How Installing Paywall Doubled App Revenue and Increased ROAS by 68.5% in One Month – A Voice Recorder App Case Study

Service:
Sector:
Utility
Author:
Published:
April 14, 2025
Team:
Iryna Nezboretska
ASO Specialist
Anastasia Narchuk
ASO Specialist
Tetiana Ilienko
Project Manager
"

Who is our partner?

Voice Recorder is an audio recording and processing app available in more than 50 languages.  

Voice Recorder lets you effortlessly record voice memos, lectures, interviews, and other speech-based audio. It features real-time automatic speech transcription, converting audio into text instantly. You can also edit recordings, add notes, and organize your saved audio files.

Reasons for contacting RadASO

The partner approached RadASO when the app was launching. The main goal was to drive monetization, increase sales, and maximize profit.

Marketing strategy

The partnership lasted over six months, during which the RadASO team carried out multiple iterations of metadata optimization for foreign markets, updated screenshots, and launched events. As a result, the app's visibility in the App Store grew steadily each month.

However, the client's main goal remained monetization; namely, increasing sales and revenue of the app. To achieve this, we proposed a solution that was radically different from the existing approach.

Our approach

Before and during the cooperation with the RadASO team, the app had two versions: free and paid. The issue was that most core features were available in the free version, while only a few required payment.

  1. The RadASO team conducted a detailed analysis of the market, competitors, and the app itself. In collaboration with our partner, we decided to lock most free features behind a Paywall, making them accessible only through the paid plan.

    We kept some features and limited audio transcription to five minutes on the free plan. This strategy aimed to encourage users to upgrade to a paid subscription after reaching the limit.
  2. Next, the RadASO team developed pricing plans for weekly, monthly, and annual subscriptions, setting competitive prices based on market trends and demand.
  3. In the step that followed, the team focused on designing the Paywall to make it visually appealing and persuasive, encouraging users to subscribe. We considered the following key factors:
  • Paywall Placement – determining when it should appear based on user actions within the app;
  • the duration of the trial period;
  • Paywall copy – crafting persuasive content to drive conversions and encourage user action;
  • design and appearance of Paywall - colors, images, fonts, graphic elements;
  • additional incentives - push notifications, changing the number of subscriptions, One Time Offer, etc.
  1. After brainstorming with the team, we approved the final concept of Paywall and presented it to our partner, who implemented it independently in the app. 
  2. We then monitored and analyzed the results.

Results

Below is a graph depicting revenue, before and after implementing Paywall in the app on the 11th of September.

The graph clearly shows a revenue increase following the Paywall implementation.

The following tables display the revenue ($) and installs (pcs) from search traffic and ASA ads.

A month before the Paywall integration (11.08.-10.09.):

A month after the Paywall integration (11.09.-11.10.):

Note: Due to differences in the number of days in August and September, the period is set as 30 calendar days.

If you transfer the data for the month before and the month after the Paywall integration to the table and calculate ROAS, you will get the following results:

Period Spend Income ROAS
11.08–10.09 $2,883 $1,794 62.2%
11.09–11.10 $3,503 $3,672 104.8%

Comparing these two periods, we can see that from 11.09.-11.10., after the Paywall was installed, the profit increased by $1878. This is a +104% increase compared to the previous period of 11.08.-10.09., when there was no paywall. ROAS also increased by 68.5% compared to the previous month. 

We observe the same graphs in the Apple Store sales console.

Before Paywall integration (11.08.-10.09.):

After integrating Paywall (11.09.-11.10.):

Campaign
Expenditure
Impressions
Taps
Installs
TTR
CR
Installs/Impr
Avg CPT
Avg CPA
Common term
-65.64%
-49.85%
-64.01%
-63.52%
-1.69%
0.81%
-0.98%
-5.13%
-6.06%
Data collection
-44.45%
-29.55%
-44.22%
-50.2%
-0.7%
-6.39%
-0.6%
0%
11.65%
Competitors brand
98.56%
80.41%
103.76%
92.01%
0.38%
-3.58%
0.12%
-2.38%
2.94%
Our brand
21.39%
23.01%
33.84%
32.65%
3.14%
-0.72%
2.27%
-8.33%
-6.82%
Discovery
-100%
-100%
-100%
-100%
-3.61%
-30.16%
-1.09%
-100%
-100%
Total
-0.6%
7.92%
11.72%
12.3%
0.2%
0.35%
0.16%
-11.36%
-12.31%
Group
Spend, $ %
Impressions %
Taps %
Installs %
Installs/Impr October, %
Installs/Impr November, %
Installs/Impr %
Avg CPT, $ %
Avg CPA, $ %
Competitor 1
42,98
83,11
63,3
50,48
3,74
3,08
-0,66
-12,2
-5,66
Common term
3,26
-3,73
3,92
26,67
0,57
0,75
0,18
0
-18,8
Competitors brand
120,26
59,82
47,02
0
0,49
0,31
-0,18
47,37
119,4
Data collection
15,12
-0,55
0,36
73,33
0,5
0,86
0,36
13,73
-33,51
Competitor 2
0,27
13,2
8,47
10,11
1,12
1,09
-0,03
-6,56
-9,02
Competitor 3
21,51
-2,06
-6,67
-8,33
0,43
0,4
-0,03
32
32,95
Our brand
3 575,62
3 646,79
3 544,9
3 553,66
37,61
36,68
-0,93
0
0
Competitor 4
-29,36
-35,77
-24,07
-33,7
0,61
0,63
0,02
-7,46
6,25
Relevant Competitors
69,42
26,03
51,35
48,95
6,3
7,45
1,15
12,2
14,29
Competitor 5
32,21
17,63
57,48
53,16
1,71
2,23
0,51
-15,71
-13,77
Competitor 6
-9,31
9,42
22,92
17,89
5,3
5,71
0,41
-27,08
-23,44
Total
33,96%
13,44%
87,29%
127,08%
1,36%
2,73%
1,37%
-29,09%
-40,74%
Custom region
Impressions
Units
1/7/2021 - 1/15/2021
1/16/2021 - 1/24/2021
Change
%
MoM
1/7/2021 - 1/15/2021
1/16/2021 - 1/24/2021
Change
%
MoM
United States
12 970
39 436
26 466
204 %
88 220
1 116
1 904
788
71 %
2 627
UK + Ireland
8 731
10 197
1 466
17 %
4 887
438
462
24
5 %
80
Germany + AT + CH + LU
1 974
6 235
4 261
216 %
14 203
203
291
88
43 %
293
France
1 500
4 390
2 890
193 %
9 633
182
237
55
30 %
183
Netherlands / Belgium
1 593
3 599
2 006
126 %
6 687
159
201
42
26 %
140
Ukraine
697
4 010
3 313
475 %
11 043
85
189
104
122 %
347
Canada
2 569
3 614
1 045
41 %
3 483
145
178
33
23 %
110
Northern Europe
1 273
2 024
751
59 %
2 503
117
175
58
50 %
193
Australia + NZ
1 754
3 324
1 570
90 %
5 233
137
160
23
17 %
77
Vietnam
352
2 712
2 360
670 %
7 867
32
144
112
350 %
373
Thailand
679
2 016
1 337
197 %
4 457
57
142
85
149 %
283
Arabic World
268
1 745
1 477
551 %
4 923
40
119
79
198 %
263
Spain
844
2 058
1 214
144 %
4 047
78
108
30
38 %
100
Eastern Europe
458
1 070
612
134 %
2 040
63
95
32
51 %
107
Italy
826
2 145
1 319
160 %
4 397
77
94
17
22 %
57
Turkey
338
2 309
1 971
583 %
6 570
34
87
53
156 %
177
Rest of World
426
1 457
1 031
242 %
3 437
48
81
33
69 %
110
Japan
553
5 113
4 560
825 %
15 200
18
80
62
344 %
207
India
234
1 169
935
400 %
3 117
15
75
60
400 %
200
Brazil
294
1 332
1 038
353 %
3 460
34
67
33
97 %
110
Hispanic America
318
784
466
147 %
1 553
42
51
9
21 %
30
Indonesia
206
525
319
155 %
1 063
20
41
21
105 %
70
Korea (South)
308
2 055
1 747
567 %
5 823
22
36
14
64 %
47
Malaysia
119
663
544
457 %
1 813
11
27
16
145 %
53
Taiwan + HK + Macau
145
532
387
267 %
1 290
9
24
15
167 %
50
Rest of Europe
82
287
205
250 %
683
12
22
10
83 %
33
Portugal
17
273
256
1 506 %
853
2
18
16
800 %
53
Israel
23
120
97
422 %
323
3
9
6
200 %
20
China / Singapore
78
134
56
72 %
187
6
7
1
17 %
3
Total
39 629
105 328
65 699
166 %
218 997
3 205
5 124
1 919
60 %
6 397

Key takeaways

  1. At the start of the project, the RadASO team analyzed the market, competitors, and Voice Recorder's functionality. We found out that users had little to no motivation to purchase a subscription, as most features were available for free.
  2. We suggested changing the monetization model by limiting free features and introducing a Paywall with three pricing tiers and a trial period.
  3. RadASO developed and presented the Paywall concept to the partner, incorporating text, design, timing of display, and purchase incentives.
  4. The month following the Paywall implementation, the app's revenues increased by 104% per month, while ROAS grew by 68.5%.
  5. Thanks to an integrated approach, Paywall has become an effective monetization tool, as evidenced by both financial results and conversion growth.

Feedback on collaboration

Tetiana Ilienko, Project Manager at RadASO

Working on the Voice Recorder project and collaboration with the team has been both an interesting and productive experience. Notably, the Paywall update process played a key role in achieving the goal of increasing revenue through monetization.

The CRO process involved analyzing the market and competitors, namely: a list of paid and free features, Paywall placement, design, pricing, and the development of test hypotheses.  This approach allowed us to implement the most effective Paywall option, which significantly improved conversion rates and financial performance.

I look forward to future collaboration opportunities!

Anastasia, Owner of the Voice Recorder app

I came up with the idea for the app and sought assistance with its promotion. My biggest challenge was App Store Optimization (ASO), so I decided to turn to professionals for help. I chose RadASO because I knew they had a strong team in the field of mobile marketing. My goal was to see growth in both organic downloads and overall app downloads.

I appreciated the communication throughout the process—it was clear, convenient, and always to the point. The team actively offered suggestions, which showed me that they were engaged and focused on progress. While the results did not fully meet my expectations, I gained valuable experience and am particularly grateful for the team's professionalism.

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