How Symmetry’s workout app boosted paid users with a comparison-based paywall

Intro

Symmetry is a health and fitness app that specializes in creating custom gym and workout plans for clients. Operating in Latin American markets, clear communication of value is essential for monetization, where consumer behavior is regionally unique.

The Symmetry team needed a way to optimize their main monetization screen quickly to drive better performance in their most popular markets.

The challenge

Symmetry faced a challenge in communicating their true value:

• Monetization block: The original paywall presented a simple list of premium features, but didn't directly communicate what the user would lose by not upgrading.

• Lack of motivation: The current design didn't visually highlight the difference between free and premium plans, so it wasn't enough to motivate users.

• Engineering bottleneck: Manually coding and deploying a new paywall design just to test this comparison table would have required developer time and a new app submission.

The solution

Symmetry used Superwall's no-code paywall editor to test the old paywall against a new variant:

• Control paywall: The original paywall displayed a headline, a simple list of features, and a bottom drawer CTA.

• Variant paywall: Kept the headline and CTA identical, but reformatted the feature list into a two-column "Free vs Pro" comparison table.

By only changing the way features were presented, the team could validate if this was the key factor for increased conversion.

The results

Rapid, remote A/B testing immediately confirmed the team's hypothesis, delivering considerable growth:

• Conversion increase: The campaign delivered a +1% conversion increase—an increase that sounds modest but is huge for the highly selective LATAM market.

• Activation increase: The winning design led to a 5% increase in Paid User Activation Rate, confirming the new paywall was converting users who immediately used premium features.

• Design validation: The experiment proved that it wasn't the features themselves, but rather how they were presented, that made the difference in subscriber commitment.