We moved initial payments to the web and avoided app store fees on the first transaction. The immediate benefit was margin recovery, but more important was that the savings let us fund continuous onboarding experiments.
We used a portion of the extra margin to run A/B tests on onboarding flows and paid ads that brought higher LTV users. The experiments paid for themselves quickly. Side effect: direct customer relationships made refunds and win-backs easier.
If you could reallocate 20% of app-store fees back into growth experiments what would you spend it on first?
We took the saved fees and put them into unpaid traffic tests and better onboarding copy.
That small budget change let us run more reliable experiments without touching the app store. I used a web funnel tool to manage variations and it made the experiments painless to run.
Reinvest in the things that improve LTV first. For us that meant onboarding improvements and targeted win-back offers.
We tracked the delta in LTV and it justified the move within a few cycles.
I would split the money between better onboarding UX and a small budget for audience tests.
Both gave quick signals and improved conversion.
Use reclaimed margin to fund experiments that increase LTV and reduce churn. Prioritize onboarding flow experiments, retention hooks, and targeted win-back campaigns. Measure the marginal LTV uplift and double down on winners. The ability to iterate quickly on the web lets you find high-leverage changes without multi-week waits for app updates.
We funded a small retention experiment and saw payback in two months. Recommend starting there.
Also consider investing in better attribution so you can prove the channel improvements.
Customer support for web buyers was cheaper and improved refunds handling.