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This Habit Tracker App Makes $200K a Month

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App Masters12:31Open on YouTube
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The bottom line

Productive, a habit tracker, makes money by making onboarding feel personal and then offering a time-limited discount at the paywall. Small touches like these only need to make an app 10 to 20% better than rivals to multiply results.

Key takeaways

  • Most users leave fast, so onboarding must get them excited to pay. 6:11
    • About 77% of daily active users leave within the first 3 days, according to Amplitude.
    • Small animations in the flow make the app feel good, and a 10 to 20% edge over competitors can bring 4x to 10x results.
  • Personal questions make users feel the app is being built for them. 2:44
    • Questions like "do you often procrastinate" give data that can be reused in marketing copy.
    • A "building your personalized program" screen before the paywall lifted conversion 9 to 10% for other clients.
  • The paywall should offer several plans, a free trial and a short discount. 5:34
    • More plans usually mean higher conversion, ideally three.
    • A one-hour offer of 47% off brings the year to $20, and it then renews at $34.99.
  • After the paywall, the app should teach, reward and collect emails. 7:16
    • The email screen can be skipped, but owning the email means owning the customer for life.
    • Swiping a habit as done gives a one-day streak, which is a quick dopamine hit.
  • Locking premium content keeps the upgrade in front of users. 9:28
    • Tapping "join challenge" on a locked challenge triggers the discount again.
    • New apps should start with a hard paywall until the first $1,000 to $10,000 in revenue, then decide the long-term model.

That's the goal of the onboarding experience, get them excited to use your app and ultimately pay for your app.

Steve P. Young

Chapter summaries

0:00 Productive's traction and markets

Productive earns well from steady downloads, and its revenue is not only from the US.

  • The habit tracker is a proven earner worth studying. 0:59
    • It gets about 200,000 downloads a month.
    • It runs ads and has been around for some time.
    • Part of the revenue is likely recurring subscriptions from earlier users.
    • Steve is not working with the app and has no internal numbers, only third-party estimates.
  • Apps should not ignore markets outside the US. 1:19
    • The US is the biggest market, but not the only one.
    • Non-English countries can pay off too.
    • Clients have done very well in Germany, China, Japan and South Korea.
    • The same goes for the UK, Australia and Canada.

1:47 Onboarding questions that personalize

Each question should make the user feel the app is being tailored to them, and the answers should feed marketing.

  • Easy lifestyle questions pull the user in. 2:44
    • The app asks when they wake up and how their energy runs through the day.
    • It also asks how satisfied they are with their lifestyle.
    • Screenshots miss the small animations, so download the app to see them.
    • Each question signals that a customized experience is coming.
  • The answers that lead to the most trials become the ad copy. 3:26
    • "Do you often procrastinate" and "do you find it hard to focus" are the key pair.
    • Match the combination of answers to the highest trial starts.
    • Marketing can then say: you procrastinate from time to time and sometimes lose focus.
    • That describes most people, so the message reaches a wide group.

4:20 Framing, the build screen and the paywall

The goal screen, the build animation and the paywall layout each push the user toward paying.

  • Goal questions should be about the user, not the app. 4:14
    • "What do you expect to achieve" gets answers like "I want to build good habits".
    • The app can then say what it will do for them.
    • "What are you here for, how can we best help you" is another way to ask.
    • The "building your personalized program" screen does almost nothing, yet it feels like customization.
  • The paywall keeps the monthly plan visible next to the yearly one. 5:23
    • The free trial toggle only applies to the yearly plan.
    • Turning it on hides the yearly plan and leaves only monthly.
    • Having switched the trial on themselves, users may be less likely to cancel. Steve has no data on this.
    • His team launched without the build screen and will share results after adding it.

6:16 The discount screen

The discount screen works better when the close button is harder to find.

  • Moving the X between the two paywalls makes users hunt for it. 6:47
    • Keep the X on the right of the normal paywall.
    • Put it on the left of the discount screen.
    • Other clients use this switch. The goal is to make the user guess a little.
    • The line "get unlimited habits and more" is good messaging, but it is easy to miss.

7:11 After the paywall

Onboarding after the paywall teaches the app by having the user do things, and the discount could be shown at the high point.

  • The user learns by completing a real habit. 7:16
    • Pick a first habit, swipe right to complete it, swipe left to undo it.
    • Tapping adds the next habit.
    • Asking for the email after the paywall is the ideal timing, and the user can still X out.
    • Notifications are requested near the end. Habit templates like better sleep come with steps such as "go to bed by 11".
  • The discount may convert best right after the streak screen. 8:33
    • The user is at a high moment in the app.
    • He has no data on this. It is only worth testing.
    • Today the discount appears only after the first paywall.

9:21 Locking content

Locking most features keeps the upgrade in view while a little free content still shows the value.

  • The home screen has no upgrade button, so locked tabs do that job. 9:23
    • Challenges and Explore are locked.
    • Some content stays free, so not everything needs to be locked.
    • Start with a hard paywall, make that first money, then work out the premium model.
    • The detail page of a challenge is locked as well.

10:24 The wrong way

Closing the paywall should never lead to a dead end.

  • An empty screen after the paywall leaves the user with nothing to do. 10:31
    • A client's language app shows "nothing to practice" after the X.
    • It should say continue and ask for the first word to learn.
    • Productive does not let users X out of "choose your first habit".
    • Its email request framed as tracking progress is a good way to ask.

In the growth library

Steve P. Young, Founder of App Masters, an app marketing agency. A teardown of the onboarding, paywall and discount flow in Productive, a habit tracker that Steve P. Young says makes over $200K a month, covering personalization, plan count, timed discounts, email capture and locked content. It gives concrete patterns to copy and a few things to test, plus a client app that gets the post-paywall flow wrong.

Lessons that draw on this:

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

Transcript335 lines
0:00

coming up I'm going to break down a habit Tracker app that's making over $200,000 a month and what they're doing extremely extremely well stay tuned what is up app Nation it is Steve p young founder of app masters.com the app marketing agency that's going to really help you grow your app downloads and your revenues a lot faster and more affordable than anyone else in the world that's my claim and I'm sticking to it let's get into this app I really wanted to highlight this app we're not working with them but I think they're doing a phenomenal job from an onboarding experience just these little touches and the way to really fully on board a user and keep them coming back I think they've done a phenomenal job I don't have the numbers because I'm not working with them but I think they're doing amazing and the revenue numbers back it up so without further Ado let's get into the app here's the yeah it's called

1:00

productive productive habit tracker and you can see the sensor to Stats it's getting about 200,000 downloads a month making $2,000 a month and it's been around for some time so that's good right I'm sure some of this is just recurring revenue and they are advertising on ad channels the other thing I want to point out is as you guys can see here too obviously us is big but I know I work with a lot of clients who are always focused on the US market it is one of the biggest markets out there the biggest actually but don't ignore the other countries especially the non-english-speaking countries as well we've had clients who are doing phenomenally well in Germany China Japan South Korea you name it I've probably experienced somebody doing well in a country outside of the US UK Australia and Canada let's get into the app itself here's the onboarding now I've taken screenshots of the onboarding

1:51

but I suggest that you go check out the app itself too because what you won't notice from these screenshots is a slight little animations here and there as I'm going going through the onboarding which I extremely love I know it's these little small touches that make me feel good as a user downloading in the app so it's these little small touches that I really really like and I think that enhan the app experience side note I'm reading this book called 10x is easier than 2X and in the book it was talking about how you only have to be 10 to 20% better than your competition to see 4X the results or 10x the results right right and this is what I like to focus in on what is a 10 to 20% just a little bit better and it's these little animations that you're not going to get from these screenshots but when you do download the app you will see okay let's talk about the onboarding a little bit more what time do you usually wake up I

2:46

like this they're engaging the user what is your energy level throughout the day again part of these questions and part of your onboarding experience should ask users questions that make them feel like you're about to customize the experience for them and you can use this data in your marketing and get them excited that's the goal of the onboarding experience get them excited to use your app and ultimately pay for your app okay so how satisfied are you with your current lifestyle do you often procrastinate now if most this is I'm going to pause here I really like this these two questions do you often procrastinate do you find it hard to focus because if they're finding that people who do procrastinate from time to time and sometimes lose focus they can regurgitate that in their marketing so meaning if these two people you sometimes procrastinate and you sometimes lose focus if these this

3:46

combination leads to the highest trial activations or highest purchasers then you know in your marketing you be like hey do you often find yourself procrastinating from time to time like you're not a constant procrastinator but you do do it time to time and you sometimes lose focus which you know frankly we're all in this probably bucket that's how you leverage that and this is why this these questions are so valuable during the onboarding because they do actually lead to higher conversions and help you with your marketing later down the road what do you expect to achieve I want to build good habits I love phrasing like this what are you here for how can we best help you is another way to frame it but this screen it allows you to say here's what we can help you with without making it sound like it's all about about me or your app right so it frames it in a way that like here I'm here to help you but

4:35

here's all the things we can do for you right and that's a better way of framing it so I love this I love this personalization animation so it just animates and then goes to the pay wall now what this animation like building your personalized program does even if that screen does really nothing it makes the user feel like you are customizing and personalizing it so it is very key to ask these questions and then add this we are doing this to our app we launch without the screen and now we're going to add the screen and I'll share the results in terms of how well it's improved anecdotally it has helped other clients improve conversion rates by 9 to 10% just having a little screen that says customizing your plan before the pay wall does help so I'll give you real data after we add it to our app so here's the pay wall I like this pay wall I mean nothing exciting from this pay wall free trial enabled is only to the

5:28

year if you unbled it the yearly goes away and then you're stuck with the monthly plan now what I do like about this is that the monthly is always there because the more plans there are the higher the conversion rates typically speaking okay I know there are some outliers out there but typically speaking the more plans ideally you want three plans the more plans you have three ideally the higher your conversion rates are going to be okay so I like how they've done it this way and then obviously what I've heard from others is enabling that free trial right right here psychologically you're less likely to cancel that free trial because you've gone ahead and enabled it yourself I don't know I don't have any data around that but I thought that was interesting okay and lastly obviously discounting which I have said do it why because most people buy by doing the onboarding process you lose your users pretty

6:17

quickly about 77% of your daily active users leave within the first 3 days that's a stat from amplitude so have a way to provide discounting and I like that there is a one hour only get for one hour 47% off I really like that right it's so cheap 20 bucks a year that's it man and then obviously it renews at $34.99 now I actually missed this get unlimited habits and more so cool messaging but I kind of missed it the first time around the other thing I would do if I were productive is instead of having X on the same side I have seen other clients do this where the X will be on the right left side or they'll just switch so the X on the left side on the normal pay wall the X then moves to the right side on the normal pay wall I typically would just leave the X on the right side of a normal pay wall and then the left side of the discount just make him make him guess make it a little bit harder all right now here's what I

7:13

really want to focus on and what I really love so I said at no to both pay walls they then try to onboard me choose your first habit right I'll show you the wrong way of doing it but this is what I like choose your first habit cool I I forget what I picked but maybe was like drink water track your prod ress I love this too right I think getting emails is super important to your long-term health of your app so get those email addresses frankly this is a reminder to myself to add a screen like this I can exit the email does nothing right like I can still use the app without sending you an email but I do like getting the emails CU then you own your customer now you can do whatever you want with that customer they are your customer for life so get their emails if you can but do allow them to x out and I like that they're asking for the email email after the pay wall which is the ideal way of

8:01

doing it okay get a personalized experience so forth go on the ATT prompt allow and continue and then they're teaching me how to do stuff so one of the habits oh I think I put meditate so meditate I can swipe to the right and then I complete it Market is done here again and then this screen now you're giving me a dope ining hit one day streak so I love that right you're teaching me how to use the app I'm Mark it is done and then they're hip getting me the dopamine hit now one thing that they can be testing is if the data says most people go through this onboarding the ideal situation might be for me to hit continue and then show me the discount maybe don't show it right after that initial pay wall it might be better it's just worth testing I have no data on this might be worth testing to show it right after this because you got me at a pretty high moment in the app experience Now swipe left to undo it and

8:56

then T tap here to add your next habit and then they allow for notifications right here towards the end notifications are allowed I'm going through their actual like new habits too so I can pick a new habit here I pick better sleep here's all the things that I need to do to get better sleep better sleep is down here if you keep scrolling I really like that too here I'm in to Habit so go to bed by 11 I hit save so go to bed by 11 right here as well and then here's our homepage what's missing from this homepage is really a way for me to purchase the upgrade or upgrade I'm in the challenges tab all the challenges are locked just FYI so here's the challenges I hit join Challenge and then I'm hit with the discount which I really like too they're just like look for the next hour you're going to get hit with their discount if you want to do anything that's a premium feature and then here's the details again that's

9:45

locked as well and the last is the explore so you want to lock up as much as you can now they're obviously giving away some free stuff so I don't need to actually unlock certain things but I have a habit and that might be useful as a long-term strategy right as people are exploring hard pay wall versus soft I would say start with hard to get your first $1,000 in revenues and then start figuring out what to do frankly you can wait till the first 10,000 and then figure out what next to do but wait till a certain milestone in your app if you're just launching it test it with a hard first make that money and then figure out long-term strategy what's the premium way of doing the app all right the last thing I want to highlight is the wrong way this is one of my clients so hopefully they're not watching like Steve stop showing off my app all right here's the wrong way so there is an onboarding experience for this app it is

10:35

a language learning app but after the pay wall I hit X on this pay wall I know you don't see it here but I hit back all they hit me with this empty screen nothing to practice discover more words to learn it's like come on you know like they should just say continue what is the first word you want to do again this app productive after I said no to their pay wall they said choose your first habit they didn't let me X Out of This choose your first habit I picked meditate and I went done with it they asked me to track my progress great way of asking for the email here and then personalize All That Jazz and everything else so really really when I saw the app when I was using the app I felt great about it really great job from the productive team because hey I really like it man good stuff all right guys that's it if you want to learn all about the onboarding strategies that are working today well we do have a brand

11:30

new course in our ATMs Academy at masters.com Academy we've got over a 100 app entrepreneurs app Founders who are in our slack Community we meet every month so if you're looking for a group of entrepreneurs just like yourself that are trying to grow their app Business and a bunch of them have already done it then check out ATMs Academy hopefully you'll join there I'm revamping the entire Academy we just finished up a new ASO course a new onboarding course and some interesting new monetization stuff that I just discovered all underneath the ATMs Academy and you get more access to me within our slack Community as well once again it is atm.com Academy if you want to join there there is a bonus 1H hour consult there as well if you want more interactions and more coaching from me private coaching that option is available as well all right guys until next time I'll see you on the next video