Goal-led onboarding and two-step paywall: +15% trial conversion
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsASL Bloom, a sign language learning app, rebuilt its onboarding around user goals and split its paywall into two screens, and trial conversion rose 15%.
The agency Applica ran the project and published it on the RevenueCat blog.
Many changes shipped together, so the lift belongs to the whole new flow, not to one screen.
- Trial conversion rate: +15%.
- ARPU: +12%, so the extra trials did not come at the cost of revenue per user.
- 30-day retention: +18%.
- Users completing their first real-world communication goal: +28%.
- Sample size, duration and significance were not shared.
The change
Lesson-first onboarding vs goal and educator screens plus a two-screen paywall
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
Onboarding was feature-led and dropped new users straight into a lesson. Social proof appeared only as testimonials on the paywall.
Variant
New onboarding screens introduced the Deaf educators behind the lessons, asked what users wanted to learn, and set a realistic outcome (400 signs at 15 minutes a day). The paywall became two screens: one on what premium helps you achieve, then one with the trial timeline.
Why it likely won
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- Showing qualified Deaf educators early likely answered a trust question users raised in interviews.
- Goal questions and a doable outcome let users picture their own progress before the price appeared.
- Splitting the paywall gave value and commitment their own screen, and the trial timeline may have eased worry about being charged.
Caveats: Several changes shipped at once, and the source does not say whether this was a split test or a before/after comparison. No sample size or test length was shared.
Who ran it
Applica ran this test for ASL Bloom. Source: RevenueCat blog. The numbers are theirs; the summary and commentary on this page are ours.
How to run this test on your app
- Hypothesis
- If we replace feature-led onboarding with screens about who teaches, what users want to achieve and a realistic outcome, then more users will start a trial because they can see the app helping them reach their own goal.
- Primary metric
- Trial start rate from onboarding
- Guardrails
- Trial-to-paid conversion
- Onboarding completion rate
- 30-day retention
- Who should test it
- Learning, health and habit apps where the real goal (a conversation, a skill, a result) differs from the feature list. It may matter less for simple utilities where the value is obvious on first use.
Questions
Should onboarding drop users into the product or ask questions first?
It depends on whether the first session shows the outcome users care about.
For ASL Bloom, a first lesson showed the app but not the payoff, so goal screens did better.
Does a two-screen paywall add friction?
It adds a tap, but it can make each step simpler.
Here one screen sold the outcome and the next explained the trial, and trial conversion rose as part of the wider redesign.
Which part of this redesign mattered most?
We can't tell. Everything shipped together, so test the pieces one at a time if you want to know.