App Monetization: 5 ideas to test on a paywall

Hey there!

In this post, I'll be reviewing some mobile paywall tricks that one can test in their app to increase its conversion / LTV / revenue. To see the illustrations, please refer to the source — the 1st issue of the Paywall Newsletter.

I work for Adapty, we help apps grow with the help of paywall A/B testing and advanced analytics.

From our experience, we can say that those app teams that constantly experiment with their paywalls, increase their revenue on average by 30% in a couple of months.

That’s why I've started the Paywall Newsletter. Once a month I go through a few dozens of paywalls, pick 6-7 most interesting ones, ask an expert to comment on them, and then send them to our subscribers.

Here are some paywall tricks from the 1st issue.

Comparison Table

We often see them on the web, but it's a rare case for apps. Meanwhile, the comparison table is very descriptive when it comes to showing the users the true benefits of the paid plan.

Video

Quite a few apps add videos to their paywalls. This makes paywalls catchy and sometimes more convincing. It’s more preferable to show the app itself in the video and let the users see how it functions.

Trial End Reminder

It sounds counterintuitive, but it’s worth a try. Promising your user to remind them when the trial period is coming to an end lowers the friction on the paywall.

Link to Another Paywall

Loora, an app for learning English, sells the annual plan on their paywall. However, if you look closer, you can see the link saying "see all plans" on the bottom of the paywall.

After clicking the link, the user sees another paywall offering both annual and monthly subscriptions.

Apparently, this trick is used to have more users choose the annual plan but without restraining them from subscribing on the monthly basis.

Plan Switcher

Another trick for making users choose a certain product is used on the Hallow’s paywall. They added a plan switcher that looks like a small button with up and down arrows. It's quite subtle and probably most users won't notice it. So I believe they mostly choose the default option, which is the annual plan. However, they still have the option to subscribe to another plan thanks to the switcher.