The subscription app market has seen a huge boost since the last couple of years. In 2021, the top 100 subscription apps worldwide earned $18.3 billion in revenue. But how to get out of the game by offering the most relevant in-app purchase flow to your users and make sure you maximise your revenues? The main question we’ve been asked by our clients regarding their in-app purchase strategy is: build or buy? Do you build the infrastructure for your in-app purchases (IAP) from scratch and invest in resources to maintain it? Or do you subscribe to an IAP platform and outsource the development and maintenance? There are multiple Saas platforms designed for this purpose, such as Purchasely, Qonversion, RevenueCat, etc. It is thus important to select the right one customised to your needs and implement it in the right way. All in all, we are convinced it is worth investing in an in-app subscription tool and here is why! We detailed 5 reasons why you should buy rather than build it.

‍

1. Save engineering resources

‍

Every subscription app needs infrastructure to handle payments. We all know how it is challenging to prioritise it within the backlog. Building the infrastructure to manage in-app purchases (IAP) is time-consuming and tedious, as it requires not only back-end (with StoreKit and Google Play Billing Client) but also front-end development. 

‍

The tasks range from managing edge cases, planning all the updates for Google and Apple (e.g. releasing StoreKit2 and Google Play Billing V5), and finally maintenance. Nevertheless, the troubles don’t stop here, as the infrastructure also requires a long phase of testing. Depending on your context, it can take months!  

‍

The purpose of IAP platforms is to provide a service that builds all the infrastructure required. You will just have to integrate a few lines of code. It won’t slow down the loading of your app because the SDK is lightweight.

‍

‍

‍

2. Get subscription analytics in one place

‍

If you choose to build your own infrastructure for in-app purchases, you will have 2 options: 

• Use the analytics from the Stores: this means that you will have fragmented data between Android and iOS.  It will be long and complicated to make data-driven decisions. 
• Track specific events to send to your existing analytics tool, this will take time to implement for your development team

‍

Whereas if you rely on an IAP platform, you will benefit from: 

• Real-time data on every subscription event,
• Charts with KPI’s like MRR, ARPU, LTV, etc. (this is detailed in our blog post “What should be your main subscription KPIs”)
• Cohorts of individual customers

‍

Some tools also offer the possibility to attribute revenue to advertising campaigns. In particular, for Apple Search Ads, you can measure the success of your campaigns in terms of IAP at different levels: Campaign, Ad Group and Keywords. What a better way to optimize your campaigns than based on the actual ROI of your users?

‍

Besides, with an IAP platform, you can benefit from a single view of your customer, that will considerably help your customer support:

• Get info about subscription: active, auto-renewable, plan, date of purchase
• Find each customers’ purchase history. Example: trial started, subscription started… 
• Characteristics of the device if there are technical issues

‍

3. Power your marketing and growth tools

‍

Through the integration of an IAP platform, you can send your data towards all the tools of your marketing stack: attribution, analytics, customer engagement, etc. 

You just have to check the list of partners available for your app subscription platform: 

https://qonversion.io/integrations

https://www.purchasely.com/product

https://www.revenuecat.com/integrations/

https://apphud.com/integrations

https://docs.glassfy.io/docs/connectors

‍

‍

The final goal is to facilitate your decision making. 

The key usage with connectors is to create custom CRM scenarios via push notifications and in-app purchases: 

• To convert users to subscribers,, 
• To promote advantages of a higher plan in order to upsell your app,
• To ask for feedback or offer a discount when users stop their subscription,
• To communicate on billing issues, etc.

‍

4. Create different variations of paywalls to increase your revenue

‍

Few tools offer the possibility to create as many paywalls as you want. We highly recommend this feature if you want to increase your revenue significantly. 

Indeed, in a growth mindset, you will have to reiterate to find the best performing solution, without relying on your should definitely test : 

• Different paywalls for different locations in your app 
• A seasonal paywall for hot periods such as Christmas, Black Friday…
• Specific paywalls for your CRM scenarios (accesibles through deep links)
• Try different copywritings
• Customised paywalls for each of your target audience

Trends change quickly, if you want to grow fast, you definitely need to test different paywalls without releasing a new version of your app each time!

‍

‍

5. Get external expertise to increase your revenues

‍

‍

Now, you begin to understand better the advantages of selecting an in-app subscription platform. However, it seems to be a new World for you :

• Which platform should I choose? On what criteria?  
• How would I configure the selected platform?
• Which A/B tests could I run to increase my revenue faster?
• Which KPI’s do I need to monitor?  
• What paywalls could I design for my different audiences?

‍

Don’t worry, as a growth expert at Dreamin, I am here to help you on all these pain points. You can save time and stay focused on your business. Contact me at amelie@dreamin.io for a first discussion!

‍

To conclude, even if it represents a cost to invest in an IAP platform, it will definitely allow you to grow faster with features like:  

• Real-time metrics to monitor your main KPI’s
• Managing customers easily
• Connection with your other marketing tools 
• Creating variations of customised paywalls for a better conversion rate

And if you have already implemented your own infrastructure and you are afraid of transferring your subscribers database, a few tools with no-code paywall editor allow you to still manage it on your side. 

‍

Let’s book a meeting to explain to us your pain points with subscriptions and business goals you would like to achieve! Dreamers will do their best to make your dreams come true.

‍

At Dreamin, we love feedback: we will be happy to read your comments and feedback, you can contact us at hello@dreamin.io.

‍