Project summary
1. English on Smartphone started as a side project from a three-person team: an English teacher, a marketer (Vasiliy), and a developer (Sergey). With just $20K and limited time outside their day jobs, they built everything themselves.
2. The team’s initial UA strategy focused on direct-to-store campaigns on Instagram and Facebook.
3. They reinvested every dollar into UA, but revenue barely kept up with spend. CAC hovered between $30–$40, and by month seven, they were considering pulling back.
4. Everything changed when they spotted a competitor running a web2app funnel, which led them to FunnelFox.
5. Vasiliy and the team launched their first funnel in just three evenings using FunnelFox’s no-code builder.
6. Once the new funnel went live, they doubled revenue while cutting ad spend in half.
7. The team then added one-click upsells, which increased revenue by another 10%.
Challenge
The team launched English on Smartphone as a passion project — just three people building on the side, with $20K to invest. They didn’t realize just how competitive the language learning space was — and if they had, they might’ve thought twice. But they were already in.
At first, the team ran direct-to-store campaigns on Instagram and Facebook, offering a 7-day paid trial that converted into weekly, monthly, or annual subscriptions. Most users opted for the weekly plan.
For seven months, the team kept going. Every dollar earned was reinvested into UA. CAC held steady at $30–$40, and revenue barely covered acquisition costs. Ad prices were climbing, and growth simply wasn’t happening.
Turning point: launching a web2app funnel
The team was days away from cutting spend when they came across a competitor’s web2app ad funnel, and everything changed. Vasiliy began digging into web2app strategies, asking around. Someone recommended FunnelFox, and that’s where things shifted.
Solution
In just three evenings, Vasiliy and Sergey built their first funnel using FunnelFox’s no-code builder. They created a landing page, added a lead capture form, built a lightweight paywall, and enabled web-based payments.
Here’s what the English on Smartphone funnel looked like:
Ad → landing page → lead capture → paywall → checkout → app download → automated subscription renewal
They also developed new static creatives and launched fresh campaigns on Facebook and Instagram. When a creative performed well, they’d turn it into a video featuring their English teacher delivering engaging, lesson-style content.
The approach was simple, but it delivered.
How it works
No-code funnel builder
FunnelFox gave the team everything they needed to build a complete funnel — landing page, lead capture form, onboarding, paywall, and payment logic — all without writing a single line of code. They launched their first flow in just a few hours, spread across three evenings.
💡 Today, it’s even faster: FunnelFox’s AI-powered funnel generator lets you go live with a full web2app funnel in under a minute.
Faster payouts
By shifting payments to the web, the team eliminated app store payout delays. Now, revenue hits their account within 5–7 days, ready to be reinvested into user acquisition.
No app store fees
Renewals run automatically on the web through the same provider and method selected at web checkout. That means no 15–30% cut from app stores — the team keeps more revenue.
Built-in analytics and conversion tracking
With FunnelFox, the team could finally see which plans were converting and where to introduce upsells for maximum impact.
💡 FunnelFox helps you run smarter A/B tests with conversion metric, CR, CR confidence levels & intervals, observed power, and p-values, so every decision is backed by data.
Results
The shift paid off quickly. Within the first month, the team saw results they hadn’t been able to reach in seven.
Immediate revenue growth
- x2 revenue with half the ad budget
- CAC dropped significantly
New monetization opportunities
- Upsells — including English through songs and situation-based phrasebooks — now account for ~10% of total revenue
- Low refund rate on upsells
Better cash flow, faster cycles
- Web payments arrive in 5–7 days
- Revenue can be reinvested into UA almost immediately
- No store commission improves margins across the board
With stronger unit economics, the team gained the confidence to scale and secured their first investor to back future products.
