Vahe Bagdasarian
Runs a paywall-optimisation practice built on Superwall; claims 10,000+ experiments and $50M+ added revenue across apps such as Cal AI, Quitter, Claim, Riz, Photo Gall and Resemmee. Focus: fixing “leaks” (missing placements, weak trial framing) rather than buying more users.
Strong on: multi-step trial paywalls, transaction-abandonment offers, trial toggles, spin-wheel discounts, conversion benchmarks.
Bias to keep in mind: agency selling paywall work on a Superwall-sponsored podcast; withholds exact lifts for some tests; name spelling from the episode intro.
Sources: sources/youtube/superwall/2025-11-16-*.
Notes citing Vahe Bagdasarian
- Free-trial toggle — let users choose trial vs pay now (and price them differently)Put a "skip free trial" toggle on the paywall so users pick trial or immediate purchase — Riz charges $9.99/week with a 7-day trial or $6.99/week without; Cal AI keeps one price; on transaction-abandonment offers give a deeper discount (90% vs 80%) for buying without a trial; ~10% pick no trial.
- How many plans to show and how to display pricesShow 2–3 plans so the main one has an anchor (removing a monthly decoy tanked sales), and break prices down per period — a per-month/per-week display lifted conversion 38%.
- Judge paywall tests on net revenue after refunds (matured cohorts)Trial-start lifts from forcing tactics (no X, undismissable discount) can be wiped out by refunds — BoldVoice's refunds rose more than trial starts — so score paywall experiments on net revenue after refunds per exposed user on a matured cohort (trial + ~1 week + ≥2 weeks).
- Paywall CTA and microcopy that convertsTested button and microcopy wins — "Continue" over "Subscribe" (+30%), "Start free trial" on Android, "Unlock…" for lifetime, "No payment now" (+30%), the word "free" (+11%).
- Paywall design learnings from 4,000+ Superwall paywallsJonathan Parra's lessons from designing 4,000+ paywalls — there is no universal winning paywall, start from a single-page bullet-list baseline, simplify the plan selector (+10%), cut comparison tables (simpler variant +111%), try native SwiftUI styling, hero-journey paywalls for transformation apps, and test design/packaging before price.
- Paywall placements beyond onboarding (transaction abandonment, session start, actions)Cover every placement before experimenting — transaction-abandonment offer (discount annual only, add an undiscounted monthly anchor), session-start paywall once a day, after N in-app actions, after trial/subscription cancel — plus a spin-wheel discount reveal and a "not ready for a year?" drawer ladder.
- Removing the free trial (pay-up-front plans)When dropping the free trial wins — Natal's no-trial monthly grew monthly subs 2,000% (quarterly +46%, annual +21%), Claim went paid-only after 34% trial starts and 50–55% trial-to-paid — and the prerequisites, plus counter-cases (Ladder, Skylight).
- Setting your first subscription priceStart higher than feels comfortable — Ravi Mehta's $20–30/month "high waterline" doubles as a PMF test — then anchor on competitors, cost-plus-perceived-value (AI apps), ROAS/payback math and the value of the user's whole problem; text-AI wrappers cluster at $30–40/year, niche custom-prompt chat apps get $20+/month.
- Subscription funnel benchmarks (trial start, trial-to-paid, install-to-paid, LTV per install)Target numbers for subscription apps — 5–10% install-to-trial (10%+ with a hard paywall), 30–40% trial-to-paid, ~2–3% install-to-paid, and ≥$3 realised LTV per install before scaling Meta.
- The three-screen pre-paywall sequence (explain the free trial)A 2–3 screen sequence before the paywall ("try free", "we'll remind you before it ends", trial timeline) that raised trial starts 56% in one app; Blinkist, Rest of Me, Cal AI variants.
- What to show when users close the paywall (exit offers)Exit-offer ladder for dismissed paywalls — longer (14-day) trial, discount, discount + trial, free credits followed by a review prompt, and finally a forced email capture.