Founder Playbook · Sub Club by RevenueCat
12 tactics from Nathan Hudson
Making Web2App Work: From Basic Landing Pages to Complex Sales Funnels
Watch the full episode“Even if I spend 3K this month and make 50k I'm not going to be able to spend that next month potentially so I can't do anything like I'm stuck it interrupts your iteration Cycles I think that is by far the biggest advantage of testing on the web when you're first launching a paid Channel.”
Web2App Cash Flow Advantage: Stripe Pays Instantly vs. 60-Day App Store Delay
The App Store can delay payouts by up to 60 days — essentially a 15% short-term loan on your own revenue. Web payments via Stripe settle near-instantly, letting small apps reinvest the same week they acquire users. At $3K ad spend → $50K revenue, this cash-flow difference is the difference between scaling and stalling. Nathan calls it the biggest advantage of web2app for early-stage apps launching their first paid channel.
“When scan was the only way of attributing traffic it was a real big issue if you weren't spending 10K plus a month you weren't going to hit your privacy thresholds you weren't going to see your postbacks I would not want to launch any kind of app promotion campaign with a 1K budget just because I'd be pretty cautious about what we're going to get back.”
Spend $1K on Web and Actually Learn Something — App Requires $10K+ to Hit Privacy Thresholds
Meta's SKAdNetwork required $10K+ monthly spend before privacy thresholds unlocked meaningful postbacks for in-app campaigns. On web, UTM parameters give clean channel-level attribution from dollar one — no MMP required. This asymmetry makes web2app the right testing environment for early-stage apps that need to learn before they scale, not the other way around.
“Their main source of traffic was people searching alternative to couch to 5K and they had this one blog post that ranked really high for that people went to the blog post then people go from the blog post to the App Store to becoming a subscriber so you would even lump organic traffic in that.”
SEO Blog Post as Organic Web2App Funnel — One Ranking Article Can Drive Subscriptions
Web2app isn't just paid ads — organic search counts too. One fitness app ranked for 'alternative to Couch to 5K,' used that single blog post to funnel search traffic to the App Store and convert subscribers. This is a zero-cost acquisition channel: write once, rank, and let the funnel do the rest. Nathan points to it as proof that web2app is broader than most people assume.
“Affiliates and influencers amazing with web again it comes back to the attribution piece if I'm working with influencers and creators and I want them to push my product it's hard to attribute when it's mobile on web I can just take them to a dedicated landing page UTM parameters perfect.”
Influencer Attribution Finally Works via Web — Dedicated Landing Page + UTM Solves the Black Box
Influencer campaigns for mobile apps have always had a black-box attribution problem — you don't know which creator actually drove conversions. Web2app solves this cleanly: give each influencer a dedicated landing page with UTM parameters and you get exact conversion data per creator. Nathan calls this one of the most overlooked benefits of web2app — it doesn't just unlock new ad channels, it makes existing influencer channels measurable for the first time.
“We ended up building out an entire webinar funnel to push a subscription app it was like £200 a year and the challenge was it was a pretty sensitive topic and people just weren't ready emotionally to invest in that kind of purchase at the time... we didn't want to go free premium we wanted to scale up top of funnel as fast as we could.”
Webinar/VSL Funnel for High-Ticket or Emotionally Complex Products — No "App" Mentioned in Ads
For a £200/year subscription app on a sensitive topic, Nathan built a YouTube-driven VSL webinar funnel: clips from the webinar ran as YouTube ads, directing users to the full video, then selling the subscription at the end. The ads didn't mention the app at all — just the problem and solution. This worked at small scale from the start. The lesson: when users need emotional time before purchasing, a webinar creates the bridge that neither a free trial nor a hard paywall can.
“The fundamental experience of the App Store is pretty much the same 16 years on it's like three screenshots a description a user icon you can scroll and get more screenshots but what do people actually see... what I want to do is say hey this person saw this ad so in onboarding I want to ask them this set of questions.”
App Store Barely Changed in 16 Years — Web Gives Full Ad-to-Paywall Funnel Control
Since 2008 the App Store funnel has barely changed: screenshots, a description, and hope. Web lets you wire the entire journey together — a specific ad creative triggers a matching landing page, which feeds into a personalized onboarding flow, which leads to a paywall tuned to what the user saw top-of-funnel. This full-stack integration is impossible through the App Store. Custom product pages are the biggest App Store innovation in 16 years — and they still don't close the gap.
“The best place to start on web is that for example if you have a really long onboarding in app build it on web that's where you should start if you're a utility app and you have a hard paywall don't build a long quiz on web I've had some utility app founders asking me I'm really struggling to come up with questions to ask.”
Mirror Your Working In-App Onboarding on Web First — Don't Force a Quiz on Utility Apps
The most common web2app mistake is copying trends without checking fit — quiz funnels became popular, so everyone tried to build one regardless of product type. Nathan's rule: start web2app by mirroring whatever funnel already works in-app. If your in-app onboarding is long and journey-driven, replicate it on web. If you're a utility app with a hard paywall, your web equivalent is a simple landing page with a buy button — not a 15-question quiz.
“Quizzes are all about asking questions right we're asking questions to the user but an onboarding journey is about us conveying value to the user and it's really about us answering their questions don't focus on what questions you're asking but focus on what questions you're answering.”
Quiz Design Flip: Focus on Questions You're Answering, Not Questions You're Asking
Most onboarding quizzes are designed around data collection — what does the team want to know about the user? Nathan flips this: the quiz should be answering the user's unspoken questions — 'Is this app for people like me? Will it actually work? How long will it take?' Sometimes you can answer a user's question by asking them one (a multiple-choice that reveals the product's purpose). The goal is not to interrogate users but to sell them on the product through the act of discovery.
“I like to call them interludes which are kind of the screens that break up questions to communicate specific information I think there are three types of content you could put on an interlude things that prove you do what you say you do whether that be charts graphs social proof testimonials reassuring the user there may be known anxieties that they have and time to value.”
Use Interludes to Deliver Proof, Reassurance, and Time-to-Value Between Quiz Questions
A raw quiz is just a series of questions — it collects data but doesn't build conviction. Nathan inserts 'interlude' screens between questions to do three jobs: (1) prove the product works with charts, testimonials, and social proof; (2) address known anxieties head-on ('lots of people worry about X, here's why that's okay'); (3) set time-to-value expectations ('you could see results by week 3'). The interlude framework transforms a data-collection form into a sales narrative.
“If you're asking me what my job is and then you're telling me that you know CEOs XYZ developers XYZ train drivers ABC now this is like ah okay this makes sense because it's specifically for me in my context so I think focusing personalization on context as opposed to just focusing personalization on questions and answers is a nice way to wrap it up.”
Personalize on Context, Not Just Function — "CEOs See X, Developers See Y" Beats "We'll Remind You at 9pm"
Functional personalization (echoing back the sleep time a user entered) feels mechanical. Context personalization — mapping a user's job title or situation to specific outcomes others in that situation have achieved — feels like the product was built for them. Nathan's framing: a focus app that tells a CEO what CEOs gain and tells a developer what developers gain creates much stronger purchase intent than one that just schedules reminders based on calendar input.
“I mean the obvious example of things like upsells but I think where it gets smart is when you have things like oneclick upsells I've already taken their payment details I'm now going to show them something that's an add-on and they're going to click buy or you can bundle products with your subscription.”
Web2App Unlocks One-Click Upsells and Physical Product Bundles Impossible Under Apple's Rules
In-app purchases under Apple's rules mean digital subscriptions only — no add-ons, no bundles, no physical goods. Web flips this open: one-click upsells after payment capture, physical product bundles (photo albums, fitness clothing, nutrition guides), and cross-sells at checkout. Nathan cites apps that ship physical books bundled with subscriptions — impossible in-app but straightforward on web. These mechanics can meaningfully increase average revenue per user when deployed at the right moment in the funnel.
“On the web this is a big thing yeah Fay and the Dipsy team internally here are trying are running a on the web a money back guarantee alternative to trial.”
Money-Back Guarantee as Trial Alternative — Possible on Web, Not Easily Done In-App
Free trials on the App Store mean Apple manages the billing and the user has easy cancel access. Web2app opens the door to money-back guarantees as an alternative — a psychologically different conversion driver (you own the product, ask for a refund if unsatisfied) vs. a trial (you're testing, no commitment yet). The Dipsy team was experimenting with this on web. This pricing mechanic is significantly harder to implement cleanly in-app under Apple's billing rules.