Project summary:
- Prehab aimed to drive adoption of its annual plan during Black Friday, when the free-trial model breaks down: traffic is expensive and too many users churn before paying.
- Three targeted changes were introduced to the flow: an interactive step before checkout to shift user commitment upfront, a celebration-plus-urgency moment tied to a time-limited discount, and a simplified offer focused on the annual plan.
- Conversion peaked at 4.5% and averaged 3%, matching historical trial funnels, but with full revenue captured on Day 0.
- FunnelFox powered the entire project — infrastructure, research, execution, and analytics — enabling the Prehab team to stay focused on growth and revenue rather than operations.
Prehab is a consumer health app built by licensed Doctors of Physical Therapy and Certified Strength Coaches, delivering professional-grade rehab programs directly on mobile to 100,000+ users worldwide.
Challenge: Capturing immediate revenue during peak acquisition periods
Prehab used a classic free-trial monetization model. But it has a structural trade-off: too many users drop off between starting the trial and making their first payment. The company pays to acquire them upfront, while revenue shows up days or weeks later — if it shows up at all.
During Black Friday Cyber Monday (BFCM), that gap gets expensive fast. Acquisition costs spike, and the demand window lasts only a few days. Running free trials in this period means buying high-cost traffic now and hoping to monetize it later — exactly when users are most ready to pay.
Ahead of BFCM, the Prehab team decided to rethink their monetization approach to capture maximum value from the high-intent period.
The challenge was clear and high-stakes: increase immediate revenue during the most competitive week of the year without hurting conversion.
Solution: Redesigning monetization for a high-intent window
Prehab engaged FunnelFox’s Professional Services team to design a monetization setup for a BFCM seasonal campaign. Together, the teams reviewed several concepts, evaluated their fit against Prehab’s goals, and selected a single direction to execute.
That direction shaped three targeted changes to the funnel, each backed by clear behavioral logic.
1. Useful friction
When users invest a small amount of effort to unlock a discount, they assign higher value to it than to an automatically applied promo. That extra step increases engagement and raises the likelihood of conversion.
To put this into practice, a “Black Friday Mystery” screen was added before the paywall. Users had to physically interact — a simple “scratch to reveal” — to uncover their personalized offer. The discount no longer felt like a default giveaway; it became a reward the user actively earned.
2. Celebration & urgency
The second principle combined celebration with urgency. The discount was positioned as something users unlocked, then immediately tied to a time limit to reduce resistance to a $149 upfront payment.
After the offer was revealed, users moved to a customized checkout with a confetti animation. The discount was automatically applied, and countdown timers on the paywall highlighted the limited-time nature of the offer.
💡 Seasonality changes how users read urgency. During BFCM, timers, “unlocked” offers, and similar cues feel less like pressure and more like a natural signal of a short, high-demand window.
3. Offer structure
The flow centered on a single recommended product — the annual plan. A monthly option remained available but was visually deprioritized, making the $149 annual offer the clear default and highest-value choice.
FunnelFox’s Professional Services team tested multiple paywalls ahead of BFCM. The Black Friday campaign ran on the top performer.
To lower the psychological barrier of a big one-time payment, the offer included a clear money-back guarantee. It de-risked the decision, replaced the safety normally provided by a trial, and preserved user confidence without sacrificing revenue.
The role of FunnelFox
FunnelFox’s Professional Services team handled the project end to end:
- Researched season-specific monetization mechanics
- Proposed multiple funnel approaches
- Aligned on a single direction with Prehab
- Implemented and tested the redesigned flow
- Launched the new setup and analyzed post-campaign results
All work was executed within the FunnelFox infrastructure. The team moved from strategy to launch in under two weeks, with build and testing completed within a single focused week.
Results: Day 0 revenue without conversion loss
1. Annual upfront offer converted strongly: 4.5% peak, ~3% avg
Switching from a free trial to a direct annual purchase did not reduce funnel performance. At peak, the new setup reached a 4.5% conversion rate, with an average of around 3%.
Performance exceeded the team’s expectations and aligned with historical conversion rates from the trial-based model.
2. Full LTV captured at the moment of conversion
Instead of delayed and uncertain trial revenue, Prehab began capturing the full $149 annual value on Day 0. This materially increased Immediate LTV compared to trial cohorts, where revenue shows up later, if it shows up at all.
3. A high upfront cost didn’t suppress conversion
A high upfront price didn’t reduce conversion when the value was reinforced with the right behavioral triggers — the sense of unlocking a reward, time-bound urgency — and supported by clear risk-reversal elements like a money-back guarantee.
Final thoughts
With the right behavioral design, even high-friction monetization moves like shifting from free trial to a $149 annual plan can convert during the most intense acquisition period. What matters isn’t the price point itself, but the structure, context, and psychology of how it’s presented.
FunnelFox provides infrastructure and hands-on expertise so app teams can stay focused on revenue growth, not operational complexity.
Looking for a way to grow revenue without getting stuck in execution? Let’s talk.
