---
title: Paywall placements beyond onboarding (transaction abandonment, session start, actions)
slug: paywall-placements-and-transaction-abandonment
summary: 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.
domain: mobile-apps
tags: [monetization, paywall, placements, discount, transaction-abandonment, superwall]
related: [paywall-exit-offers, free-trial-toggle-pricing, multiple-paywalls-in-onboarding, paywall-in-onboarding, pay-what-you-want-discount-slider, paywall-design-learnings-at-scale]
sources: [yt:24QMRDXck70, yt:lkwX_kc0NS8]
updated: 2026-10-24
---

# Paywall placements beyond onboarding

## TL;DR
- First **build the foundation**: onboarding paywall + transaction abandonment + session start + action-based + cancel offers. Vahe Bagdasarian calls missing placements the most common fixable leak.
- **Transaction abandonment** = user taps buy, then cancels the Apple sheet → immediately show a discount offer. **Discount the annual plan only** — discounting weekly/monthly "doesn't work", tested dozens of times.
- Under the discounted annual, list an **undiscounted monthly/weekly** as an anchor; few pick it but it makes annual look like a deal.
- **Session-start paywall** at most once per day; **action-based** paywall after every / every Nth core action (e.g. scans); remind metered users "you're almost out of scans".
- **Cancel offers:** after a trial cancel or subscription cancel, show a different offer next open.
- Present discounts with **excitement**: a spin wheel that "lands" on 80% off beat a plain discount by double digits (Cal AI).
- Keep routine one-time offers to **~25–33% off** — save big discounts for Black Friday so you don't cheapen the brand.

## Details
**Placements list.** Beyond onboarding (where most conversions happen): transaction abandonment, session start, after certain actions (coin identifier: after each scan or every N scans), trial-cancel and subscription-cancel offers. Vahe's agency first audits and adds missing placements — "the bare minimum" — then experiments.[^1][^2] Quick wins for newly launched apps: multi-step paywalls, add transaction abandonment, add session start, cover every placement before experimenting.[^3][^4]

**Transaction-abandonment design.** Discount only the annual product; optionally let users pick trial vs no trial with different discounts ([[free-trial-toggle-pricing]]); add an undiscounted monthly or weekly below as a comparison anchor.[^5][^6] Transaction-abandonment paywalls convert well, so a bit more abandonment upstream (e.g. from bolder "try free" framing) gives more users a second chance.[^7]

**Spin-wheel discount (Cal AI).** On a placement such as second app open or after a cancelled trial: show a wheel that spins and stops on e.g. "80% off — tap to get it", then the discount paywall. It adds excitement and makes the discount feel earned. Vahe won't share the exact lift ("double-digit increase").[^8][^9] He borrows tactics from e-commerce (Temu, Shein) — but adapt, don't copy: a utility tactic may not fit a fitness app.[^10][^11]

**"Not ready for a year?" ladder (Parra).** On a Clear30-style paywall defaulted to yearly ($30–40/yr typical for text-AI apps): closing it raises a drawer "Not ready to commit for a year? We have plans for everyone" — yearly still selected but shown per-week next to a monthly/weekly option; "Not now, thanks" then opens a one-time offer (e.g. $40 → $30/yr) with a chevron CTA. Many monthly/weekly buyers suggest onboarding didn't show enough value.[^12][^13][^14] Discount size: 25–33% for routine one-time offers; heavy repeated sales train freemium users to wait and cheapen the product, especially for big apps.[^15][^16]

**Impact example.** An entertainment app with steady organic growth (~40–50k installs/month, no paid UA) went from 1.1% to ~4% install-to-paid between April and September through placements and experiments.[^17]

## Disagreements / caveats
- Exit offers and discounts can train users to dismiss paywalls; BoldVoice saw undismissable discount offers backfire on refunds ([[net-revenue-after-refunds-experiment-metric]]).
- Vahe's 80/90% transaction-abandonment discounts are far deeper than Parra's 25–33% guidance — depends on whether the offer is a last-chance save or a routine prompt.

## See also
- [[paywall-exit-offers]] — exit ladder after closing the paywall
- [[pay-what-you-want-discount-slider]]
- [[people/vahe-bagdasarian]], [[people/jonathan-parra]]

[^1]: yt:24QMRDXck70 @ 07:48 — Vahe Bagdasarian
[^2]: yt:24QMRDXck70 @ 08:37 — Vahe Bagdasarian
[^3]: yt:24QMRDXck70 @ 40:34 — Vahe Bagdasarian
[^4]: yt:24QMRDXck70 @ 41:46 — Vahe Bagdasarian
[^5]: yt:24QMRDXck70 @ 34:15 — Vahe Bagdasarian
[^6]: yt:24QMRDXck70 @ 35:48 — Vahe Bagdasarian
[^7]: yt:24QMRDXck70 @ 39:27 — Vahe Bagdasarian
[^8]: yt:24QMRDXck70 @ 18:00 — Vahe Bagdasarian
[^9]: yt:24QMRDXck70 @ 21:29 — Vahe Bagdasarian
[^10]: yt:24QMRDXck70 @ 19:35 — Vahe Bagdasarian
[^11]: yt:24QMRDXck70 @ 21:29 — Vahe Bagdasarian
[^12]: yt:lkwX_kc0NS8 @ 14:32 — Jonathan Parra
[^13]: yt:lkwX_kc0NS8 @ 16:06 — Jonathan Parra
[^14]: yt:lkwX_kc0NS8 @ 17:40 — Jonathan Parra
[^15]: yt:lkwX_kc0NS8 @ 19:12 — Jonathan Parra
[^16]: yt:lkwX_kc0NS8 @ 20:39 — Jonathan Parra
[^17]: yt:24QMRDXck70 @ 06:16 — Vahe Bagdasarian