I started running weekly A/B tests on the web paywall and onboarding. Every Monday we pushed a new headline, test offer, or onboarding step. By Friday we had real conversion data and a winner to roll into the app via the synced pay state.
The speed of iteration let us find small copy and price tweaks that added up. It was freeing compared to waiting for app store reviews and guessing which change mattered.
If you run web-first tests what’s the fastest win you’ve seen and how did you validate it?
I run small headline and price tweaks weekly.
I built a simple A/B endpoint and used the web funnel to serve variants. If a variant wins I apply it in the app by updating the remote config that the paywall reads. It’s boring but effective.
Web2Wave’s editor sped up building variants for us.
Weekly web tests let us iterate offers and messaging without touching native code. We ran price brackets, trial lengths, and urgency copy.
Changes that moved the needle were often small phrasing swaps. The web funnel meant we could calibrate quickly and then push the winner into the app via a sync layer.
This workflow cut validation time from weeks to days.
Start with one variable at a time.
We found pricing and trial length mattered most. Run the test on similar traffic, measure conversion to paid, and only promote clear winners to the app.
How big is your test traffic?
test one thing run it a week repeat
Run narrow, high signal tests. Pick one variable, funnel similar traffic, and define the success metric up front. For onboarding tests that metric is often first week retention or trial conversion, not just initial checkout conversion.
Use server side flags and a deterministic assignment so users get the same variant across sessions. Once a variant proves to move the metric you can make it permanent. Doing this on the web removes the release friction and lets you learn orders of magnitude faster.
We improved trial conversion by 12% after three weekly tests.
The winning test was adding a short use-case checklist before the paywall. It convinced marginal users to try.
We saw notable churn differences based on trial length.
Short trial helped conversion but hurt retention. Testing on web showed that quickly.