Seasonal offers and holiday sales can boost conversion, retention, and long-term revenue — but only when paired with the right strategy. This study guide brings together everything you need to plan, build and launch effective promotional campaigns across iOS, Android, and the web.
Whether you’re running your first Black Friday sale or optimizing a multi-region holiday strategy, start here.
Need to get a sale live ASAP?
Jump ahead to the step-by-step for setting up sales and promotional offers in RevenueCat.
Promotional offers: essential reading
Starting off with the fundamentals of why seasonal offers work, how pricing affects behavior, and what to test before you launch.
| Link | Format | Includes |
| Maximizing subscription app revenue with holiday discounts and promotions | Webinar | How to plan, run, and evaluate seasonal promotions, ft. examples of effective discount structures and campaign timing |
| How to re-engage churned users — Caroline Walthall, Quizlet | Podcast episode | Real-world insights on how social proof, flexible plans, and targeted discounts can help re-activate churned users |
| Smart discounting strategies: When, why, and how to offer deals | Blog | Techniques for building discount logic and choosing offer types to maximize conversion, while protecting long-term revenue |
Choosing the right promotional offer
Use these resources to decide which type of promotional offer will create the most lift for your app, from introductory discounts to win-backs and targeted plans.
| Link | Format | Includes |
| Unlocking growth: How to supercharge your paywalls with offers | Blog | Guidance on layering offers into paywalls, increasing paywall relevance, and using incentives to improve view-to-trial conversion |
| Introductory offers: a key lever for growth | Blog | How introductory offers influence behavior, and when to deploy them for maximum impact |
| A guide to lifetime subscriptions: are they right for your app? | Blog | The pros and cons of discounted lifetime subscriptions, and when to use them |
| Introductory offers for RevenueCat Web Billing: convert more users with the right first price | Blog | Instructions to set up web-based introductory offers in RevenueCat |
| The beginner’s guide to Apple win-back offers | Blog | How-to for Apple’s win-back offers, and how to use them to re-engage churned iOS subscribers |
| When is the best time to send a win-back offer? | Blog | Understanding churn patterns and when to launch win-back offers, based on user behaviour and subscription lifecycle |
| How to win back lost customers: Proven strategies for re-engagement | Webinar | Real app examples for designing win-back campaigns, including offer types and targeted segmentation |
Running seasonal campaigns across channels (+ RevenueCat tutorials)
Whether you’re building on iOS, Android, or web, these resources walk through the exact steps to implement promo pricing, offer codes, and signed subscription offers.
| Link | Format | Includes | Platform |
| How to run a holiday sale in App Store Connect for iOS subscription apps | Blog + video tutorial | Steps to configure discounted pricing and schedule holiday campaigns in the App Store | iOS |
| How to run a holiday sale in Play Console for Android subscription apps | Blog | Instructions for setting up price changes, configuring promotional pricing, and scheduling discounted periods in Google Play | Android |
| How to run a Black Friday campaign for your app on the web | Blog | Best practices for web-based promotions, including landing page setup, messaging, and syncing web offers to in-app pricing | Web |
| Configuring Apple Promotional Offers for Customer Center | Developer documentation | How to setup and manage Apple promotional offers directly inside Customer Center | iOS |
| Create and track offer codes for your iOS app | Blog | How to generate, distribute, and monitor promotional codes in RevenueCat for iOS | iOS |
| Implementing iOS Subscription Offers with Purchases SDK | Developer documentation | Technical guidance for setting up and managing subscription offers, including handling eligibility and redeeming promotions | iOS |
| Signing iOS Subscription Offers | Blog | How to use RevenueCat to show a retention subscription offer to a recently-cancelled user | iOS |
| Setting up your offers in Google Play Console | Developer documentation | Setup and management for subscription offers in Google Play Console, and how to link them to your RevenueCat configuration | Android |
| Configuring Google Play promo offers in Customer Center | Developer documentation | How to display and manage Google Play promo offers via Customer Center in RevenueCat | Android |
| Supporting Offers in RevenueCat Paywalls | Developer documentation | How to surface seasonal promotions directly inside RevenueCat Paywalls with targeting and A/B testing | iOS, Android, Web |
Seasonal campaigns work best when supported by strong paywalls, clear pricing, and continuous testing. Whether you’re preparing for a recurring seasonal sale or running a one-off regional promotion, start with one improvement, measure its impact, and iterate.
Your next steps:
- Pick one promotional lever to test: a new intro offer, an annual-plan discount, or a targeted win-back
- Benchmark your numbers with the RevenueCat App Health Score to understand where offers can improve performance
- Keep experimenting — offers are most effective when they evolve with your audience