Sub Club: How to Maximize Web Subscriptions for Sustainable Growth

Guest: Lucas Lovell (VP of Product at Paddle)
Hosts: David Barnard, Jacob Eiting
Date: March 12, 2025

Episode Overview

This special edition of Sub Club is focused on actionable insights drawn from the latest RevenueCat State of Subscription Apps report, specifically exploring the rising significance of web subscriptions for app companies. David Barnard welcomes Lucas Lovell, VP of Product at Paddle, to dissect why more mobile-first businesses are investing in direct web subscriptions, what’s working best, and how companies can leverage web payment flexibility for sustained growth and retention.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Web as a Channel for App Subscription Growth

• Web-First Mindset: Many app publishers are shifting strategy to acquire and monetize customers via the web, which allows them to bypass app store policies and fees while offering more sophisticated billing tools.

  • Lucas: “It’s not just a cost saving opportunity, it’s actually a growth opportunity. There’s a lot of opportunity on the web in terms of deploying different billing models, pricing experimentation, and A/B testing in a way that you’re a little bit restricted with on the app stores.” (03:17)

• Categories Where Web is Thriving

  • Health & Fitness
  • Language Learning & Education
  • Wellness
  • Users in these categories tend to have high intent and are more willing to pay via web funnels.
  • Lucas: “It's very much the apps with a high component of personalization that are seeing really, really good results with web funnels.” (05:43)

• Categories Where Web is Less Effective

  • Productivity apps and media tend to see less pronounced benefits from web subscription funnels—these categories typically lack the same deep personalization or urgent user intent as health, wellness, or education.

Building High-Conversion Web Funnels

• Journey Optimization: Success comes from companies thinking about the end-to-end web experience, from initial funnel, through the paywall, to checkout.

  • “Companies that are thinking about the journey end to end are seeing a lot of good results,” said Lucas, emphasizing experimentation and optimization at every conversion step. (06:38)

• Key Metrics to Track

  • Funnel conversion rate (users moving from entry point to paid)
  • Renewal rate after the first subscription cycle
  • “It’s easy to get distracted by the former and not think deeply about the latter.” (07:14)

Web Monetization Flexibility: Business Models, Pricing, & Winbacks

• Billing Model Flexibility

  • The web allows for more experimentation: per-seat licensing, B2B sales, consumption-based pricing, and more dynamic discounting.
  • Lucas notes most B2C apps are still mirroring their in-app models on the web, but prediction is for more experimentation:
    • “A lot of consumer apps don’t know what they don’t know... there’s definitely an education piece...” (08:57)
    • “We’re going to go further and further in this direction because, you know, if you look at AI ... that’s really changing the way that we price as well.” (09:26)

• Discounted Web Campaigns & Winbacks

  • Web as a strategic channel for retention offers (winbacks) and price experimentation.
  • Companies are experimenting with lower pricing on the web thanks to smaller fees and using this as leverage in win-back campaigns.
    • “I’ve known everyday people sort of pick up on the fact that purchasing X is cheaper on the web than... on the app.” (11:33)

Navigating App Store Policies and User Flows

• User Onboarding & Retargeting
  • Collecting user emails or accounts inside the app enables legal retargeting to web offers, thanks to regulatory shifts (e.g., Japan Fair Trade Commission ruling).
  • “Once you have somebody’s contact information... you can use that email to send people to the web.” (12:23)
  • Lucas also notes the rise in required account creation in games to facilitate retargeting. (13:51)

Retention & Churn Management on the Web

• The Temptation & Pitfalls of ‘Hard to Cancel’ Tactics

  • While web subscriptions can naturally have higher retention rates because of more complex cancellation steps, both host and guest emphasize this is not sustainable—bad experiences lead to negative word-of-mouth and brand erosion.
  • David: “Ultimately like you’re not going to build a great business on people not being able to cancel, preventing them from cancelling. Those are the people who are going to be frustrated with your brand.” (15:26)

• Best Practices for Retention

  • Transparent, user-friendly cancellation flows.
  • Use of downgrade, pause, or feedback flows at the moment of churn.
  • Proactive win-back campaigns and money-back guarantees (easier to execute on the web than on app stores).
    • Lucas: “You can present a cancellation flow which can ask some questions about why are they canceling and present some alternative options.... You can also deploy reactivations and win back campaigns in different ways on the web, which I think is really interesting as well.” (16:40)
  • The FTC’s new ‘Click to Cancel’ rule is pushing for more transparency and ease for consumers.

• Creating Superior Post-Purchase Experiences

  • Ability to offer refunds, trial extensions, and guarantees, which create trust and boost retention.
  • David: “Instead of a free trial, offering a 30-day money back guarantee... you can’t do that on the App Store.” (18:16)
  • Lucas: “They’re coming for the fees and staying for the flexibility.” (19:20)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “It’s not just a cost saving opportunity, it’s actually a growth opportunity.”
  Lucas Lovell, 03:17

• “Companies that are thinking about the journey end to end are seeing a lot of good results.”
  Lucas Lovell, 06:38

• “A lot of consumer apps don’t know what they don’t know... there’s definitely an education piece.”
  Lucas Lovell, 08:57

• “Ultimately... you’re not going to build a great business on people not being able to cancel.”
  David Barnard, 15:26

• “You can't build a sustainable business on dark UX patterns.... The part that is perhaps different on the web is tooling available to you in order to prevent churn.”
  Lucas Lovell, 16:16

• “They’re coming for the fees and staying for the flexibility.”
  Lucas Lovell, 19:20

Key Timestamps

• 00:01 – 01:22: Introduction; Setting up the focus on web subscription trends
• 02:00 – 05:28: Why web is trending for app subscriptions; Category breakdowns
• 06:22 – 07:54: Funnel design, end-to-end journey, retention focus
• 07:54 – 11:58: Web billing models, pricing flexibility, early experimentation, web winback offers
• 11:58 – 14:48: Navigating app store policies, collecting user info for retargeting, examples in gaming
• 14:48 – 18:53: Retention/Churn on the web: Honest approaches, FTC rules, consumer-friendly flows
• 18:53 – 19:55: Recap on flexibility and opportunity, future of web-to-app integration

Conclusion

Lucas Lovell and David Barnard’s conversation makes clear:

• The web is an essential channel for app subscription growth—not just for cost savings, but for powerful gains in flexibility, reach, monetization, and retention possibilities.
• Winning with web subscriptions depends on transparent, user-centric design, experimentation, data-driven journey optimization, and leveraging new regulatory flexibilities.
• As the landscape evolves, the biggest gains are found by those willing to test, adapt, and prioritize long-term user value over short-term retention tricks.

For a deeper dive, check the RevenueCat State of Subscription Apps report and follow Lucas via LinkedIn or X (Twitter).