# The Subscription Stack: Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)

- Link: https://phiture.com/mobilegrowthstack/the-subscription-stack-conversion-rate-optimization/
- Published: 2023-02-16T14:31:45+01:00
- Author: Alice Muir

![](https://phiture.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/SubStack-CRO-1024x561.png)

_Each blog post in our Subscription Stack series introduces a key layer of the Stack,
and deep dives into the importance of that layer to your own subscription optimization
strategy for your app or game.  Here we introduce Conversion Rate Optimization and
the essential activities that underpin Conversion Rate Optimization. _

[You can read our Introduction to the Stack here.](https://phiture.com/subscriptionstack/)

[Part 1: Subscriber Acquisition](https://phiture.com/mobilegrowthstack/the-subscription-stack-subscriber-acquisiton/)

Part 2: Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)

[Part 3: Activation, Engagement, and Churn Prevention](https://phiture.com/mobilegrowthstack/the-subscription-stack-activation-engagement-churn-prevention/)

[Part 4: Tools and Infrastructure](https://phiture.com/mobilegrowthstack/the-subscription-stack-tools-and-infrastructure/)

## 󠀁[󠀁[

Table of Contents

 * [What is Conversion Rate Optimization?](https://phiture.com/mobilegrowthstack/the-subscription-stack-conversion-rate-optimization/#what_is_conversion_rate_optimization)
 * [Customer Relationship Management (CRM)](https://phiture.com/mobilegrowthstack/the-subscription-stack-conversion-rate-optimization/#customer_relationship_management_crm)
 * [Analytics, measurement and user research](https://phiture.com/mobilegrowthstack/the-subscription-stack-conversion-rate-optimization/#analytics_measurement_and_user_research)
 * [Free trial strategy and optimization ](https://phiture.com/mobilegrowthstack/the-subscription-stack-conversion-rate-optimization/#free_trial_strategy_and_optimization)
 * [Paywall Optimization](https://phiture.com/mobilegrowthstack/the-subscription-stack-conversion-rate-optimization/#paywall_optimization)
 * [Paywall A/B Tests](https://phiture.com/mobilegrowthstack/the-subscription-stack-conversion-rate-optimization/#paywall_ab_tests)
 * [Price testing ](https://phiture.com/mobilegrowthstack/the-subscription-stack-conversion-rate-optimization/#price_testing)
 * [Conclusion](https://phiture.com/mobilegrowthstack/the-subscription-stack-conversion-rate-optimization/#conclusion)
 * [Before you go: ](https://phiture.com/mobilegrowthstack/the-subscription-stack-conversion-rate-optimization/#before_you_go)

## **What is Conversion Rate Optimization?**

Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) is the process of increasing your conversion 
rate for your app’s subscription. CRM, user research, trial optimization, paywall
optimization and price testing are all actionable activities you can undertake to
move the needle on your baseline conversion rate. Analytics and measurement are 
tools to help you make better CRO decisions while social proof is incredibly important
for new businesses looking to gain trust, and can be incorporated into your CRM 
and paywall optimization strategy. 

It is advisable  to move to the Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) layer of the 
stack only when your business has found a degree of product-market fit. Up until
this point, it’s more important to ensure you have key, basic elements in-place,
such as key paywall placements, high levels of paywall visibility, and or a free
trial offering. That’s because for CRO, you need high sample sizes in order to make
your experimentation worthwhile, so it’s therefore important to get the basics down
before you optimize for best results. Nowadays, there are many [free online libraries](https://adapty.io/mobile-paywall-library/)
that you can use to essentially replicate paywall best practices, so there’s really
no need to reinvent the wheel. 

With that in mind, let’s look at each layer in detail.

 

## **Customer Relationship Management (CRM)**

One of the most straightforward things you can do to increase conversion is to simply
engage more with your customers through Customer Relationship Management. Otherwise
known as Lifecycle Marketing, this relates to guiding potential customers through
the different stages of the customer journey. During the CRO phase of the Stack,
this could take the form of onboarding and activation communications that educate
and guide the users on the product’s core features. For example, sending a welcome
email to educate users on the difference between the free and paid app experience
is a typical way to onboard – and activate – new users. Tools such as Braze, CleverTap
and Leanplum enable you to send automated CRM comms based on user behavior and preferences.

To leverage potential subscribers, start by onboarding and activating free users
so they understand your value proposition and build a habit around it. This could
be, for example, a series of emails, in-app messages, and push notifications that
educate new users about key product features and nudge them to start using the product.

Once you have a free user onboarding and activation flow in place, you’ll want to
experiment with ‘strategic friction.’ This is when you give users enough value from
the free experience that they understand what the product does and how it works,
but in order to fully solve their problem, they’ve got to convert to premium. An
example of this would be allowing free users to sample editing tools in a creative
editing app, but if they want to download or save their project, they have to be
a premium user. 

 

## **Analytics, measurement and user research**

Analytics and data visualization tools, such as Mixpanel or Amplitude, are powerful
tools when it comes to putting numbers behind strategy, for example, the CRM strategies
mentioned above. Funnel charts can highlight areas where drop-offs are happening
in the user lifecycle, and at this point you can send CRM comm’s to bring users 
back to the product to complete the action they dropped-off on, or serve survey 
messaging to gain valuable insights on why this is happening. In terms of optimizing
for conversions, these types of insights can uncover whether or not users are dropping
out of the onboarding process, the paywall screens, or are simply not activating
on the core value proposition.

Example of an onboarding funnel chart showing a 15% drop-off between the “app open”
and “signup” events

 

Also, in relation to the Analytics and Measurement layer, it’s advised to understand
your product’s [Natural Usage Habit](https://phiture.com/mobilegrowthstack/natural-usage-habits-choosing-your-engagement-metric-a158438962c3/)
before diving into strategies in relation to CRM, trial length, terms, free credits,
and so on. The Natural Usage Habit determines how often users have a natural usage
or need for your product. This can also help to align your CRM strategy with data,
to ensure we’re not over-communicating with users and potentially turning them away.
It can also help ensure you don’t cannibalize conversion potential by offering large
discounts to high potential users who simply need more time to convert.

User research can take many forms; [from in-app surveys, such as NPS](https://phiture.com/mobilegrowthstack/how-to-leverage-nps-scores-in-mobile-growth-72ba7c2b8a6d/)
or cart abandonment surveys, to large-scale projects such as features-value analyses.
It’s recommended to perform regular features-value analyses, as the consumer view
and value perception changes over time. So we want to make sure that our subscription
offering includes features that people value and are willing to pay for today.

## **Free trial strategy and optimization **

Trial optimization is an effective strategy that can be overlooked. However such
a strategy needs to be developed specifically for your product rather than simply
copying other companies. A great example of this is when companies have a 7-day 
trial length but the product’s Natural Usage Habit is monthly. What you might see
in this case is that the user has not had enough of a chance to form a habit around
the premium experience before their 7-day trial ends. It’s then likely that they
would forget about the product, and subsequently churn within the following three
weeks. Remember, context is key.

When devising a free trial strategy, make sure it’s a strategy that makes sense 
for your unique product and user base. Further, recent data from RevenueCat’s [State of Subscription Apps 2023](https://www-origin.revenuecat.com/state-of-subscription-apps-2023/)
report, suggested that longer free trials convert better than shorter. 

![](https://phiture.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/image2-2-1024x593.png)

Source: RevenueCat: [State of Subscription Apps 2023](https://www-origin.revenuecat.com/state-of-subscription-apps-2023/)

 

There are other aspects of the free trial strategy to consider as well. Such as,
who unlocks the free trial? Is it all users? Is it users who have been active for
X number of weeks or months but still haven’t converted? Is the whole premium experience
available with a trial or are you unlocking certain features that users have been
interacting with, but need that extra nudge to convert? These are all things to 
consider when it comes to putting together an effective free trial strategy. Reverse
Trials are also an interesting approach to consider. A reverse trial is when users
start off with full premium access. Then they have X number of days to convert, 
otherwise their access becomes limited. Read more about Reverse Trials [here.](https://amplitude.com/blog/reverse-trial)

And most importantly, measure your current conversion rates against industry benchmarks
and if they are ‘reasonable’ or ‘good,’ consider whether you need a free trial at
all, since adding extra steps to the conversion funnel may cannibalize revenue potential.

 

## **Paywall Optimization**

It’s important to think about how and when users see a paywall. 

The first point of call is ensuring that everyone who downloads your app sees a 
paywall, preferably within their first 12-24 hours of launching the app, as this
is when we see the most conversions and user intention is at its highest. Track 
your install -> paywall view to monitor visibility rates over time. 

Once you’ve ensured that all users actually see a paywall, then you can focus on
engineering beautiful screens.

Here are some of the touchpoints you should consider:

**Onboarding**: motivation is at its highest at the point of downloading the app
or product and therefore users may have a higher intention to start a trial and 
ultimately subscribe. It’s also not uncommon for many users to churn after download.
Don’t wait for users to stumble upon paywalls that are buried deep into the product
and may never be triggered.

**Happy moments:** a ‘happy moment’ in the user lifecycle could be when a user successfully
does something for the first time, and therefore understands the value proposition
and sets themselves up for success. This could be, for example, a first photo edit
or completing a first meditation. A happy moment could also be an initial setup 
behavior that enables you to successfully use the product, like adding reminders
to water your plants.

**Friction points:** ‘strategic friction’ is when the user reaches a point in the
user journey in which they need the premium experience in order to proceed. For 
example in a dating app, the user may have maxed out the number of profile likes
that they can perform within a 24-hour period, and would need to upgrade to premium
to continue searching for a match. This can be a very effective paywall trigger 
as users experience the value proposition in action.

**Indirect intent:** this is any behavior that indicates that there may be an intention
to subscribe, without directly interacting with premium features or clicking paywall
CTAs. For example, the user’s engagement behavior may replicate that of high-converting
users.

**Direct intent**: when a user directly engages with premium features, locked content,
or triggers steps in the conversion funnel before dropping out. Often when the user
shows direct intent to subscribe but continues to drop out of the conversion funnel,
it’s because the price is too high for this particular user. Winback discounts can
be an effective strategy here.

 

![](https://phiture.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/image6-1.png)

 

## **Paywall A/B Tests **

Once you’ve got the right paywall placements, consider the aesthetics of your paywall.
There’s a number of standard paywall elements that can be tested:

**Header creative:** test a static image versus gif or video. [Jake Mor](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ACoAABO4WXcBcasgyfRuLQXkAOyoJQBdcIiR4lo)
from Superwall recently suggested that paywalls that included video screen recordings
or explainers worked particularly well.

**Copy:** A/B test your tagline and body copy and try making them benefits-focused
rather than simply highlighting product features. Jobs to be done theory may work
well here.

**Paywall screen design:** paywalls don’t need to be full screen. Try different 
screen or modal formats from banners to multi-screen carousels. On a recent project
Phiture worked on, we found that banners had higher conversion rates than full screen
paywalls.

**Dismiss feature:** test this as either an X button or as a button CTA with “dismiss”
in the copy.

**Background:** try an image background versus block color versus plain white. Recent
data from Superwall suggested that white backgrounds with colorful CTAs performed
particularly well.

**Free trial:** give users the option to toggle this on themselves versus the free
trial being automatically included and highlighted in the subscription CTA. Another
thing we’ve  observed apps do successfully is offer a % off the membership price
if users choose to skip the free trial. Hootsuite is a nice example.

**CTA ****buttons:** copy, tone of voice and CTA color can be tested. You can also
have a CTA visible for each bundle or you can choose to highlight your most lucrative
offer and hide other offers behind a “see more” button.

![](https://phiture.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/image3-2.png)

**Social proof:** this is another clever conversion tactic that can be particularly
effective when the app or product is fairly new. [According to Shopify’s blog](https://www.shopify.com/blog/social-proof);
Social proof is a psychological phenomenon that describes our tendency to rely on
the opinions or actions of others to inform our own. Also known as informational
social influence, it validates a consumer’s choice, saying that the product is worth
their time, money, or interest by using other people as proof.

Social proof can be implemented in a number of ways, such as positive app reviews
or a large following on social media, but one of the easiest ways to implement it
within your app or product is to include social proof as part of your messaging 
or paywall creative. For example, stating, on your paywall, how many people are 
using your app on a weekly basis.

![](https://phiture.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/image1-2-473x1024.png)

Example of a paywall featuring a five-star review as social proof.

 

## **Price testing **

Subscription Optimization expert, Jakub Chour, has covered price optimization  extensively
in his [App Pricing Optimization Guide](https://phiture.com/mobilegrowthstack/app-pricing-optimization-guide/)
for the Mobile Growth Stack blog. In his guide, Jakub covers key elements of price
testing, such as:

 * Where and how to start testing
 * Tools and measurement. Nowadays, there are tools on the market, such as [RevenueCat](https://www.revenuecat.com/blog/engineering/mobile-app-a-b-price-testing-guide/)
   and [Purchasely](https://www.purchasely.com/product/ab-test), which can assist
   you with price A/B testing. 
 * How to use the [Van Westendorp Price Sensitivity Meter](https://www.mili.eu/learn/what-is-the-van-westendorp-pricing-study-and-when-to-use-it)
   to find price points that make sense for your unique product and user base.

 

## **Conclusion**

Conversion Rate Optimization is crucial for the Subscription Stack. Bear in mind,
pricing surveys and market research can bring incremental gains but if someone doesn’t
value your product offering, it’s unlikely that price changes will have much of 
an impact.That’s why product-market fit is such a crucial aspect of ensuring successful
Conversion Rate Optimization. 

It should be a rewarding experience as you ultimately convert more users to your
product, pulling different levers as you go. To get started, ensure near 100% visibility
on your paywalls without worrying too much about paywall aesthetics. Remember, people
can’t buy something they don’t see or know about. However, don’t just copy what 
others in the industry are doing. Use data from your unique product and user base
to be the cornerstone of every strategy, whether that’s the frequency and type of
messaging, trial lengths and terms, pricing, and so on and so forth. For this, harvesting
a deep knowledge of your market will pay dividends, and you should consider regular
market and user research as value perception changes over time.

 

## Before you go: 

 * [The first in Alice Muir’s Subscription Stack blog series handles User Acquisition](https://phiture.com/mobilegrowthstack/the-subscription-stack-subscriber-acquisiton/)
   and is a must read as it preempts Conversion Rate Optimization. 
 * The next blog in the series handles[ Activation, Engagement, and Churn Prevention.](https://phiture.com/mobilegrowthstack/the-subscription-stack-activation-engagement-churn-prevention/)
 * Jakub Chour’s [App Pricing Optimization Guide](https://phiture.com/mobilegrowthstack/app-pricing-optimization-guide/)
   in the Mobile Growth Stack blog comprehensively tackles where and how to start
   testing, tools and measurement, and how to find price points that make sense 
   for your product. 
 * For a full overview of the Subscription Stack, you can [download a handy pdf guide here. ](https://phiture.com/subscriptionstack/)
 * [Natural Usage Habits ](https://phiture.com/mobilegrowthstack/natural-usage-habits-choosing-your-engagement-metric-a158438962c3/)
   of your user base should underpin many of your efforts in the CRO layer of the
   stack. Read here Tessa Miskell’s excellent overview of this topic.