars and I bought this app because it had great organic downloads but it wasn't performing it was under charging essentially so I was like whoa hard paywall okay then I was talking to somebody else and they're like I was like how would you launch a brand new app he's like do a hard pay wall I was like get the hell out because I just did and it is working what the hell happened here James I know you're wondering what happened Steve soft pay wall Apple forced us to put the X back in I'll tell you how to take the X back out but you're gonna have to buy me lunch all right anyways it's two times more revenues when we went soft and hard now you're gonna have to test it for your own app I'm just telling you what I've seen and then a friend of mine has a an app for cops to easily file reports and he seen 3x more more revenues by going

14:58

to a hard paywall so play around with it the more Niche you are the more I feel like you can do be more aggressive and do a hard paywall all right now I just wanted to point out calm picking on calm by the way there's no free content it's just literally like everything is locked so they have us I would call it a semi soft okay well how about that and then Headway as well same thing you got free daily read but everything else is locked and then I wanna John's getting up so that means I have to be almost done don't forget other channels like we talked about yesterday email marketing super big look I bought comms through an email campaign lifetime through a stripe checkout and they were so small I think they were smart I'm gonna give them credit that my yearly annual subscription was about to be expired and I was debating on whether we knew it too it's like they're in my head they give me this offer and then I ended up paying

15:50

for it but quizzes Amazon Affiliates one app we worked with you know it's the craziest app by the way does one thing really well but I was like there is a physical product in terms of functionality for his app it's like dude just put an Amazon affiliate within your app it's in the settings and all that jazz and he did it he's starting to make just money from that so he made more money three in-app purchases made more money through ads and now he's making some money through Amazon Affiliates so don't sleep on that and then in-app messaging one of my guests also you know you can do a little pop-up you can use clevertap and you can promote other things so one of my friends she has a meditation app called unplug go check it out Susie will appreciate that and then what she did was she sold a coaching program three thousand five hundred dollar coaching program using in-app messaging so don't sleep on other Revenue possibilities

16:41

Karina I want to talk to you about that later all right that's it again go check out appmasters.com YouTube thank you so much I'm Jen don't post that anywhere that sunglasses photo thank you guys any questions uh if we have questions for Steve if we have questions for Steve I don't think this is working but if we have questions receive you'll be at lunch right he'll be at lunch awesome Steve you rock that was great thank you wonderful appreciate it lunches I guess where breakfast was and I believe there are Bloody Mary's as well and who doesn't need a Bloody Mary let's go