Here's the hard truth: only around 20% of mobile apps ever reach $1,000 in monthly recurring revenue, and just 5% make it past $5,000. The app stores are brutally competitive, and even though thousands of apps are published each year, very few actually made money,

My name is Linh and I've spent the past ten years in the mobile app industry. As employee #3 at Blinkist, I helped the app scale from zero to 25M+ users, first as a marketing lead and later as a product lead. Now I'm building Rey, a tool that lets anyone build mobile apps visually.

What I’ll share here is a practical framework based on what I learned from hundreds of growth experiments at Blinkist, lessons that helped us go from early days to reaching product-market fit. The goal is to help you maximize your chances of success by mastering one of the hardest parts of app building: the conversion funnel.

So let’s get started.

The key takeaways

If you take away only one thing from this guide, let it be this: the faster you can iterate on your conversion funnel, the more likely you are to succeed.

At Blinkist, it took hundreds of experiments across paywalls, onboarding flows, and trial setups before we reached the conversion rate that finally felt like product-market fit. Most of those experiments failed. But each failure taught us something that shaped the next iteration.

Here are three principles that made all the difference:

1. Make it easy and fast to iterate on your funnel: Your funnel will probably change dozens of times before you find what works. If you need days to launch a conversion experiment, you're moving too slow. Use a payment processor like RevenueCat or Superwall to help you speed up the speed of experimentation.

2. Focus on the top of the funnel: Early on, 80% of your users will most likely drop-off before the paywall. That means your biggest wins will usually come from improving the top of the funnel: install -> signup -> paywall

3. Track the core metrics, but keep it simple: Many first-time founders made the mistake of tracking too many metrics. Start with 8 events or fewer, then add more as you learn what matters.

In other words, don’t look for a silver bullet. Focus on creating a system that lets you learn, test, and adapt faster than anyone else. That’s how you build a funnel that converts.

Understanding your conversion funnel

[Add an example of the conversion funnel]

The conversion funnel begins when someone discovers your app for the first time, this could be by browsing on the App Store, from an Instagram ad, or hearing about it from a friend. They then opens your app store page, install the app, go through the onboarding flow to set up their account and learn about what the app is about, then eventually they see the paywall and subscribe.

Before we dive into tactics, let's establish what "good" actually looks like. After analyzing hundreds of apps and our own data at Blinkist, here are the benchmarks you should aim for:

Install to Sign-up: 40-60% for most consumer apps. If you're below 30%, your onboarding is likely confusing or asking for too much too soon.

Sign-up to Paywall View: 60-80%. If users sign up but don't reach your paywall, they're dropping off during onboarding or not seeing enough value to continue.

Paywall View to Trial Start: 5-15% depending on your trial offer and pricing. Premium apps with strong value props can hit 20%+.

Trial to Paid Conversion: 40-60% is healthy. Below 30% suggests either your trial period is too long, you're not engaging users during the trial, or there's a pricing issue.

These numbers compound. If you're at 50% install-to-signup and 10% signup-to-purchase, you're converting 5% of installs to paying users. Improve each step by just 20% and you'll nearly double your overall conversion (60% × 12% = 7.2%).

This is why the top of the funnel matters so much. Small improvements here create outsized impact.

Ship your first paywalls

Most first-time founders make the mistake of implementing their payment stack from scratch. A much better alternative is to integrate with a third-party payment processor like RevenueCat or Superwall. Not only do these tools make it easy to design and launch your paywalls with templates and visual editors, they also offer advanced payment reporting and A/B testing tools. (If you're using Rey, the RevenueCat integration is available out-of-the-box. Otherwise, you can also refer to their docs for the integration guide.)

If you’re also running paid acquisition, it’s also worth exploring web-to-app funnels through tools like Zellify or Funnelfox. They let you send paid traffic to a lightweight web experience before redirecting users to the App Store. This approach helps you test messaging, pricing, and conversion much faster, something even top apps like Lifesum have used to improve acquisition efficiency.

💡 If you're just starting out, you can apply for the App Store Small Business Program to reduce the commission charged by App Store from 30% to 15%. What this means is that for every $10 you earn in revenue from the App Store, you'll pay $1.5 instead of $3 in proceeds to Apple.

Have a fast cycle of iteration

One of the core elements of success at Blinkist in the early days was our obsession with experimentation. Once we had sufficient volume (500+ daily installs), we launched dozens of A/B tests every week: from marketing creatives and onboarding flows to paywalls and new features.

Our most successful experiment to date was a multi-step paywall that segmented users based on their primary motivation. Instead of showing everyone the same generic paywall, we asked users upfront what they wanted to achieve (e.g., "Read more books," "Learn new skills," "Save time"). Then we showed a customized paywall highlighting benefits aligned with their goal. This single experiment improved conversion by 35% and has since been copied by dozens of apps including Duolingo, Headspace, MasterClass, and AllTrails.

Here are the key principles of our testing process.

Skip A/B testing until you have volume: If you're getting fewer than 100 downloads per day, don't bother with A/B testing. You won't reach statistical significance and you'll just slow yourself down. Instead, make changes and compare before/after results. Focus on improving conversion at each step: install → sign-up → purchase. Once you hit 500+ daily installs, you can start running proper A/B tests. At that volume, a test with 10% improvement will reach statistical significance in about 2 weeks.

Go for big swings, not small tweaks: At Blinkist, we learned that testing minor changes (a single line of copy, a button color) rarely moves the needle. What works is testing radically different approaches against each other. This matters especially early on when you don't need 10-20% improvements. You need to 2x or 3x your funnel performance. That kind of growth comes from bold experiments, not incremental tweaks.

Expect 3-6 months to find what works: Launching your app only to see nobody convert is discouraging, but it's totally normal for most apps. Plan on iterating dozens or even hundreds of times on your onboarding flow before finding a winning combination. Build your onboarding and paywall so you can test changes quickly.

Find the right hypotheses to test

Speed means nothing without direction. Here's how to identify what to test next.

The top of the funnel is the first few screens of your app, where users onboard, create an account, and opt into a subscription trial. When you're ready to iterate, this is often the best place to focus.

It's tempting to think, "Maybe if I just add one more feature, it will finally move the needle." But here's the reality: 80% of users drop off at the top of the funnel. If you're not optimizing this part, very few users will stick around long enough to see your magical feature.

If you're just starting out, here's where to focus:

Test your value proposition

Before investing time and energy into creating 3-4 different onboarding funnels or building new features, try this simpler approach: ask 3-5 people (ideally matching your ideal customer profile) to watch your ad creatives, download the app from the App Store, go through onboarding, and then describe the app back to you.

Can they do it simply and clearly? If yes, you're off to a good start. If not, keep iterating.

Pay attention to the language they use. If they describe your meditation app as "a sleep app," that's valuable insight, maybe you should lean into sleep benefits in your positioning. If they can't articulate the benefit at all, your value prop isn't clear enough.

Test your onboarding flow

Aim for big swings in your early experiments. For example, A/B test a short onboarding flow (1-2 screens) vs. a long onboarding flow (20-30 screens).

💡 The conventional wisdom is that shorter is always better, but that's not true for every app. At Blinkist, our longer onboarding flow (8-10 screens) outperformed our short flow (2 screens) by 40% because it helped users understand the product and commit to their learning goals.

Here's what we tested:

• Screen count: 2 screens vs. 8 screens vs. 15 screens

• Account creation timing: Upfront vs. after seeing value vs. at paywall

• Personalization: Generic flow vs. segmented by user goals

• Preview content: Showing actual summaries vs. just describing features

The winner? 8-10 screens with goal-based segmentation and content previews, with account creation delayed until after users saw value. This combination improved install-to-purchase conversion by 2.5x.

💡 80% of trial starts happen on day one, meaning your window to convert users is shorter than ever. Apps that surface their paywall during onboarding consistently outperform those that wait. To maximize conversions, your trial offer should be one of the first things new users encounter.

Test your paywall and pricing

Pricing is an often-forgotten part of product-market fit. If you're seeing conversion rates below benchmark, it's easy to assume consumers don't want your product, but sometimes it's just a pricing issue.

Here's what to test:

• Price points: Try $9.99/month vs. $14.99/month vs. $19.99/month. Many founders underprice out of fear, leaving money on the table.

• Annual discounts: Test 20% off annual vs. 40% off vs. 50% off. Bigger discounts drive more annual subscriptions, which improves retention and lifetime value.

• Trial length: 3 days vs. 7 days vs. 14 days. Shorter trials convert faster but may reduce trial-to-paid conversion. Longer trials delay revenue but can improve retention.

• Paywall placement: Show paywall immediately vs. after onboarding vs. after first value moment (e.g., completing first book summary).

• Price anchoring: Show annual price first to make monthly seem expensive, or show monthly first to make annual seem like a deal.

At Blinkist, we found that $12.99/month with a 40% annual discount and a 7-day trial hit the sweet spot. But this took 6+ months of testing to discover. Your optimal pricing might be completely different based on your category, target audience, and value proposition.

💡 If you're not sure where to start, try using a template from RevenueCat or Superwall. You can also check out the leading apps in the consumer subscription space (Calm, Duolingo, Lifesum, Blinkist, Headway.) Odds are their paywalls have been tested and optimized thousands of time and therefore should be a great starting point.

Know the metrics that matter

While I discourage A/B testing in the early days, measuring core user events is critical. At a bare minimum, track:

• Install-to-sign-up conversion

• Sign-up-to-purchase conversion

Beyond these basics, define custom tracking events based on what you're testing. For example, if you're testing different onboarding flows, you need to know exactly where users drop off. Are they leaving on screen 2? Screen 5? Right before account creation?

Here's the essential event tracking setup:

• App Install: Track every time a user installs your app

• Onboarding Events: Track each screen view and completion.

• Account Creation: Track both attempts and completions. High attempts with low completion suggests friction in your sign-up flow.

• Purchase Events: Trial started, trial converted, subscription renewed, subscription cancelled

There are many analytics tools for this, such as PostHog, Mixpanel, or Amplitude. At Rey, we offer these integrations out of the box.

However, first-time founders often overcomplicate product analytics. Start with 8 events or fewer, then add more as you learn what matters. I've seen teams track 50+ events and then realize they only look at 5 of them.

Retention is your real metric

Here's something most articles about conversion funnels won't tell you: conversion rate isn't your North Star metric. Retention is.

You can optimise your funnel to convert 15% of users, but if 80% of them cancel after the first month, you don't have a business. You have a leaky bucket.

Here's what good retention looks like:

• Month 1: 50-70%

• Month 3: 35-50%

• Month 12: 20-35%

If your retention is significantly below these benchmarks, pause your acquisition efforts and fix retention first. Otherwise, you're just burning money acquiring users who'll churn.

Conclusion

Let's circle back to that opening statistic: 95% of apps never make it past $5,000 in monthly recurring revenue.

Most apps fail not because they're bad products, but because founders give up too early. They launch, see disappointing conversion rates, assume the market doesn't want their product, and move on.

The reality is simpler and harder: building a converting funnel takes time. It took Blinkist hundreds of experiments over 12-18 months to find our winning formula. Duolingo spent years iterating before becoming the phenomenon it is today. Even meditation apps like Calm and Headspace went through dozens of onboarding iterations before cracking the code.

The apps that succeed aren't necessarily the ones with the best features or the biggest marketing budgets. They're the ones that iterate faster and persist longer than everyone else.

So if you're building an app, remember this: Your first funnel won't convert well. Neither will your tenth. But if you commit to the process — fast iteration, bold experiments, and relentless focus on learning — you dramatically improve your odds of being in that top 5%.

The question isn't whether you'll face setbacks. You will. The question is whether you'll build a system that helps you learn from them faster than your competition. And that's the real competitive advantage.