Past Sessions

• Event: MAU Vegas 25
• Date: Thursday, May 22, 2025
• Speaker: Vahe Baghdasaryan, Senior Growth Marketing , Flo Health
• Estimated read time: 7 to 9 minutes

Quick Read Summary

Most subscription apps do not lose revenue because the product is not valuable, they lose revenue because they only present one offer, once, and then stop capturing demand.

Advanced subscription app monetization is less about finding a single perfect paywall and more about building a system that adapts to user intent, timing, and price sensitivity.

The practical playbook is to treat declines, cancellations, and checkout drop offs as monetization moments, not dead ends, and to design offers that meet users where they are instead of forcing a one size fits all decision.

If you rely on paid acquisition, these levers also shorten payback by pulling revenue forward and by recovering high intent users who would otherwise disappear after a trial or an aborted purchase attempt.

Stop treating monetization as a single moment

A static paywall assumes users are ready to buy right now, at the same price, in the same format. Real demand does not work like that. Users arrive with different levels of urgency, trust, and purchasing power, and even the same user can look different on day one versus day seven.

Vahe Baghdasaryan’s underlying point is simple, if you show one offer and accept the first no, you are choosing to ignore a large share of addressable demand. As he puts it, “Their purchasing power is different” and one static offer cannot capture that range.

The way out is to design monetization as an experience, not a screen. The paywall is still important, but it is only one node in a network of touchpoints, messages, and decision points that should adapt when users hesitate, churn, or abandon checkout.

Win back is not a discount button, it is a revenue system

Many teams treat win back offers as optional. In practice, they are often one of the highest intent pools you have, because these users already engaged, already trialed, or already paid once. They are not cold prospects, they are near misses.

Baghdasaryan describes a multi channel approach to win back that combines paywalls with lifecycle marketing touchpoints, including in app banners, email, and push notifications, specifically to increase reach and touchpoints. That matters because the goal is not simply to show another paywall, it is to consistently re open the decision when the user is most receptive.

One concrete result he shares is a test where an additional free trial, targeted at the right segment, delivered “a 68% uplift compared to a control group” improving new subscriber outcomes and revenue per user.

If you want to apply this, start by separating two groups, trial expired users who did not convert, and former subscribers who have returned to freemium. Then test a second trial that reminds them what premium unlocks, instead of leaning immediately on price. The execution detail that matters most is consistency, make the offer feel intentional across in app, email, and push, rather than a random pop up that appears once and vanishes.

Paid acquisition changes the economics of trials

Free trials can be a smart way to build trust, but they also delay cash collection. When paid ads are a primary growth channel, that delay directly impacts payback period and can make otherwise viable acquisition look unprofitable.

Baghdasaryan describes a straightforward lever, when a user takes a seven day free trial, offer them the option to swap the remaining trial for a discount, for example “20% off or 25% off” with the explicit aim to increase install to paid conversion and shorten payback.

This is not a blanket discount strategy. It is a segmentation move. Users who are ready to pay now self select, you pull revenue forward, and you learn something useful about willingness to pay. The risk is that you might discount users who would have paid full price anyway, which is why the offer should be presented as a trade, not as a gift.

Start where payback pressure is highest, usually your most expensive channels or cohorts. Offer the swap early while intent is still fresh, then evaluate it on the full picture, short term ROAS, refunds, and whether retention holds up after you change the first purchase experience.

Multi page paywalls work when each step has a job

A single screen paywall often tries to do four things at once, teach value, establish trust, explain trial terms, and close. Multi page paywalls split those tasks into a sequence, which can be more persuasive because it reduces cognitive load and improves pacing.

Baghdasaryan notes that multi page paywalls are working better than “one static paywall” showing features, social proof, and pricing all at once. He frames two common paths. If onboarding already educates, the multi page flow can focus on making the trial feel safe, reducing “trial anxiety” by promising a reminder notification before billing. If onboarding is weak, the paywall flow needs to educate before it asks for payment.

The practical takeaway is that structure matters more than decoration. Value proof should come first, reassurance about trial terms should come next, and only then should pricing feel like the natural conclusion. If you promise reminders before billing, ensure your lifecycle setup actually delivers, otherwise you will create mistrust at exactly the wrong time.

Exit offers are demand capture, not desperation

When a user closes the paywall, most apps simply let them go. Baghdasaryan argues you should treat that moment as a pricing and packaging signal, not a rejection of the product. His blunt version is, “don’t let them decline it,” then “present them with additional offers.”

He gives a clear example. A user may not want “the $99 per year product” but they might accept a monthly plan, or a 14 day trial. The point is not to discount everyone. The point is to create an offer ladder that catches users who are value curious but price resistant.

In practice, you keep the ladder short and logical. Annual full price, then monthly, then one softer alternative such as a longer trial. Trigger it only when the user tries to exit, and measure incremental revenue per user, not just paywall conversion rate, so you do not accidentally trade real revenue for a higher conversion headline.

Treat checkout drop offs like cart abandonment

Subscription apps have their own version of cart abandonment, the user clicks continue, then cancels at the Apple confirmation sheet where Face ID is required. Baghdasaryan says it is common to see “40%” up to “70%” transaction abandonment at that step.

If you treat that as the end of the funnel, you waste some of your highest intent users. The fix is to instrument the confirmation cancel as a first class event, then respond immediately with one alternative. It could be a discount, an additional trial, or a different plan, but it should feel like a sensible adjustment to their hesitation, not a frantic menu of options.

The simplest approach is to match the recovery offer to what they were about to buy. If they declined annual, offer monthly. If they seemed trial anxious, offer clearer reassurance, or a shorter plan that feels less committing. Even small recovery rates here can move revenue meaningfully because the user has already demonstrated purchase intent.

Trial toggles can unlock immediate buyers

Trials are not universally positive. Some users would rather pay immediately, especially if the product category is familiar or the value proposition is obvious. Baghdasaryan recommends testing a paywall where users can toggle trial on or off, and even testing the default state, “toggle off versus toggle on as a default.”

He also suggests aligning price with intent. If trial is off, you can test “a cheaper price” and if the user takes a trial, you might present “a more expensive product.”

This is a nuanced lever. It can increase immediate purchases and pull cash upfront, which is valuable for paid acquisition economics. It can also backfire if users perceive it as unfair. The safeguard is experimentation discipline and careful measurement, split results by acquisition source, watch refunds, and confirm that long term retention does not degrade.

The pre paywall experience can do the persuasion work

Many apps “hit users immediately with a paywall” and then wonder why conversion is low. Baghdasaryan recommends a soft launch pre paywall experience that continues the onboarding narrative and builds momentum before the ask.

He shares an example from a dating app flow, where after onboarding questions the experience says it is generating matches, then shows a result, “we got 5,000 potential matches for you” and only then introduces a three day free trial as the way to move forward.

The principle translates broadly. Before you ask for payment, show progress toward a clear outcome. This is not about adding fluff, it is about making the paywall feel like the logical next step in a story the user already accepted.

Experimentation is only useful if your data is clean

Advanced monetization is an experimentation game, but it is easy to draw the wrong conclusion if your tests are poorly structured. Baghdasaryan highlights one of the most common mistakes, overlapping audiences. If audiences overlap, he warns you are “creating a bias in your data” and results may not be reliable.

The practical discipline is to define test eligibility as carefully as you define creative. If overlap is likely, run one experiment per audience and stagger the rest. Save more complex multi variant approaches for when you have enough volume and clean instrumentation to trust what you are seeing.

Conclusion

Subscription app monetization is not a one time paywall project. It is a demand capture system. You win by responding intelligently when users hesitate, decline, cancel, or abandon checkout, and by offering credible alternatives that match different levels of intent and purchasing power.

If you implement one change first, focus on paywall optimization that extends beyond the first screen. Add a recovery path for paywall exits and Apple confirmation drop offs, then build win back offers that feel like a deliberate lifecycle journey. Those moves do not just increase conversion, they make revenue more predictable, and they give growth teams more control over payback.

Speaker

Vahe Baghdasaryan, Senior Growth Marketing, Flo Health.  Vahe is a CRM and app growth manager focused on lifecycle marketing for monetization, pricing and monetization strategy, and product led growth. He has worked with consumer apps including Flo Health, SoloLearn, and CoinStats, and is also active as a speaker, consultant, and mentor.