How to retain paid app subscribers with effective messaging

Struggling to keep subscribers active in your app? Maintaining engagement after the initial payment can be quite a challenge. 

And yet, user retention is as important as your acquisition efforts—especially for subscription apps. 

In this guide, we’ll share subscription retention strategies you can implement right away. You’ll learn how to:

• Prevent paid subscriber churn with timely communications
• Spot at-risk users before they leave
• Build engagement campaigns that prevent churn
• Turn passive app subscribers into loyal users

What is app subscription retention?

App subscription retention shows how well you maintain paying users over time. It’s the crucial stage that happens after they make that first commitment.

This metric directly affects your long-term app revenue. It also demonstrates your ability to provide enough ongoing value and encourage users to renew their subscriptions each period.

Here are the main KPIs you can track when measuring app subscription retention:

• Subscription retention rate: The percentage of subscribers who continue their subscription over a specified period
• Average subscription length: The average time users remain subscribed before canceling
• Active app usage rate: The percentage of subscribers actively using app features within a specific time frame, such as monthly or weekly
• Renewal rate: The percentage of subscribers who renew their subscriptions (automatically or manually) at the end of each subscription period, compared to those who cancel

You can also easily measure subscription retention in Pushwoosh. 

Go to Statistics > Retention. 

In the Retention chart, select your first event (Subscription_Purchase), define the returning event (Subscription_Renewal) and choose the date range.

The tool will generate a graph that shows how many subscribers renew over time.

Why is retention so essential for subscription apps?

Keeping customers around is the lifeblood of any subscription app. It ensures a steady income for your product and shows that people actually enjoy it. 

Here’s how boosting subscription retention pays off: 

• More cost-effective than acquisition: keeping existing subscribers costs less than finding new ones, as simple as that;
• Generates a stable revenue stream: retained users mean predictable monthly income;
• Promotes organic growth: satisfied app subscribers become your app advocates.

Using Pushwoosh to improve subscriber retention

Imagine you run an educational app offering premium language courses. 

Your subscribers pay monthly to access advanced lessons, personalized feedback, and speaking practice with AI tutors. 

But like many subscription apps, you notice users often drop off after their first month.

Here's how you could set up an effective retention campaign using Pushwoosh.

Basic retention strategy

1️⃣ Create a segment of your paid subscribers.

🚀Track the "Subscription_Purchased" event when users upgrade to premium.

From here, head to Audience > Segments > and create your segment using either of these methods.

2️⃣ Build a simple retention flow that keeps users engaged after they pay and encourages them to stick with their subscription.

⚡Check subscriber activity at key moments—for example, 7 and 14 days after subscription.

Head to Pushwoosh Customer Journey Builder and create a new campaign targeting your paid subscribers. 

Engage users who open the app with an in-app message inviting them to continue with the course. 

Those who don’t open the app could get a nudge via push notifications or email.

For instance, send push notifications reminding them to complete today’s lesson or try a new test. 

Here’s how Duolingo drives its users back to the app:

Regular transactional messages

Another effective way to retain paying users is by sending important subscription-related communications. For example, you could:

• Alert users when their payment method expires
• Help them update payment details if a charge fails
• Remind them about annual renewal

These timely messages help prevent accidental subscription cancellations and improve the experience for your app users.

Advanced retention strategy 

As you progress and accumulate user data, start building more sophisticated messaging sequences.

Using Pushwoosh’s RFM segmentation tool, create two user segments:

• At-risk users: These users may unsubscribe if not re-activated
• Pre-churned users: Users who haven’t been interacting with your app for some time

Then, re-engage these customers by scheduling personalized in-app messages, pushes, or emails via Pushwoosh Customer Journey Builder.

The top 3 tactics for subscriber retention

Now, let’s explore real-life tips for improving paid app user retention. 

1. Boost engagement through multichannel communications

Is your app's success tied to how often users engage with it?

This is often true for educational, fitness, meditation, and habit-building apps where consistent usage directly impacts perceived value.

Don't shy away from frequent communication—but be smart about it. 

• Use a mix of various channels to reach your users where it makes the most sense
• Maintain steady contact through emails, push notifications, and in-app messages
• Track how users interact with your app and personalize your communications accordingly

In other words, make sure your messages are relevant and add value.

For example, our example educational app could use a mix of channels to:

⚡Send daily lesson reminders, progress updates, and new content alerts with push notifications.

⚡Suggest next lessons based on completed courses, highlight achievements, and provide practice recommendations with rich media in-app messages.

⚡Announce new courses and provide a weekly digest of important updates using email.

To illustrate, here’s how Duolingo engages its users via email:

2. Learn from your unsubscribed curve 

Next, find out when users typically cancel to prevent churn before it happens.

If you look closely at the data, you’ll probably notice patterns of when users are most likely to cancel their subscriptions. For example: 

• Initial subscription period (e.g., the first 30 days): Users are most likely to churn if they don’t see the immediate value of your app or struggle to build a usage habit.
• Days before renewal: This is when users evaluate if your service is worth continuing and review their usage. 
• One month before annual renewals: This is a key moment for annual subscriptions when users will also examine the value they received from your app.

Understanding these patterns lets you time your retention campaigns more effectively and increase engagement before critical moments. For instance, you can:

⚡Guide new subscribers through the first key milestones 

⚡Show progress summary before a monthly renewal 

⚡Highlight yearly achievements before an annual payment 

⚡Offer level assessments when engagement drops

Let’s look at an example.

If you notice increased cancellations 3 days before renewal, schedule a push notification inviting users to check their achievements. Then, show an in-app message with personalized information detailing how your app helped each user.

3. Handle different types of churn

Not all subscription cancellations happen for the same reason. Understanding why users leave helps you take the right action at the right time.

First, work on preventing involuntary churn. This is when subscribers want to stay, but payment issues get in the way. The most common causes are:

• Insufficient funds
• Changed billing information
• Expired credit cards

Our educational app could prevent these through timely communication: 

⚡Send non-intrusive payment reminders before the charge 

⚡Make updating payment details quick and painless 

⚡Offer a grace period to fix payment issues without losing progress

⚡Send in-app and email prompts when charges fail

Next, address voluntary churn. This is when users actively choose to leave. 

This might happen because they:

• Feel unsatisfied with the content or features 
• Change their habits and preferences
• Face technical issues
• Find the cost hard to justify

Here are some sample retention tactics you could use:

⚡Conduct ongoing user research and fix issues that make users churn

⚡Provide personalized recommendations and app usage tips to guide your users

⚡Launch targeted campaigns to win your users back

For example, you could make a special offer for users who’ve recently unsubscribed:

The key to preventing both voluntary and involuntary churn? 

Monitor user behavior and act quickly. When you spot warning signs—whether it's missed lessons or an expiring card—step in with the right messaging strategy. 

4. Encourage longer commitment 

You can also reduce monthly cancellations by incentivizing longer subscription terms. 

Committing to a longer period motivates users to build lasting habits and explore the app’s real value. 

Here's why it works:

• Annual subscribers tend to be more engaged due to their commitment
• Longer terms mean more time to demonstrate value
• Upfront payments reduce involuntary churn 

For example, our educational app could: 

⚡Offer a 30% discount on annual plans 

⚡Highlight exclusive features for long-term subscribers 

⚡Show cost savings and potential achievements compared to monthly payments 

⚡Add special bonuses for yearly commitments

For instance, Babbel offers different price tiers for 3-month and 12-month plans, highlighting savings for the longer-term subscription.

5. Run continuous experiments

Finally, remember: no retention strategy is perfect from day one. Testing different approaches helps you find what resonates best with your subscribers.

Here's what you can A/B test:

• Content and value propositions in your push notifications, emails, and in-app messages
• Message timing and frequency
• Communication channels mix
• Incentives and special offers

For instance, our educational app could experiment with: 

⚡Different times for daily practice reminders 

⚡Various achievement milestones to celebrate 

⚡Multiple ways to showcase learning progress 

⚡New approaches to win back churned users

Use smart messaging to retain your app subscribers 

Effective subscriber retention comes down to three key elements: smart timing, personalized messaging, and relevant channels.

Here’s how to get started:

• Create subscriber segments 
• Set up basic and more advanced retention flows in Pushwoosh 
• Track critical metrics like subscription retention rate and active usage
• Keep improving your strategy 

Ready to boost your subscriber retention? Give Pushwoosh a try!