Subscriptions
Subscriptions counts the users who paid for a subscription straight away, without a trial first. It is the fastest signal that ad traffic turns into revenue, and the metric behind Subscription CR and cost per subscription.
Updated
A subscription app usually has two front doors: a free trial that converts to paid later, and a direct purchase where the user pays on day one. Adapty Ads Manager keeps these apart. Trials counts trial starts; Subscriptions counts only new, non-trial subscription sign-ups. That split matters because a direct subscriber has already paid, while a trial user has not yet made a decision.
What the Subscriptions metric counts
- New paid subscriptions started in the reporting period without a free trial.
- Starts attributed to the campaign, ad group or keyword you are looking at, so every sign-up can be tied back to the spend that bought it.
- Not trial starts. Those are counted in Trials, and trials that later become paid are counted in Trials converted.
- Not renewals. A renewal is revenue from an existing subscriber, not a new sign-up.
- Not one-time purchases. Consumables and lifetime unlocks are counted as non-subscription purchases.
Because the three conversion types are separate, Conversions in Ads Manager is simply their sum: trials started plus subscriptions started plus non-subscription purchases.
Subscription CR and cost per subscription
Two derived metrics turn the raw count into something you can compare across keywords. Subscription CR shows how much of your ad-driven download volume pays immediately. Cost per subscription shows what each direct subscriber cost you in ad spend.
The denominator is total downloads as reported by Apple Ads, which includes tap-through and view-through downloads and redownloads. If a metric reads zero, check the denominator first: Ads Manager returns 0% when there are no downloads and 0 when there are no subscriptions, rather than an error.
Direct purchase vs trial start
Whether most of your paying users arrive through Subscriptions or through Trials depends on your paywall. An app that offers only a trial will show few direct subscriptions; an app with no trial will show none in Trials. Many apps offer both, for example a trial on the annual plan and direct purchase on the weekly plan.
| Direct subscription | Trial start | |
|---|---|---|
| Counted in | Subscriptions | Trials |
| Revenue on day one | Yes | No, only after conversion |
| Cost metric | Cost per Subscription | Cost per Trial, then Cost per Trial converted |
| Main risk | Lower volume at the paywall | Trials that never convert |
To compare keywords fairly, look at both paths together. A keyword with a high cost per subscription may still be efficient if it also drives trials that convert well. Cohort revenue and ROAS settle the question, because they count the money from both paths over time.
How to improve subscriptions from ads
- Match the paywall to the keyword. A user searching for a specific feature converts better when the paywall leads with that feature.
- Judge keywords on cost per subscription and cohort ROAS, not on CPT or cost per download alone.
- Separate brand and generic keywords. Brand traffic often subscribes directly at much higher rates, which can hide weak generic keywords in a blended average.
- Give new keywords time. Subscription counts are small numbers, and a handful of sign-ups can swing the rate for a single day.
Related metrics
Subscriptions sits next to Trials, Trials converted and Non-subscriptions started in the Conversions group. Revenue, ROAS and ARPAS, the average revenue per active subscriber, show what those subscribers are worth.