Onboarding on the web before download: ~50% more trials, ~30% paid
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsTeaching.com ran its onboarding on the web before users downloaded the app, and saw about 50% better conversion to trial and about 30% better conversion to paid than the same onboarding in the app.
COO Tim Dikun shared the result on the Sub Club podcast, published on the RevenueCat blog.
- Conversion to trial: about 50% better on the web.
- Conversion to paid: about 30% better on the web, so the lift held past the trial.
- Both figures are approximate and given from memory in a podcast.
Control
The onboarding flow shown inside the app after download.
Variant
The exact same onboarding flow run on the web, before the user downloads the app.
Why it likely won
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- Teaching.com's view is that brand trust built over nearly 30 years made users comfortable signing up on the web.
- Users who finish onboarding and buy on the web have already committed before they install.
- As a kids' app, Teaching.com can't use some in-app tools, so the web may give it more room in the funnel.
Caveats: Figures are approximate and from a podcast remark, with no sample size or duration shared. The team thinks its long-standing brand helped, so newer apps may see less.
Who ran it
Teaching.com ran this test. Source: RevenueCat blog (Sub Club podcast write-up). The numbers are theirs; the summary and commentary on this page are ours.
How to run this test on your app
- Hypothesis
- If we move our onboarding to the web before download, then more users will start trials and pay because they commit while intent from the ad is high and checkout sits outside the app.
- Primary metric
- Conversion to paid per visitor
- Guardrails
- App install and login rate after web purchase
- Refund rate
- Day-30 retention
- Who should test it
- Apps with paid web traffic and a known, trusted brand. A new or unknown app may struggle to get users to trust a web signup.
Questions
Why would the same onboarding convert better on the web?
Teaching.com credits brand trust. Web funnels also let users buy before the app store step, while intent is high.
Does web-to-app hurt paid conversion?
Not here. Conversion to paid was about 30% better on the web, not just trial starts.
What do I need to run web-to-app?
A web onboarding flow, a web checkout, and a way to link the purchase to the app account after install.