On the podcast: Phil's Subscription Value Loop framework, what it means to create robust value for customers, and why A/B testing shouldn't be your first step in price optimization. Top Takeaways: Quantitative growth models can help inform your growth strategy. These models are built around key user actions and growth loops incorporating variables like acquisition, retention, and monetization. They serve not just to align the company around common growth objectives but also as a tool to identify...
Dec 13, 2023•1 hr 28 min•Ep 79•Transcript available on Metacast On the podcast: Profitably scaling TikTok ads, price optimization, and what the team learned from burning hundreds of thousands of dollars on Instagram ads. Top Takeaways Use Micro-Influencers for Early Growth: Niche influencers with between 10k-100k followers provide a direct source to a highly relevant audience. Ladder incentivized Instagram influencers, while the app was in a very early stage, by offering a revenue share; this reinforced the collaborative nature of the partnership and made it...
Nov 29, 2023•1 hr 17 min•Ep 78•Transcript available on Metacast On the podcast: Landing PR for a niche app, negotiating strategic partnerships, and pretending to have an app helped validate that he should build one. Top Takeaways Validate Early and Build Smartly: Start by validating your app idea with minimal investment even just an image or a spreadsheet. Once validated, focus on creating an MVP that delivers core value to your users, allowing for effective market testing and valuable feedback. (01:0611:00) Mix Up Your Early Marketing: Early on, explore a m...
Nov 15, 2023•41 min•Ep 77•Transcript available on Metacast On the podcast: The ultimate freemium strategy, making low-risk bets with potentially asymmetrical outcomes, and how Aaron bounced back after almost running out of money. Top Takeaways As an app startup, while in the early stages of growth, you need to find the one KPI that youre going to choose to focus on. Startups can do one thing, barely, says Foss, so find the KPI that shows that your app is working as intended and that users are finding value. For Nomorobo, this was robocalls blocked ; if ...
Nov 01, 2023•58 min•Ep 76•Transcript available on Metacast On the podcast: How to profitably scale performance marketing, hard vs soft activation, and why you should keep an extra close eye on your marketing spend in November. Top Takeaways To effectively scale your performance marketing, grasp your app's funnel from the top down . Start by honing in on app installs, enabling both you and the algorithms to learn. Progress down the funnel optimizing for different app events as you go but be prepared for corresponding budget hikes. Throughout this journey...
Oct 18, 2023•40 min•Ep 75•Transcript available on Metacast On the podcast: Spinning off a new product from secondary product market fit, the journey of getting into YC, and the give and take of raising venture capital. Top Takeaways Ground expectations for launching a bootstrapped business prepare for years of challenges and minimal initial revenue while adapting, learning, and growing over the long term. Bootstrapping versus raising capital depends on you: Venture capital accelerates growth but increases accountability and responsibility, and you need ...
Oct 04, 2023•41 min•Ep 74•Transcript available on Metacast On the podcast: The B2B opportunity for B2C apps, the App Store alone being bigger than most Fortune 500 companies, and which current or future company will build the Berkshire Hathaway of consumer subscriptions. Top Takeaways The App Store ecosystem is far from saturated . With a nearly doubled revenue from content being purchased since 2019 and hosting close to a billion subscriptions, the Apple App Store shows that there's still plenty of room for growth and opportunity. Despite debates about...
Sep 20, 2023•53 min•Ep 73•Transcript available on Metacast On the podcast: whether or not to increase your price, how to execute if you do, and why price increases often impact growth more than retention. Top Takeaways Should you raise your apps prices at all? Its one of the most impactful ways of increasing lifetime value and revenue so the answer is yes: you should definitely consider raising prices. But its a balancing act. How do you not sacrifice long-term growth for short-term gain? Avoid customer backlash by reaffirming the value proposition. Ask...
Sep 06, 2023•37 min•Ep 72•Transcript available on Metacast On the podcast: Black hat app optimization, the benefits and drawbacks of hard paywalls, and why, despite Apple and Googles best efforts, so many apps still use dark patterns and even blatantly break the rules. Top Takeaways Lots of (even the top) apps continue to deliberately break app store rules even if you dont break them too, you need to know what black hat strategies youre up against. (3:46, 13:25) Running keyword install campaigns mobilizes a large number of people to search for a particu...
Aug 23, 2023•46 min•Ep 71•Transcript available on Metacast On the podcast: The right way to raise prices, the painful lessons from picking the wrong tools, and why you should respond to every single app review. Top Takeaways Start surveying as soon as you start developing, and dont stop. Identify your MVP by understanding customers early on, and develop new features with key customer insights when youre growing. Bundle extra value if you must raise prices to soften the blow of a tough sell and demonstrate attentiveness to customer needs. Cheaper, easy-t...
Aug 09, 2023•47 min•Ep 70•Transcript available on Metacast On the podcast: Setting sensible goals for paid marketing, how to measure and learn from the results, and why a single ad creative can completely change the trajectory of a company. Top Takeaways Set clear and realistic goals before investing in paid UA and make sure you can afford to experiment. It can be tough to get to ROAS positive, and even tougher to get that return quickly. Monthly ad budgets should ideally start at $10-20k for big, algorithmic platforms increasing data volume for optimiz...
Jul 26, 2023•1 hr 19 min•Ep 69•Transcript available on Metacast On this episode: balancing mission and monetization, the challenges inherent to referral programs, and why Lose It! had to abandon a big push into paid user acquisition. Top Takeaways Excellent free products need a large user base to upsell messaging millions of users about special offers can deliver fantastic returns. (10:32) Extend onboarding for increased trial engagement by asking more personalized questions to boost trial start rates and tailor the user experience. (14:43) Celebrate user su...
Jul 12, 2023•45 min•Ep 68•Transcript available on Metacast On this episode: We talk with Guillem about how Hevy got traction early on, growing without paid marketing, and why you might not want to raise your price, even if customers would pay more. Top Takeaways When shaping your MVP, establish a clear framework to guide your product development. Particularly for small teams or those bootstrapping, maintaining a lean approach is crucial. Identify your product's three core pillars, which will inform your decisions on which features to retain or eliminate...
Jun 28, 2023•41 min•Ep 67•Transcript available on Metacast On this episode: The evolution of Headspaces freemium model, balancing mission and monetization, and why referral programs sometimes work better without incentives. Top Takeaways Dont be afraid to experiment with gating 100% of your content . Not only can this result in a significant lift in paid users, in cases where an app requires some effort from the user (such as with meditation), getting them committed with a free trial early on can boost engagement levels versus free users. Promoting your...
Jun 14, 2023•44 min•Ep 66•Transcript available on Metacast On this episode: the one small tweak that increased revenue 5X, growing an app organically, and how hiring an ASO consultant actually tanked downloads. Top Takeaways Not all problems can be solved with money, so see if you can fix your own problems internally like team communication before paying for external help. Highly relevant ASO keywords with lower search volumes are a better bet for engaging audiences earlier and seeing snowballing success. Putting a paywall early enough in the onboarding...
May 31, 2023•37 min•Ep 65•Transcript available on Metacast On this episode: the trap of building for existing subscribers, incentivizing word of mouth, and why paid marketing should be an accelerant, not the foundation of your growth strategy. Top Takeaways Growth comes from focusing on product retention: Build a product users really want, creating an engaged customer base and fueling the growth loop down the line. Build a viral growth loop based on word-of-mouth. A product that exceeds user expectations is the ultimate way to drive word-of-mouth even i...
May 17, 2023•39 min•Ep 64•Transcript available on Metacast On the podcast we talk with Shaun about the power of community, the importance of testing your freemium strategy, and why you might not want to offer a free trial. Top Takeaways Understanding unintuitive power laws is the ticket to explaining and benefiting from explosive app growth. Deciding what goes behind the paywall is 90% of an apps success but developers typically only spend 10% of the time thinking about it. Beware the free trial , which could create negative experiences and conversion r...
May 03, 2023•43 min•Ep 63•Transcript available on Metacast On the podcast, Ariel dives into the fundamentals of ASO and how to research and optimize keywords. He also explains why ratings matter much more than reviews, and why you should never, ever duplicate keywords. Top Takeaways: Its not that its hard to get discovered with ASO its that its hard to get discovered without doing enough ASO. Expect to spend more time exploring on the front-end, but this isnt a set it and forget it strategy. Make sure that you're optimizing for ratings : they are more i...
Apr 19, 2023•57 min•Ep 62•Transcript available on Metacast On the podcast, we talk with Alice Muir about how best to onboard premium users, what lifecycle optimization looks like both tactically and strategically, and how to spot users before they churn. She shares insight into why focusing on CRMs for win-back strategies is only part of the story, and the best campaigns to entice users to stick with their subscriptions. Top Takeaways: Email is good for two things: drip campaigns offering a staggered, increasing discount to entice signups and long-form ...
Apr 05, 2023•44 min•Ep 61•Transcript available on Metacast On the podcast we talk with Jason about some of Stravas big growth wins, the importance of feature education, and whether or not all product teams should actually be growth teams. Top Takeaways The shift in mindset that comes with "growth engineering" it's about a greater focus on the user and a willingness to go a little faster than usual... While chaos in an app business may be unavoidable, the secret is learning to embrace "managed chaos" How the key to growth is testing and creating a safe s...
Mar 22, 2023•49 min•Ep 60•Transcript available on Metacast On the podcast I talk with Ryan about the TikTokification of video ads, how partnerships help increase the value of premium subscription tiers, and why you should be thinking about retention, not just downloads, when working with influencers. Top Takeaways User acquisition can be more challenging for apps with niche audiences, which is why you should focus on channels where you can target by interest and search. SEO feeds the retargeting funnel more than it drives direct conversions but keyword ...
Mar 08, 2023•48 min•Ep 59•Transcript available on Metacast On the podcast I talk with Sylvain about the top subscription app insights you should be thinking about, how important cohorting is when looking at growth metrics, and why good advice can turn bad if you apply it at the wrong stage. Top Takeaways In an early stage, engagement is more important than growth When looking at retention for your subscription apps, segment your users based on their subscription status Launching only a monthly plan first can help you improve the product Gifting is a gre...
Feb 22, 2023•1 hr 23 min•Ep 58•Transcript available on Metacast On the podcast we talk with Lexi about data.ais State of Mobile report, the countries subscription apps should focus on for growth, and why things still look bright for apps despite a decline in overall spend. Top Takeaways Mobile app spend is down, but that may not be a bad thing Non-gaming apps see additional growth with resilient spend The subscription model underpins growth for non-gaming apps Look to non-U.S. markets for new opportunities The most successful apps will offer frictionless, pe...
Feb 08, 2023•49 min•Ep 57•Transcript available on Metacast On the podcast we talk with Brennan about the challenge of building and growing kids apps in 2022, how to make effective decisions with minimal data, and why AppsFlyer had to build Sago Mini a custom SDK. Top Takeaways Building and growing kids apps is hard Making effective decisions with minimal data is a challenge Find the right partner to invest in solving tough challenges together especially if its a custom job About Brennan Clark Director of Product at Sago Mini, which has received more tha...
Jan 25, 2023•49 min•Ep 56•Transcript available on Metacast On the podcast we talk about RevenueCats State of Subscription Apps report, all the nuance that didnt make it into the report, and why your app landing in the bottom quartile of some metrics might not be as bad as it seems. Top Takeaways Understand your own business model and unique leverage Consider the stage of your app when looking at benchmarks 5 key insights: conversions, renewals, retention and more Links & Resources The report: State of Subscription Apps 2023 Give us your feedback One...
Jan 17, 2023•1 hr 22 min•Ep 55•Transcript available on Metacast On the podcast we talk with Osman about Duolingos culture of experimentation, data and testing as a moat, and why passive aggressive push notifications actually work in the right context. Top Takeaways Leverage a culture of experimentation to create a top user experience Data and testing are Duolingos best moat Passive-aggressive push notifications might work in the right context About Osman Mansur Product Manager (PM) at Duolingo, the global language learning app with close to 60 million active...
Jan 04, 2023•54 min•Ep 54•Transcript available on Metacast On the podcast we talk with John about the far reaching implications of the European Unions Digital Markets Act, how app developers should be thinking about the opportunities created, and why Apple making so much money from the App Store might be bad for Apple long-term. Top Takeaways The ECs DMA is set to shake things up in a big way but how isnt completely clear Dont panic, app developers the DMA creates opportunities, too The profitability of the App Store might not be good for Apple in the l...
Dec 21, 2022•1 hr 12 min•Ep 53•Transcript available on Metacast On the podcast I talk with Dan about how to design experiments that answer the right questions, common A/B testing pitfalls to avoid, and how a simple checklist might just save your complex experiment. Top Takeaways Conclusions from tests sometimes go stale faster than you realize Minimizing the cost of running tests will improve decision making Check your sanity or dont live and die by statistical significance About Dan Pannasch Senior Product Manager at RevenueCat Dan saw what experimentation ...
Dec 07, 2022•1 hr 3 min•Ep 52•Transcript available on Metacast On the podcast I talk with Melissa and Flix about why more apps should be more than just apps, the benefits of a hard paywall, and why a lower price might actually make you more money even if the A/B test shows it didnt. Top Takeaways More apps should be more than just apps Hard paywalls can (and do) sometimes pay off How a price change can lead to big returns if the quality is there About Melissa Cash & Flix Boudreau Melissa is Co-Founder and CEO and Flix is Head of Growth at Pok Pok Their ...
Nov 23, 2022•59 min•Ep 51•Transcript available on Metacast On the podcast we talk with Jaycee about how Blinkist increased trial starts by 23%, how to balance user experience with business objectives, and why telling people how to cancel can actually lead to fewer cancellations. Top Takeaways Balancing ethics and business means making tough decisions, but taking a smart approach lets you master both Helping people unsubscribe isnt the most intuitive thing for subscription app businesses, but ethical design patterns might be better for business in the lo...
Nov 09, 2022•42 min•Ep 50•Transcript available on Metacast 
