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9 tactics from Lucas Lovell
How to Maximize Web Subscriptions for Sustainable Growth
Watch the full episode“The way I think about it is very much it's not just a cost-saving opportunity it's actually a growth opportunity there's a lot opportunity on the web in terms of deploying different billing models and deploying different types of pricing experimentation and AB testing in a way that that you're a little bit restricted with on the App Stores.”
Web Is a Growth Opportunity, Not Just a Cost-Saving Play
Many apps first explore web payments because the app-store fee is ~30%. Lucas Lovell argues the real prize is bigger: the web unlocks billing models, paywall A/B testing, and audience reach (users who never search the App Store) that are structurally impossible inside the stores. The cost saving is the hook; the growth upside is the reason to stay.
“It's very much the apps with a high component of personalization that are seeing really really good results with web funnels. Health and fitness is working really well Wellness is working well education and language learning is working really well. A notetaking tool or something like this is not as interesting when you're thinking about a web funnel.”
Personalization-Heavy Apps Win on Web Funnels — Generic Utility Apps Don't
Web funnels convert best when the product can personalize the buying experience — quizzes, goal-setting, health profiles. Health and fitness, language learning, and wellness apps are seeing great conversion and renewal rates. Productivity or media apps that lack that personalization hook haven't found the same traction. If the onboarding can be turned into a commitment device, the web will work.
“Your success on the web if you had to boil it down to two key data points or two key numbers that matter it's very much your conversion through the funnel and your renewal at the end of the first subscription cycle. It's easy to get distracted by the former and not think deeply about the latter.”
Two Numbers That Actually Matter on Web: Funnel Conversion and First-Cycle Renewal
Lucas frames web subscription health with two metrics: (1) how many visitors convert through the funnel given a fixed ad spend, and (2) how many of those subscribers renew after the first billing cycle. Most apps obsess over the first and neglect the second. The renewal rate is the real indicator of LTV and the efficiency of the whole web channel investment.
“When someone clicks a cancel button it might be a one-click cancel button but you can present a cancellation flow which can ask some questions about why are they canceling and present some alternative options you can build ways to trigger a downgrade flow or a pause flow instead of a cancel flow which means you might be downgrading them from one plan to another but you're not losing them entirely.”
Cancellation Flows, Pause Options, and Downgrade Paths Outperform Hard Cancels
On the web, the cancel button doesn't have to end the relationship. Lucas outlines a toolbox unavailable on the App Store: cancellation-reason surveys, plan downgrades, subscription pauses, and targeted win-back offers. A downgraded subscriber is worth far more than a churned one. The FTC click-to-cancel rule still applies, so the cancel must remain accessible — but the journey between intent and execution can recover a meaningful slice of at-risk subscribers.
“Apps where during that onboarding flow inside the app they do collect an email and the user doesn't immediately subscribe then within minutes they're pushing an email and maybe it even drops down as a notification while they're still in your app saying hey come to the web and save 30% or 40%.”
Collect Email In-App During Onboarding — Then Push a Web Discount Before They Leave
Apple's rules now clearly permit using any contact information collected inside the app to market to users outside it. An email collected during onboarding can trigger a discounted web offer within minutes — even while the user is still active in the app. This creates a fast-follow funnel that captures users who hit the in-app paywall and bounced, converting them at a lower price point via the web.
“You can't build a sustainable business on dark ux patterns right we see that on both sides we don't just see that on the cancellation side you do see that up front as well at the pay wall around like transparency around pricing. There's just no way you're going to build a sustainable business out of that.”
Dark UX Patterns Destroy Brand Trust — Sustainable Retention Must Be Consent-Based
The web's billing flexibility is a double-edged sword — it enables good cancellation flows but also misleading pricing tactics. Lucas is explicit: dark patterns on paywalls and cancellation screens might boost short-term numbers but destroy the brand. Users who feel trapped become vocal detractors. The only way to build a durable web subscription business is through genuine value delivery and transparent pricing.
“Instead of a free trial offering a 30-day money back guarantee you can't do that on the App Store you can't offer a money back guarantee you can't automatically like refund somebody so as an app developer you can create better experiences on the web through that flexibility.”
30-Day Money-Back Guarantee Outperforms Free Trials — And You Can Only Do It on Web
The App Store's infrastructure makes automatic refunds impossible, forcing developers into free-trial-only models. On the web, a 30-day money-back guarantee is trivial to implement and often converts better — it removes the risk for hesitant buyers while keeping the full subscription price visible from day one. Lucas sees this as one of the clearest examples of how web billing can deliver a genuinely superior consumer experience, not just a cheaper one.
“They're coming for the fees and staying for the flexibility in a way right it's the catalyst is sort of better attribution and lower cost transaction fees but they get here and they go wow I have all of this flexibility around me I can do different things I can experiment in different ways.”
Apps Come to Web for Lower Fees — They Stay for Billing Flexibility
Lucas summarizes a pattern he sees repeatedly: apps approach web payments as a cost optimization (saving ~25 percentage points in store fees), then discover that the real unlock is the ability to run paywall experiments, offer varied billing models, and build cancellation flows that are impossible in the App Store. The fee savings fund exploration; the flexibility builds the moat.
“We are seeing quite a number of examples of discounted pricing on the web and using discounts of pricing in winback campaigns. We're even seeing companies choose to offer standard pricing at a lower rate on the web just accounting for the fact that the fee component is much smaller on the web and choosing to pass on some of those savings to the user.”
Win-Back Campaigns With Web Discounts Convert Higher Because Intent Is Already There
Win-back campaigns that route lapsed subscribers to a web checkout with a 25–50% discount are outperforming in-app renewal prompts. The user's intent is already established — they've used the product before — so the lower friction of clicking an email link and seeing a genuinely cheaper price converts well. Some apps are permanently offering lower web pricing to incentivize the channel shift.