Most marketers design funnels with one clear goal in mind: get users to convert. But for subscription apps, conversion is only the beginning. The real work—and most revenue—starts after the installation, in the engagement and retention stages.
In subscription-based models, the funnel is still instrumental. But it takes a different form. The subscription funnel includes a loop, where every touchpoint—from onboarding to in-app experiences—reinforces habit, loyalty, and customer lifetime value.
In this article, you’ll learn how subscription apps are reshaping traditional funnels. You’ll see why long-term engagement matters more than short-term wins, and how to use in-app behaviour data to optimize every stage of the journey. You’ll also find key insights on what metrics to track and why.
The Subscription Apps Funnel: A Looping Journey
Before we dive in, let’s compare a basic version of the traditional marketing funnel with a subscription app funnel.
The Traditional Funnel
The traditional funnel is linear. It starts at the top with Awareness, where potential customers first encounter your product or brand. It narrows through Consideration, as they research, compare, and evaluate your offering against others. Finally, it leads to Conversion, where the prospect becomes a paying customer.
Image Generated with ChatGPT
For most traditional funnels, that’s where the journey ends. Once the customer makes a purchase, the funnel’s purpose (to acquire and convert) is fulfilled.
This model works incredibly well, especially for products and services based on one-time transactions. It’s simple, measurable, and effective for driving short- and long-term sales growth.
But for subscription apps, this structure falls short. Conversion (like installing the app or signing up) isn’t the finish line—it’s the starting point. Unlike one-time transactions, subscriptions thrive on continued engagement, loyalty, and lifetime value. This is where the looping journey of a subscription funnel takes over.
Image Generated with ChatGPT
The Subscription App Funnel isn’t about getting users in the door. Once through the door, it’s about keeping them coming back. Each stage works like a gear in a well‑oiled machine, driving engagement, loyalty, and lifetime value in a continuous loop.
Here’s a closer look at how the subscription app funnel works, along with tactics you can test to generate the ideal results for each stage of the funnel.
1. Exposure + Discovery: Awareness ≠ First Impression
For subscription apps, awareness and discovery are tightly linked. Apple’s transparency report shows that just under 450 million customers use search to find apps. The time to install is also shorter than most businesses might realize.
Users also don’t spend weeks researching apps. They often make download decisions in seconds, so first impressions on app store listings are critical (more on this in stage two).
Tactics to drive discovery:
- Prioritize App Store Optimization (ASO): Use clear, benefit-focused titles, descriptions, and keywords your audience searches for.
- Tap into social media and influencer UGC. Both channels often drive high-intent traffic to app stores.
2. Consideration: App Store Ratings & Trust Signals Matter Most
- Unlike B2B or eCommerce, users don’t spend days comparing. A user's decision to install often happens within seconds because reviews and in-app screenshots support the consideration stage.
Tactic: Build a review strategy that includes testimonials from loyal users. Be present where users review your app and offer feedback. A response to positive and negative feedback reassures prospects that your app is constantly improving.
Take Instabridge, for example—a Wi‑Fi locator app that helps locals and travellers find accessible connections wherever they are. Ranked #32 on Google Play’s Top 100 apps, Instabridge didn’t land there by chance.
With a solid 4.1‑star rating, the team goes beyond just monitoring feedback—they actively engage with their audience. By responding to user comments—both praise and complaints—often within the same day, Instabridge shows that user experience is a top priority.
That kind of responsiveness doesn’t just build trust. It acts as a signal to prospects looking for a reliable WiFi locator app.
Source: Google Play’s Top 100 apps
Source: Google Play - Degoo Backup AB - Cloud
3. Conversion: Treat Onboarding as an Exercise in Impeccable Hospitality
While exciting to see, installs do not equate to success. Activation is what truly matters.
Every activated user is 4X more likely to remain active after three months, making onboarding your most effective lever. It’s your opportunity to show users why your app is worth their time and get them to take that crucial first action.
In fact, apps running structured onboarding campaigns see new users opt into notifications 22% faster than those that don’t. Key takeaway: onboarding matters.
Tactic: Personalize onboarding with user behaviour data. Use insights like interests selected during sign-up to tailor the experience, so users immediately see value relevant to them. An AI image generator can further enhance this by creating personalized visuals that align with each user’s preferences.
Netflix is popular for designing the best possible user experiences. Recently, a new rating feature was introduced, allowing users to share whether they like, dislike, or love a TV series or movie. Netflix takes this data and further personalizes the user experience.
Source: Google Play - Netflix Mobile App
4. Engagement & Retention: Nurture, Engage, and Delight
This is where the loop truly starts. Focus is all about building habits. Habits create loyalty, and loyalty reduces churn.
Uscreen’s Membership App Report highlights that creators who launched branded apps saw significantly higher engagement and retention compared to web-only models. While the report focuses on the creator economy, the trend is universal: when users adopt apps, their behaviour shifts toward more frequent, habit-driven usage, a principle marketers across industries can leverage.
Tactics:
- Send behaviour‑based push notifications to re‑engage inactive users.
- Use personalized in‑app content that adapts to how users interact with your app.
- Add gamified elements like streaks, badges, or daily milestones to make using your app feel rewarding.
Uscreen creators use daily content unlocks and habit‑tracking features to keep users engaged. Watching one video a day becomes a streak, and earning badges reinforces their commitment.
Source: Uscreen Calendar Streaks & Badges
5. Expansion & Advocacy: Make it Easy to Share & Promote Your App
When users love your app, they don’t just stay, they spend more and tell others about it. That’s the magic of expansion and advocacy. When you know how to use both, they act as a structured approach to getting your app in front of more of your ideal audience.
Tactics:
- Offer tiered content access. Gating content is associated with psychological principles of scarcity and perceived value. By declaring your content is reserved for customers of a specific tier, you appeal to your audience’s desire for exclusivity.
- Introduce time-based upsells. Create a sense of urgency for users to take action, but ensure the motivation for your upsells is justifiable and not easily perceived as just a ploy to sell something.
- Incentivize referrals and social sharing. Use social proof, reciprocity, and the reinforcement of positive behaviour. You could offer a discount coupon for a user’s next purchase or tier upgrade.
Platforms like Uscreen, Whop, and similar make it easy to set up memberships, gated content, and referral rewards in one place, helping subscription apps scale revenue more efficiently.
For campaigns that keep users coming back, content quality matters. Many business owners use free video editing software to produce videos for app onboarding, feature highlights, or marketing campaigns. It’s a cost-effective way to keep content fresh and maintain audience interest.
Source: Uber Eats
Best Practices for Creating Your Best Subscription App Funnel
Beyond your subscription app funnel, there are important practices worth considering to generate the best possible results for app adoption over time. These include:
Optimize for Long-Term Engagement, not Short-Term Conversions
Your real success will come from focusing on customer lifetime value, which grows when onboarding is smooth, engagement is meaningful, and loyalty is nurtured.
To make growth possible, you’ll need to focus on metrics that matter, beyond download figures.
Pay attention to:
- Retention rates will tell how many people are actively using your app over time
- Monitor session frequency to understand how often users are coming back
- Watch how quickly users adapt to new features because feature adoption is a clear sign of product value
The key is to turn these insights into action. Use analytics tools to run experiments, test new ideas, and refine your approach based on what the data tells you.
Use In-App Behaviour to Optimize Every Touchpoint
If you’ve worked with a conversion rate optimization specialist, you’re likely familiar with the hierarchy of data. You may also have heard that best practices, while helpful, should be combined with data.
That’s because real, effective optimization requires more than intuition. You need data that’s unique to your app and users.
Here’s how to get started gathering useful data:
What to track:
- Most/least used features
- Time to first key action
- Drop-off in onboarding
How to act on data captured:
- Trigger in-app notifications and email sequences based on behavior (e.g., if a user didn’t complete a video, send a reminder with a reason why finishing it would benefit them)
- Personalize upsell offers by usage tier
- Adjust push frequency based on engagement score
- Reward users for engagement
How to Adapt Your Funnel Today
If you’re an app marketer looking for ways to generate better results for your brand, much of what you’ve read thus far may seem like a lot to digest. To help, here are the top five tactics worth considering:
- Redefine “conversion” as post-onboarding activation. App users have different usage needs from one-time customers.
- Create behaviour-based re-engagement workflows. Build simple but compelling onboarding and practical features that users actually use.
- Build campaigns for retention from day one. Think about long-term growth as a goal and not just attracting more downloads.
- Use app data to personalize every lifecycle touchpoint. Run experiments that produce data that tells you what users love and don’t pay attention to.
- Map your user journey as a loop, not a line. Remember that the app experience doesn’t end with the conversion. It’s a constant loop of interaction designed to delight your users.
Subscription Apps Require Evolved Funnels
The most successful subscription apps are not defined by how many people they attract, but by how many they keep. For your app to have the best chance at growing, your marketing funnel must do more than drive conversions. It must build lasting relationships.
If you make the switch, becoming a marketer who embraces looping customer journeys, you’ll be closer to realizing the objectives you’re after. But this requires prioritizing long-term engagement. You’ll have to lean into behaviour-driven insights to refine every touchpoint to create predictable, sustainable growth.
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