How to Build More Successful Paywalls — Sylvain Gauchet

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Mar 14, 2025

Sylvain Gauchet, Director of Revenue Strategy at Babbel, shares his expertise in mobile growth and revenue optimization. He discusses the art of crafting effective user experiences leading up to paywalls, emphasizing storytelling during onboarding to enhance conversions. Sylvain highlights using loss aversion techniques to reinforce premium value and advocates for multi-screen paywalls to improve engagement. His insights provide actionable strategies for app developers to balance user experience with monetization, ensuring better long-term success.

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ADVICE

Onboarding Storytelling

Design onboarding flows to build excitement before users see the paywall.
Focus on strong hooks, compelling introductions, and high-value moments.

ADVICE

Loss Aversion Onboarding

Use loss aversion in onboarding by having users set up premium features first.
Present a paywall, highlighting the loss of already configured features if they decline.

ANECDOTE

Mimo's Multi-Screen Paywall Success

Mimo saw a 60% increase in trial opt-ins by using multi-screen paywalls.
Break down selling points across multiple screens to improve engagement.

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This episode is shorter than usual and will be featured in RevenueCat’s State of Subscription Apps report.

On the podcast: top strategies for paywall optimization, how storytelling during onboarding impacts conversions, and why framing the user journey leading to the paywall is more critical than the paywall itself.

Top Takeaways:

🔐 Your paywall is only as good as the story leading up to it

A well-placed paywall won’t convert if users aren’t primed to see value. Guide users with a clear onboarding flow that tells a story, setting expectations and building excitement before they reach the paywall. Strong hooks, a compelling introduction, and a high-value moment just before the paywall can significantly increase conversions.

💰Use loss aversion to reinforce premium value

Encourage users to engage with premium features before showing the paywall. By having them set up key features or preferences first, you create a sense of ownership - so when they hit the paywall, rejecting the offer feels like losing access to something they’ve already invested in. This approach taps into sunk cost fallacy to boost conversions.

📱Test multi-screen paywalls for better engagement

Instead of cramming all your selling points into a single paywall, break them up into multiple screens. Showing benefits, pricing, and feature comparisons step by step can increase trial opt-ins - Mimo saw a 60% lift using this method. This also blurs the line between onboarding and monetization, giving users more time to absorb the value of upgrading.

About Sylvain Gauchet:

🌐 Director of Revenue Strategy, US at Babbel, specializing in mobile growth, app marketing, and revenue optimization for a leading language learning platform.

🛠️ Sylvain brings deep expertise in crafting data-driven growth strategies, leveraging mobile marketing, app store optimization, and curated insights to drive customer acquisition and retention. He is also the creator of GrowthGems.co, a newsletter for growth practitioners.

💡 "It's not just about optimizing the paywall—it's about the entire journey leading up to it. The story you tell through onboarding and the context you create before the paywall are what truly drive conversions. Without that, even the best-designed paywall won't perform as well as it could."

👋 Connect with Sylvain on LinkedIn !

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