In-App Promotions
In-App Promotions: Introductory & Promotional Offers for iOS
Discounted price offers for a specific duration for existing or previously subscribed customers
What is In-App Purchase?
An in-app purchase allows customers to buy content, features, or services from within the app by accessing the App Store and securely processing payments from the user.
Each developer account can create up to 10,000 in-app purchase products across all the apps in the account.
There are four in-app purchase types:
- Consumable
Consumable in-app purchases are used once, are depleted, and can be purchased again. Users can purchase different types of consumables, such as lives or gems in a game, to further their progress through an app. - Non-Consumable
Non-consumables are purchased once and do not expire, such as additional filters in a photo app. Users can purchase non-consumable, premium features within an app. - Auto-Renewable Subscriptions
Users are charged on a recurring basis until they decide to cancel. Users can purchase access to services or periodically updated content, such as monthly access to cloud storage or a weekly subscription to a magazine. - Non-Renewing Subscriptions
Users can purchase access to services or content for a limited duration, such as a season pass to streaming content. This type of subscription does not renew automatically, so users need to renew each time.
Promoting Subscriptions with New Offers
Once creating the Auto-Renewable Subscriptions, the Introductory and Promotional Offers can be set up for the subscription.
Apps with auto-renewable subscriptions can offer a discounted price for a specific duration for existing or previously subscribed customers. These offers provide the flexibility to create unique promotions to grow and retain the customer base. They can help win back subscribers who have cancelled their subscriptions or promote an upgrade to another subscription at a special price. Once the promotional period ends, the subscription auto-renews at the standard price.
Introductory Offers in the App
An introductory offer is a limited-time discounted price or free trial for the initial period of a subscription.
Apps can offer a discounted price or a free trial to eligible subscribers of an auto-renewable subscription so they can experience the value of their subscription before paying full price.
Users are eligible for one introductory price within a subscription group i.e. Introductory offers are available to only those customers who haven’t previously received an introductory offer for the given product, or for any products in the same subscription group.
Start by setting up introductory offers in App Store Connect. Then, in the app, determine if the user is eligible to receive an introductory offer. When the app queries the App Store for a list of available products, displays the introductory pricing if the user is eligible to receive them.
Key Points:
- Customers are eligible for one introductory offer per subscription group
- Can be used to acquire new customers.
- Only one current and one future introductory offer can be set up per territory
- Territory availability and start and end dates are managed through App Store Connect
- Introductory offers display on the App Store product page if in-app purchase is promoted in App Store Connect.
- Introductory offers are available to customers running iOS 10, tvOS 10, and macOS 10.12.6 and later
Promotional Offers in the App
Promotional Offers can be used for Promoting the Subscriptions with New Offers.
Apps with auto-renewable subscriptions can offer a discounted price for a specific duration for existing or previously subscribed customers. These offers provide the flexibility to create unique promotions to grow and retain the customer base. They can help win back subscribers who have cancelled their subscriptions or promote an upgrade to another subscription at a special price. Once the promotional period ends, the subscription auto-renews at the standard price.
Key Points:
- Developer determine when to present the offers through StoreKit APIs
- Can be used to help win back subscribers who have cancelled their subscriptions or promote an upgrade to a higher-ranked subscription at a special price.
- Customers that have completed an introductory offer are still eligible to get a promotional offer
- A Subscription key in Users and Access must be generated to validate the offers
- Only 10 active offers per subscription are available for the customers, so a developer can determine which offers are the most compelling and useful to them.
- Offers don’t display on your App Store product page
- Customers running iOS 12.2, macOS 10.14.4, and tvOS 12.2 can accept these offers.
Types of Introductory and Promotional Offers:
1. Free trial
If Free trial is selected, subscribers can access the subscription for free for a selected duration — for example, a one-month trial for a subscription with a standard renewal price of $4.99 per month. Their subscription begins immediately, but they won’t be billed until the free trial is over.
This offer may be useful and provide the ability to users to try the app’s full subscriber experience at no immediate cost to them.
2. Pay as you go
If Pay as you go is selected, subscribers pay a discounted price each billing period for a selected duration — for example, $1.99 per month for three months for a subscription with a standard renewal price of $9.99 per month. Once the duration is over, they’ll be billed at the standard renewal price.
This offer may be useful and attract price-sensitive users with a recurring discount without having to offer that discount for the lifetime of the subscription.
3. Pay up front
If Pay up front is selected, subscribers pay a one-time discounted price for a selected duration — for example, $9.99 for the first six months of a subscription with a standard renewal price of $39.99 per year. Once the duration is over, they’ll be billed at the standard renewal price.
This offer may be useful and provide an extended introductory experience that gives users time to enjoy the subscription before the next renewal.
Duration for Introductory and Promotional offers:
The length of time between auto-renewals that can be selected for the promotional or introductory offers.
1. Pay As You Go
- 1 Week subscription, 1 to 12 Weeks
- 1 Month subscription, 1 to 12 Months
- 2 Month subscription, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 Months
- 3 Month subscription, 3, 6, 9 and 12 Months
- 6 Month subscription, 6 and 12 Months
- 1 Year subscription, 1 Year
2. Pay Up Front
- 1 Month
- 2 Months
- 3 Months
- 6 Months
- 1 Year
3. Free
- 3 days
- 1 week
- 2 weeks
- 1 month
- 2 months
- 3 months
- 6 months
- 1 year
ˆNote: A one month trial can vary between 28 days and 31 days
The availability and the length of the offer durations depend on the standard duration of the subscription.
The below table shows possible introductory offer durations and number of renewals for Pay As You Go
Comparing Promotional Offers with Introductory Offers
Promoting Subscriptions on the App Store
One can Promote the subscriptions directly on the App Store product page so users can easily find them and start a purchase or introductory offer even before downloading the app.
Choose to promote up to 20 in-app purchases at a time to display on the App Store product page which will help effectively increasing the discoverability for content within the app.
This can be particularly effective for letting new customers know about Introductory offers.
Conclusion:
Using In-App promotions, developers can retain their customer base and can even target new customers with the Introductory and Promotional Offers provided by Apple.
References:
- App store connect help: https://help.apple.com/app-store-connect/
- https://developer.apple.com/app-store/subscriptions/
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