Post-trial recovery

Catch users the first time they open the app after their trial ended and show a recovery paywall instead of the default one.

Use this when your product has a free trial and you see a measurable cohort that lapses without converting. Don't use this when the app has no trial, or when lapsed users should be treated identically to free users — this recipe only pays off if the recovery paywall differs from the default.

Goal

A user opens the app on day 8, the trial ended on day 7, and the default paywall appears as it always has. You have one shot to re-sell them and you are using the same creative that did not convert them on day 1. This recipe detects the trial-ended state, fires a dedicated recovery flow with a different offer, and stops bothering them once they either convert or clearly churn.

Setup

In the dashboard

• Create a campaign post-trial-recovery.

• Trigger: session start.

• Conditions: trial_status = "expired" and subscription_status = "free" and sessions_since_trial_end < 5.

• Action: fire yourapp://paywall/recovery — a paywall that leads with a discounted annual offer or a one-time coupon.

• Frequency cap: one show per session, maximum three total.

• Create a follow-up campaign post-trial-recovery-final with the same trigger but sessions_since_trial_end >= 5 and a sharper offer. Cap it at one show, ever.

• End state: when the user subscribes, set subscription_status = "pro". Both campaigns stop matching.

In the app (engineering hand-off)

• When your billing library reports trial expiration, update the user attributes:

  amply.setCustomProperty("trial_status", "expired")
  amply.setCustomProperty("subscription_status", "free")
  amply.setCustomProperty("trial_ended_at", trialEndDate)

• Track a session counter that increments only while trial_status = "expired":

  amply.setCustomProperty("sessions_since_trial_end", count)

• Register the yourapp://paywall/recovery deeplink to present the recovery screen.

How it runs

1. User installs, starts a 7-day trial. trial_status = "active".

2. Day 7: billing library fires trial-ended. App sets trial_status = "expired", subscription_status = "free", sessions_since_trial_end = 0.

3. Day 8: user opens the app. Session starts. Counter is now 1. post-trial-recovery matches. Amply fires the recovery deeplink. User sees the 40%-off annual offer instead of the default paywall.

4. User dismisses. Counter becomes 2, 3, 4 over the next few sessions. Campaign continues to match (counter stays below 5), capped at three total shows.

5. On the session where the counter reaches 5, post-trial-recovery no longer matches and post-trial-recovery-final does. A last-chance offer appears.

6. User subscribes. App sets subscription_status = "pro". Neither campaign matches from this session onward.

Metrics to watch

• Recovery paywall view-to-purchase rate. Compare against default paywall conversion for the same cohort.

• Days-to-conversion after trial end. Shorter is better.

• Share of trial-ended users who ever return. If this is <20%, the recovery window is wasted; move the effort to push or email.

• Long-term retention of recovered subscribers versus first-session subscribers. A bad recovery offer buys expensive churn.

Related

• Paywall versioning — swap the recovery paywall variant itself

• Reactivation after inactivity — the same pattern for users with no trial signal

• Campaigns — frequency caps and session-start triggers

• User attributes — modeling trial and subscription state

• User attributes how-to — writing the attributes from the app

• AI-assisted integration — describe this campaign in plain language and have your AI assistant build it