Video Impacts on The Subscription Paywalls
As a marketer working on several mobile apps using the subscription model, I am aware that it is extremely important and also difficult to subscribe users to the application. That’s why we work every day to show the most optimal paywall by conducting A/B tests on different user bases. In these tests, we can encounter different results, and I would like to share my experience of an A/B test that we made using images and videos on the paywall in this post.
The decision to use a paywall on a mobile app should be based on careful consideration by taking into account the app’s goals and needs.
A few factors should be considered when deciding on the paywall. The first one is the type of app and the content it offers. You can decide on the paywall design according to your app’s content. For example, an explanatory paywall might be an excellent option if the app offers exclusive, high-value content.
The other factor is the target audience for the app. If your target is more affluent or engaged users, they might be more likely to pay for the content and most likely active in all digital media channels, therefore more selective and conscious.
Especially for such users, each element such as title, subtitle, button name, color (and even shape), close button, etc., on the paywall is very critical. But among these elements, the influence of media type is incredibly high. When creating a paywall, you should definitely compare the conversion rates between images and videos. In my humble opinion, you should prioritize comparing media types when planning A/B tests.
Image or Video?
Whether to use or not a video or an image on the paywall depends on a few factors. One factor to consider is the type of content you want to offer behind the paywall. If, the content is primarily visual, such as photographs or artwork, an image paywall might be the better option. It can help to showcase the content in a way that is appealing to viewers and can help to convince them to pay for access.
On the other hand, if the content is more informational or educational, a video paywall might be a better option. It can be especially useful for content that is difficult to convey through text or images alone, such as tutorials or demonstrations. Video can be a more engaging and effective way to share this type of information, which can help to increase the chances that viewers will be willing to pay for access. useful
Although the factors I mentioned above are based on logic, we all know there is never a single truth, especially in the marketing world. There is a high probability that you will often encounter situations that seem meaningless to you or that you do not expect to happen. So, let your users decide it, you just need to test and see the results. Maybe your app is photo- or art-focused, but your users respond better to videos than images. We’ll never know until we test it! :) Generally, priority is given to the visual paywall due to some technical requirements. Just because the loading time of the video paywall is delayed due to internet speed or other reasons, it may be possible to load later than the image. But never give up on your video test by focusing on it. Just ask your product manager or software team for solution support. Because the result you will encounter at the end of your tests may be worth all this painful process!
How did the video paywall hurt our app?
We have used a paywall with an image background in one of our apps for a long time. But we needed a big jump to improve the conversion rates, and we decided to add a video to the paywall accordingly.
After our internal tests of the video paywall were successful, we launched the paywall. But we missed something! The video paywall we showed at the app launch increased the app open time to almost 10 seconds! 10 SECONDS?? Who would like to stay in an app that doesn’t open for 10 seconds? Right, nobody. This period was quite risky for the user retention rate. For this reason, we immediately removed the video and worked with the development team to make the necessary improvements.
What happened then?
After that, to start easy, we created a paywall video based on one of our ad creatives that went well. We knew that the video wasn’t a good fit for a paywall in a visual way. But like I said, we wanted to start easy.
Our only expectation from the test was that the conversion rate of the video paywall was close to the image paywall’s, as we did not believe much in the visual power of the video we added. Surprisingly, the conversion rate of the video we added was higher than the image you can see below.
This was an incredible motivation for the whole team, and we started working directly on the videos. Now, we have achieved an average conversion rate of 10% in many of our target countries with the videos we are still testing. You should definitely try these types of tests in your own applications!
