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10 tactics from Jake Moore & Darryl Stone
Top 5 Considerations for Paywall Optimization — Live at App Promotion Summit NYC
Watch the full episode“The average install-to-paywall rate across all the apps we work with is about 20%. The most successful apps get above 80%. If your paywall rate is low, that is probably the most impactful lever you can pull — everything downstream is multiplied by that number.”
Most apps show their paywall to fewer than 20% of installs — fix that first
Jake Moore benchmarked install-to-paywall rate across Superwall's customer base and found the median app exposes fewer than one in five installs to a paywall. Because every conversion metric — trial start rate, trial-to-paid rate — is multiplied by install-to-paywall, lifting that single number compounds across the whole funnel. Moving the paywall earlier in the flow (before onboarding or at app open) is the fastest fix.
“There are two places to hit users with a paywall — on open and on feature gates. Best practice is to do both. You get more shots on goal and you get users at different intent levels.”
More shots on goal: show the paywall on every app open AND before locked features
Moore frames paywall placement as a volume-of-exposure problem: the more touchpoints, the more chances to convert at the moment a user's intent peaks. Showing the paywall only once (e.g., only at first launch) abandons users who return days later with higher willingness to pay. Combining app-open paywalls with feature-gate paywalls ensures coverage across both early curiosity and later demonstrated need.
“We moved the paywall before onboarding and added a video of the actual app experience. Trial conversion went up 80%. Install-to-paywall rate went from 40% to 85%. Nothing about the actual product changed.”
Paywall before onboarding + app video lifted trial conversion 80% with zero product change
Moore's team ran this experiment on Fitness AI, a workout app. Moving the paywall to before the onboarding flow (standard industry practice had been to onboard first) and swapping a static screenshot paywall for one with an in-app video produced an 80% lift in trial conversion. The insight: users who haven't yet experienced the product need to be shown the product — video does that better than screenshots or feature bullets.
“Everything on the paywall should lead the eye to the CTA. The button should be the highest-contrast element on the page. If it's not immediately clear what to tap, you've already lost the conversion.”
High-contrast CTA button is the only thing on the page that needs color
Darryl Stone's design principle for paywall layout: strip out visual noise, make the call-to-action the single dominant element. This means neutral backgrounds, minimal decoration, and a CTA button color that has no competition. Stone notes that most app paywalls have too many competing visual elements — multiple color accents, icons, testimonial badges — each diluting the user's focus from the one action that matters.
“There's an old copywriting maxim: sell the smile, not the fluoride. Nobody buys toothpaste because of fluoride — they buy it for the smile. Your paywall copy should be about the life outcome, not the feature list.”
Sell the smile, not the fluoride: outcome-and-emotion copy outperforms feature copy on paywalls
Moore applied this to fitness apps: instead of '500 workouts' or 'AI-generated plans,' the winning copy described feeling confident, having more energy, and hitting goals. Stone confirmed the same pattern at Citizen: users don't want a 'real-time crime alert' feature — they want to feel safe. Outcome-and-emotion copy resonates because the user's self-image is more motivating than a technical capability.
“If you have a discounted plan inside your subscription group, Apple will automatically offer it as a downgrade option in the cancellation flow. You get a win-back path for free — without building any custom cancel flow infrastructure.”
Add a discounted plan to your subscription group — it becomes a built-in win-back in the cancellation screen
Moore surfaced an underused App Store mechanic: when a user initiates cancellation, Apple's native cancellation sheet can present a lower-tier or discounted plan if one exists in the same subscription group. This creates a passive win-back that requires zero engineering — just product configuration. Adding a $2.99 annual plan next to a $9.99 annual plan effectively creates a price-sensitive churn hedge inside Apple's own UI.
“When we launched Fitness AI we hard-paywalled everything. The people who paid were telling us: this is real, this is a problem worth solving, and we're willing to put money down. That validated the product far faster than free users ever could.”
Paywalling everything at launch filters for users whose problem you actually solve
Moore argues that free tiers at launch add noise: free users are exploring, not confirming product-market fit. Paying users from day one constitute a cleaner signal — if strangers pay without persuasion, the problem and solution are real. The additional benefit is financial: early revenue funds iteration without fundraising urgency. The trade-off is slower install growth, which Moore accepted as a fair price for signal quality.
“The idea is to show different prices to different users based on their intent level. Someone who came from a targeted ad and just went through your full onboarding is much more likely to convert at a higher price than someone who opened the app cold for the first time.”
Intent-based pricing: show each user the price matching their current demand level
Moore describes intent-based pricing as a natural extension of dynamic paywalls: the same app can show a $14.99/month price to a high-intent user (came from paid acquisition, completed onboarding, interacted with core features) and a $6.99 introductory offer to a cold user. Superwall's data showed this segmentation improved both revenue per paying user and overall trial start rate compared to a single price for all.
“The paywall isn't a single screen you optimize in isolation. It's the culmination of the story you've been telling the user since they first tapped your app. The copy, the value prop, the social proof — they all need to hang together as a coherent arc.”
Think of paywall testing as a narrative flow, not a single screen tweak
Stone reframes A/B testing as story-arc testing: each element of the paywall (headline, subhead, benefits list, social proof, CTA) must reinforce the same emotional narrative the user has been building through onboarding. Testing a headline in isolation without changing the supporting copy often fails because the narrative becomes incoherent. The most impactful tests swap the whole paywall story, not individual components.
“Every time we've tested a video of the actual app interface against a polished live-action ad, the app screen recording wins. People want to see what they're buying. Show them the actual thing.”
Screen recordings of the app in paywall video outperform live-action commercials across every category
Moore's team at Superwall tested video formats across dozens of apps: polished brand videos (actors, outdoor locations, professional production) versus simple screen-capture walkthroughs of the app itself. The screen recording outperformed consistently. The interpretation: at the paywall, users are in evaluation mode, not inspiration mode — they want to see exactly what the product does before they pay, not feel inspired by a lifestyle.