“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.