Transcription
This paywall made me $73,800 last month. In this video, I'll show you exactly how and a new version that could double that again.
I've been using the same paywall now for over a year. When I implemented it, it changed my entire business model. And if you've been a regular to this channel, you would have seen the transformation this paywall has had on my revenue.
In May 2024, I earned $11,300. In June, $14,300. This is when everything changed. I updated the paywall in a single app and saw immediate boost in revenue. July 2024, $31,900. And it was at this stage that I worked out I'm kind of onto a winner here. So, I updated every single one of my apps. And the revenue just kept growing. $40,700 in August, 46,900, $55,700, then $62,700 in November until it finally started to plateau at around about the $70,000 mark. And with one simple change, this revenue could be doubled again. And that's not even clickbait.
When I added this paywall, I noticed an immediate trend. For every download I got from the app store, this paywall would generate a predictable and reliable revenue. Over the past 90 days, the Bluetooth microphone app that I acquired generated $21,000 downloads and generated $9,500 in revenue. That's around about $45 per download. My Fish Identifier app, $3,730 downloads, $5,380 in revenue, around about $144 per download. My Cartoon Yourself app, $2,620 downloads, $3,310 in revenue. That's around about $126 per download. The interesting thing about that app is it originally went viral. But those viral downloads didn't convert the same way as downloads from the app store. From the nearly 30,000 downloads that the app has had in its lifetime, only around about $6,000 in revenue has been generated. That's around about 19 cents per download. Then have a look at my body measurement tracker app. $2540 downloads, $1,500 in revenue. That's 59 cents per download. Do you notice a trend here? This paywall performs consistently well, between 50 and a dollar, sometimes a little bit more. And if you compare that to my old paywall, which is still live on my subscriber count app, you'll notice it got 1,980 downloads, but only $153 in revenue. That's like 7 cents per download, considerably less.
So, yeah, the results are clear. The paywall you use makes the difference between your app generating $100 or $1,500. And this paywall has worked so well for me, I just stopped innovating. As a result, my revenue has plateaued. In the past few months, it just goes sideways. It's no longer going up. I thought, "This is just the nature of the game. Surely I can't improve on that paywall. Time to just move along." Until I acquired this app, a seed identifier app. $250 downloads, $5,390 in revenue. That's $262 per download. Wait, what? I didn't even know this was possible.
And now it's got me thinking. If I implement the same paywall to my entire portfolio, my monthly revenue would start growing again. If my paywall was earning around about a dollar per download, and now with this paywall, I could generate $2 per download. That means instead of $70,000 per month, I'll be making $140,000 per month. That's worth trying, right?
So, first let's check out the paywalls side by side to see what improvements have been made. Ah, yes. This is a very familiar paywall. Very familiar indeed. Both paywalls have the same layout. A dynamic image at the top with a headline followed by what features the user can expect to unlock. The real magic happens down here. Two pricing options with a free trial toggle. The paywall I've been using has a weekly plan that ranges between $4.99 and $7.99 with a 3-day free trial. Then it's paired with an annual plan ranging from $24.99 to $39.99 with no free trial. If the user wants to try the app on a trial basis, they need to subscribe to the weekly plan. Otherwise, go with the annual plan. I found most subscriptions are cancelled within the first 3 to 4 weeks, so the annual plan is priced accordingly. $7.99 over four weeks, round about $31. Theoretically, if someone signs up to the weekly offering or the annual offering, the lifetime value remains around about the same. But what happens in most cases is that users subscribe to the weekly plan. Around 5% of users actually opt to subscribe for an annual plan.
Compare that with the seed identifier paywall. We still have a weekly plan for $3.99 with a 3-day free trial, but this is where things get a little bit different. Instead of an annual plan, it's paired with an in-app purchase, also known as a lifetime plan. This gives the user two choices. Subscribe with a free trial and a weekly subscription or opt for an outright fee, but you only access to the app forever. The result, 90% of people go with the weekly trial and 10% opt for the lifetime offer. That's double the conversion of the annual subscription that I've been running on my paywall with revenue split looking even better. $3,160 came from weekly subscriptions. $2,220 came from lifetime purchases. That's 41% of all revenue generated being created from lifetime purchases. Impressive.
And now for the why, and that's kind of the toughest part. The lifetime offer is only $16.99. You own the app outright with no more subscriptions to pay for only 17 bucks. That feels like a really good deal, especially when you pair it against a weekly offering of $4.99 a week. It's only like a month of access on the subscription or you can have a lifetime offer. It's kind of a no-brainer. And the results speak for themselves. This paywall generates nearly $3 for every download. Amazing.
But it got me thinking, am I missing another even better paywall? One that can generate even more revenue? And I wondered to myself, is there some sort of expert or some sort of service that shows you the best paywalls and how much revenue they generate? It just so happens there is. This is screensdesign.com, a service that helps you discover the best paywalls for your apps. And just like any other product I feature on my channel, this is not an advertisement. I haven't been sponsored and I haven't been paid to talk about this. It's just a really cool service.
To find the best performing paywalls, I filter by the paywall type, free trial soft paywall, and select the start from paywalls option. Then I sort by revenue per install, the exact metric I've been measuring this entire time. This gives me a list of apps and screenshots of their onboarding flow, their paywall, and their key stats. Monthly revenue, monthly installs, paywall type, and the onboarding steps. One thing that you immediately notice that this is kind of really good for inspiration, not only for paywalls themselves, but for app ideas. It really helps you to understand what niches are actually crushing it. Straight away, I noticed a trend. The best performing apps are fitness and body image related. The next thing I noticed, there are so many different types of paywalls and pricing strategies out there. There's just not one size fits all. Some have weekly, some have monthly, others have an annual price. Some give you options up front, others just have a single subscribe button.
So, I'm going to explore this site a little bit further, see what ideas I can incorporate into my existing paywall, see what increases the revenue, and get back to you. If you have a paywall that converts really well, I want to know about it. Post your app in the description below, or if you want to keep it private, send me a DM on X or Instagram.