# Animated frog character paywall: 2.9x average conversion lift

- Outcome: Won
- Page type: Paywall (App)
- Elements: Paywall design, Discounts
- Date shared: 2025
- Test run by: [CoinStats](https://liftarchive.com/practitioners/coinstats/)
- Commentary by: LiftArchive (our analysis, not theirs)
- Original source: https://www.revenuecat.com/blog/growth/weird-paywalls-drive-subscription-growth/
- Page: https://liftarchive.com/test/coinstats-animated-meme-paywall/

CoinStats, a crypto portfolio app, replaced its standard paywall with an animated frog character that gradually revealed the offer, and conversion rose by an average of 2.9x across iOS and Android. Tigran Mkrtchyan of CoinStats presented the results at App Promotion Summit, and they were written up on the RevenueCat blog. How the test was set up was not stated.

## Result

**Average 2.9x conversion on Android and iOS**

- Conversion rate: up 2.9x on average across Android and iOS for the frog campaign.
- The early results were strong enough that CoinStats kept running seasonal versions through the year.
- The test design, sample size, duration and discount used in the frog campaign were not shared.

## Control

A standard paywall that simply appeared on screen.

## Variant

An animated paywall in which a frog character played out and gradually revealed the paywall and its offer. Later versions used a Halloween spider and a meme Santa for seasonal deals.

## Why it likely won (our reading)

- An animation that breaks the usual paywall pattern gets attention at the moment users are deciding.
- Meme characters the crypto audience already knows make the offer feel like an inside joke, not a generic sale.
- Tying offers to a moment or season gives people a reason to act now rather than later.

## Caveats

The test design was not stated, so treat this as a before-and-after result, not a confirmed split test. The 2.9x figure is an average across platforms, and the size of the offer may have changed too.

## How to run this test

- Hypothesis: If we reveal our paywall offer with a short animation using a character our audience knows, then paywall conversion will rise because the screen stands out and the offer feels timely.
- Primary metric: Paywall view-to-purchase conversion
- Guardrail: Proceeds per user
- Guardrail: Refund rate
- Guardrail: Paywall dismiss rate
- Who should test it: Apps with a strong community culture or shared jokes, like crypto, gaming or fandom apps. It may feel off for serious categories like health, finance advice or B2B tools.

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Credit: CoinStats ran this test and owns the result. Summary and commentary by LiftArchive (https://liftarchive.com/test/coinstats-animated-meme-paywall/).
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.