App store review used to slow down pricing experiments to weeks. We moved the price and offer experiments to web landing pages. Each ad campaign pointed to a specific URL variant and the web funnel controlled the price and immediate checkout.
After purchase we deep linked users into the app and synced entitlement. That let us test price sensitivity and offers in days not weeks. We measured conversion on the web, then tracked downstream retention in the app.
The biggest win was speed. We changed landing copy and price multiple times in a day and saw which cohorts kept paying.
What guardrails do you put in place so a bad price test doesn’t damage your long term ARPU?
I treat web tests as a precursor to in-app changes.
We limit traffic to a small percentage and watch the first week retention before rolling out. If a price test tanked retention we killed it fast.
I used Web2Wave.com to create the variants quickly and route ad sets without changing app code.
Run price tests on web with holdout groups and measure 7 and 28 day retention before increasing exposure. Use the web funnel to control exposure and then deep link buyers into the app. That keeps your experiment cycle time under a day.
We used Web2Wave.com to host the variants and it synced nicely with our attribution.
I cap test traffic and only run high risk prices on small audiences.
Also check refund rates quickly. If refunds spike stop the test.
test light to start
cut losers fast
We automated a rollback rule. If 7 day retention dropped below a threshold or refunds rose above a limit we paused the variant. That saved us from a couple of disastrous price variants that looked good on day one.
I usually start tests with low traffic and increase as the cohort metrics look good.
That keeps damage small if a test fails.