# Goal-led onboarding and two-step paywall: +15% trial conversion

- Outcome: Won
- Page type: Onboarding (App)
- Elements: Onboarding quizzes
- Date shared: 2025-05
- Test run by: [Applica](https://liftarchive.com/practitioners/applica/)
- Commentary by: LiftArchive (our analysis, not theirs)
- Original source: https://www.revenuecat.com/blog/growth/asl-bloom-applica-case-study/
- Page: https://liftarchive.com/test/asl-bloom-goal-based-onboarding/

ASL 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.

## Result

**+15% trial conversion; +12% ARPU; +18% 30-day retention**

- 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.

## 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)

- 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.

## How to run this test

- 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
- Guardrail: Trial-to-paid conversion
- Guardrail: Onboarding completion rate
- Guardrail: 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.

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Credit: Applica ran this test and owns the result. Summary and commentary by LiftArchive (https://liftarchive.com/test/asl-bloom-goal-based-onboarding/).
Usage: Free to use, quote and build on, with credit and a link: name the practitioner or organization that ran the test and link to its LiftArchive page. The results belong to the practitioners who ran and shared them; the summaries and commentary are LiftArchive's.