When I jump on consulting calls every week, one of the things I remind almost every app founder of is this:
Your funnel needs to be as frictionless as possible.
The customer should feel like they are effortlessly sliding down a slippery slope until they hit your paywall.
But the only way that happens is if every part of your funnel is CONGRUENT.
Look at a native ad funnel for example. The marketers who create these funnels are masters of congruency.
Everyone knows what native ads are but don’t want to admit they’ve clicked them before
Here’s how they work: you’re scrolling a news or sports website and see a headline that grabs your attention.
You click something that doesn't look like an ad, which takes you to a health quiz, or an article that actually teaches you something about a problem you didn’t know you had.
You spend real time answering questions and reading.
Only after you've invested 10-15 mins learning why the thing you're worried about happens does a product show up.
And by then it doesn't feel like a pitch, it feels like the answer to a problem you are likely dealing with.
These funnels work so well because the story and messaging works seamlessly together.
If you clicked on a native ad and it took you straight to a product page, you’re asking cold traffic to spend money on a solution to a problem they may not even realize they have.
The same principles can and should be applied to your app funnel, with some small tweaks:
Once you’ve identified winning angles for your product, your top of funnel content (paid or organic) needs to use the same language and highlight a pain point or desired outcome.
Then every stage of the funnel afterwards (whether that’s your app store page or web2app funnel pages) need to carry the same messaging all the way through your onboarding to the paywall.
This is another reason why we only focused on one killer feature for Cal AI, and not 5 different mediocre ones, because this simplifies your marketing angles used to promote your product.
Give your potential customers one idea to hold onto to survive the trip from a creator's video or ad all the way to your paywall.
Every screen after that either confirms or contradicts the story this prospect is constructing in their head about your solution.
Confirm it enough times and they buy, because of a congruent funnel.
So how do you tell if your funnel is seamless all the way through?
These benchmarks tell you exactly what part of your funnel is broken:
Under 5 downloads per 1,000 views? Your creative and your store page disagree.
Under a 75% paywall rate? Your store page and your onboarding disagree.
Under 10% paywall conversion? Your onboarding and your offer disagree.
Moral of the story: stop blindly optimizing steps and start auditing every step of your funnel.
Run through your own funnel like a stranger this week.
Content (paid or organic), store page, onboarding, paywall, in one sitting.
If it doesn’t seamlessly flow end to end, find the fixes and watch what happens to your dashboard.
- Jake
P.S. reply back to this email with more ideas of what you want me to cover in weekly newsletter, genuinely curious to know what you need help with.
