“Post-IDFA, subscription is not enough. I look at it across three lenses: subscription is my core, ads is my secondary, and one-time purchases or upsells is another avenue. I start with Revenue as my North Star since I think that's the best metric for a company.”

Revenue Is the Only North Star — Subscription + Ads + One-Time Are Three Levers, Not One

Ryan Beck argues that post-IDFA, consumer subscription apps need to think about monetization in three buckets simultaneously: subscription (recurring revenue), ads (ad-supported tier for non-subscribers), and one-time purchases (consumables, content bundles). Duolingo is his example: subs + ads + gems. Revenue — not any individual KPI — is the North Star because it integrates all three levers and avoids local optimization that looks good in isolation but misses the full picture.