The Importance of Driving the First Subscription

The Secret of the Onboarding Paywall

There are many discussions around when to show a paywall, but one strategy is becoming established as orthodoxy: the sooner and more frequently it is shown right after installation, the better it is for subscription conversion. Of course, this could conversely lead to a higher rate of users abandoning the app, so we must optimize while monitoring user retention as a guardrail metric. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that it is a highly effective strategy for boosting subscription conversions.

In Alarmy's case, the first paywall is shown right after the new user onboarding ends following the initial installation. We call this the onboarding paywall. (I know other products call it an intro paywall, first-run paywall, and so on.)

For a long time, Alarmy on Android lacked this crucial onboarding paywall. When we previously ran an experiment, the subscription conversion rate rose significantly, but retention tended to drop, which was why we didn't add it. Later, as the onboarding structure itself underwent major changes, we reran the experiment of showing the paywall. Fortunately, the subscription conversion rate increased without any drop in retention, so the current Android app now features the onboarding paywall.

By carefully utilizing the onboarding paywall while watching for any drop in retention like this, we can drastically boost the subscription conversion rate.

Optimizing When to Show the Onboarding Paywall

Following these lessons, we are currently running the next experiment below.

We generated far more growth than when we didn't show the onboarding paywall at all, but we realized that showing it at a different timing could create an even higher conversion rate. So, we are continuing to experiment to find the optimal timing that fits our product.

I'm looking forward to the experiment results to see which timing will generate a higher subscription conversion rate without lowering retention.

Rather than the increase in the paywall visit rate for new users, the increase in the conversion rate per visit will be the key to determining the success or failure of the experiment.