Noom's Lean Web2App Strategy
Welcome to another episode of Fix That Funnel. Today, we're breaking down the web funnel of Noom, one of the biggest apps in the fitness and wellness space. By taking a psychological approach to weight loss and health, they differentiate themselves from others in the space and offer a super powerful product.
But how leanis their web2app strategy? To find out, we're enlisting the help of Andrey Shakhtin, co-founder of Funnelfox, to explore what’s working—and what could use some improvements.
Still want more? Check out the full interview with Andrey, exclusively available on Paddle Studios.
Web2App Strategy
Noom is one of the early pioneers of the web-to-app strategy, here's why it still pays off:
- Attribution Clarity: Unlike mobile app installs—which have become harder to track due to Apple’s privacy changes—web funnels provide full visibility into where users came from and how they behave. All user signals can be sent back directly to ad accounts for smarter campaign optimization.
- Massive Cost Savings: While app store payments come with 15–30% commission fees, web-based purchases typically incur only around 5% in fees, allowing brands like Noom to reinvest more into growth.
- Flexibility in Monetization: Web funnels allow for more flexibility with offers, trials, upsells, and pricing experiments—all contributing to higher LTV.
And with Apple now required to allow external payment options, there's even more opportunity ahead for developers to experiment, personalize, and grow revenue more freely.
Onboarding
Noom’s onboarding is perhaps the most intricate flow of any app reviewed this season:
- Dynamic Branching: The quiz adapts in real time based on user inputs. This segmentation creates a personalized journey that feels tailored to each user’s specific goals, struggles, and motivations.
- Ad-Originated Entry Points: Most users land on Noom’s funnel via Meta ads (Instagram, Facebook) that frame Noom as a psychological or science-based approach to weight loss.
- Early Anchoring Questions: The first prompt—“How much weight do you want to lose?”—immediately gets users thinking about results and primes them for deeper engagement.
- Interstitial Pages with Social Proof: Between questions, Noom inserts stats and success stories, building trust with users who may be skeptical of diet products online.
- Emotionally Anchored Prompts: Asking about life events (e.g., wedding, vacation) helps Noom gather insights while creating a sense of urgency and emotional resonance with the user’s journey.
- Lengthy, But Intentional Flow: While the funnel is long, sensitive goals like weight loss, storytelling matters. The longer journey helps users internalize the value and build a relationship with the product.
- Progress Bars & Visual Feedback: Throughout the quiz, Noom uses loading bars and data visualizations to show the user that their input is being processed. Adding this alone can increase conversions by 10–20%.
- Gamified Behavioral Questions: Toward the end, Noom introduces a behavioral quiz that feels like a psychological test — an engaging way to keep users invested.
This onboarding strategy is designed not just to collect data, but to prime emotional buy-in and create a high perceived value — which directly feeds into the conversion play.
Paywall
After completing the onboarding, users are presented with a paywall that feels custom-built:
- Localized Pricing: Noom uses location data to display pricing in local currency — a huge trust factor that eases hesitation and increases conversions.
- Native Payment Options: Always pair local currency with local payment methods to make checkout feel frictionless.
- Trial Options & Flexibility: Noom experiments not just with plan tiers but also with different subscription structures (paid trials, different durations), which could unlock more revenue from hesitant users.
Companies like Noom benefit from constant experimentation in this area — mixing plan types, pricing tiers, and messaging to maximize AOV and retention.
Download Friction
Once a user purchases on the web, the funnel prompts them to download the Noom app:
- If They Don’t Download, They Don’t Convert: Without getting into the app, users are more likely to request refunds or churn early.
- Smooth Hand-Off Is Critical: To reduce friction, smart funnels use:
- Deep Links: Ensure users land in the right place in the app.
- Follow-Up Emails: Include app download links or QR codes.
- Platform-Aware Messaging: Show different UI depending on whether a user is on desktop or mobile.
Noom offers a basic app download prompt, but you should layer in multiple reinforcements to ensure that value is delivered quickly and retention is secured.
Takeaways
What Noom Does Well:
- Segmented, Personalized Onboarding: The funnel adapts based on user inputs, giving it a high level of emotional intelligence.
- Trust-Building Through UX: With interstitials, loading bars, behavioral quizzes, and social proof, Noom builds trust and engagement every step of the way.
Where They Could Improve:
- Test More Subscription Options: Noom could experiment beyond paid trials to include multiple pricing tiers and structures based on different user personas.
- Refine the Transition to App: Improving the post-purchase flow with QR codes, emails, or embedded deep links could reduce drop-off between web and app.
Thanks to Andrey Shakhtin for his expert insight, make sure to check out FunnelFox and get your web funnel set up the right way.
Next week, Fix That Funnel ends the season with a special presentation from the MAU Las Vegas.
00:00:01:04 - 00:00:18:11
Steve
Now that looks good. Oh, hi. I didn't see you there. My name is Steve. Host of Fix That Funnel. And when I'm not breaking down web two app strategies, I'm usually here in my studio whipping up delicious, healthy meals. But even a guy like myself struggles to stay healthy between all this hard work. Breaking down web two app.
00:00:18:13 - 00:00:36:12
Steve
That's where I turn to noon. Noon provides me with a powerful health plan based on psychology and stats that leads to great results. So with the help of an expert, we're going to break down Zoom's Web two app strategy front to back to help steer you in the right direction. So are you ready to fix that funnel?
00:00:36:14 - 00:00:54:23
Steve
We're going to fix that funnel tonight. We're going to fix your funnel right. We're going to fix that. For tonight we're going to make those prospects by. Doesn't matter if you're big or small. We're gonna fix your onboarding. And meanwhile we're gonna fix that funnel tonight.
00:00:54:23 - 00:00:56:01
Steve
We're gonna fix.
00:00:56:01 - 00:01:02:12
Steve
That up tonight.
00:01:02:14 - 00:01:33:23
Narrator
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00:01:34:01 - 00:01:40:12
Narrator
Now. When decaf.
00:01:40:14 - 00:01:55:20
Steve
Thank you. Thank you very much. Hey, everybody, and welcome to fix that funnel. Today I'm joined by a very special guest. He is a web app guru from Funnel Fox. He deals with flows like these all the time. Everybody welcome Andrea to the program. Andre, thank you so much for being here.
00:01:55:22 - 00:01:59:01
Andrey
Hi. Yeah, thank you for having me. Excited to be here.
00:01:59:03 - 00:02:03:12
Steve
So, Andre, what got you into the world of app growth? Give me the story of Funnel Fox.
00:02:03:14 - 00:02:19:10
Andrey
Got a lot of experience with, like, web two app and web, monetization. This is how I, decided to launch funnel Force for, like, enable, for enabling, app developers to scale their apps in on the web and some searches on the web.
00:02:19:15 - 00:02:28:15
Steve
With that being said, let's take a step back and check out their web app strategy as a whole.
00:02:28:17 - 00:02:35:02
Steve
So Andrea can purchase Noom on the web and on the App Store. What's the importance of running a web to app flow like this?
00:02:35:04 - 00:03:04:17
Andrey
Noom was, one of the first players on the market who ran a web two app and web funnels. Main benefits of the web files is the attribution. Apple released, like, restrictions in 2021 and web two app you have you can get all signals for each user for each app campaign immediately to your ad account. The second thing is like payment, commission in App Store is 1,530% in web, two, up to 5%, for planning commission.
00:03:04:17 - 00:03:14:14
Andrey
And it just provides you a lot of flexibility to buy trials, upsell or some great and all the other stuff that, can increase your LTV and conversion rates.
00:03:14:16 - 00:03:21:22
Steve
And I also want to touch on the new ruling where Apple is required to allow external payments on the App Store. What does this mean for the space as a whole?
00:03:21:23 - 00:03:32:11
Andrey
I think it unlocks, a lot of potential for, app developers to provide even more, options for their users to pay and scale and to, to grow their revenue.
00:03:32:12 - 00:03:40:17
Steve
Now that we've seen their web app strategy as a whole, let's dive into their onboarding strategy.
00:03:40:19 - 00:03:57:06
Steve
So we're about to dive into noobs onboarding. One thing I noticed is this is one of the most comprehensive onboarding flows I've seen. We can dive into a bunch of different areas here. You go through one flow, you go through another flow, you go through another. Depending on the answers, it all changes. What's the importance of running a comprehensive flow like this?
00:03:57:07 - 00:04:19:06
Andrey
Talent funnels. To to exact segments of your audience is extremely important because here the more targeted you can communicate value and, benefits of using the products. High conversion rate. You can you can get to achieve that, you need to, to generate quickly. And this is what we provide within funnel folks.
00:04:19:07 - 00:04:23:13
Steve
All right. We're starting on this first page here. How would someone actually stumble upon a page like this.
00:04:23:19 - 00:04:48:02
Andrey
Companies, who run, web funnels, they use some meta and running a lot of, campaigns, meta and normal as well. They usually just see the ads in, Instagram, Facebook. There will be communication, like if you, struggling to lose weight, try out our, psychological approach. The first question that uses to that, how much do you want to lose weight?
00:04:48:06 - 00:04:55:18
Steve
So now we're starting to see some more interstitial pages here where they kind of reinforce the value of the product. What's the importance of interstitial pages like this.
00:04:55:20 - 00:05:17:02
Andrey
In App Funnels? You don't need to build trust so much because, there is a lack of trust from Apple in web two up funnels. Users usually have low motivation, low intent to try your product. So you need to convince them, like number of users that no more is helped with a weight loss journey. So building that trust is really important.
00:05:17:04 - 00:05:26:02
Steve
Now I love this where they ask us about an upcoming event, whether it's a wedding or a vacation. What do you think of these emotionally anchored questions? What insights does is provide.
00:05:26:03 - 00:05:42:01
Andrey
Us a lot of like insights about their audience, and they understand their motivations and like pain points and so on. And this question about wax, important event, I think is very crucial because I think it's really relevant for, for this kind of like, motivation.
00:05:42:03 - 00:05:50:00
Steve
Now, as we continue, we see that onboarding flow is really, really long. What's the importance of running a really long onboarding flow for a product like Noom?
00:05:50:02 - 00:06:11:09
Andrey
Norm has, such long, onboarding because like the weight loss is very sensitive topic that it just topics that allows storytelling. So you can grasp a lot of insights of users. It shouldn't it shouldn't be necessarily so long. It's just like, important to ask as many relevant question as as needed.
00:06:11:11 - 00:06:18:14
Steve
Now as we go along, we see charts. We see social proof, we see predictions about your weight loss. Why are moments like this so effective?
00:06:18:15 - 00:06:28:23
Andrey
To just provide like a sense of personalization for users. So the answers, are being analyzed usually increase conversion, conversion rate very, very much.
00:06:29:03 - 00:06:34:12
Steve
Now we're hitting the behavioral quiz section. Why are they running a behavioral quiz here?
00:06:34:14 - 00:06:54:14
Andrey
The whole Noom onboarding. It looks like, psychological tests. And people like to go through the psychological test. By the way, I think it's a part of the gamification. Diversifies their likes, the way how the user can answer and the forms of questions and so on. So, not getting bored.
00:06:54:18 - 00:06:59:22
Steve
And they keep returning to this loading bar motif here. What's the importance of a loading bar?
00:07:00:00 - 00:07:11:05
Andrey
Can help you to increase conversion rate by ten, 20%? I would say it's a must have in, in our funnel. And when we do assessment, it's one of our main recommendations.
00:07:11:10 - 00:07:18:10
Steve
Now that we've wrapped up the onboarding flow, it's time to pull out our credit card and head over to the paywall.
00:07:18:12 - 00:07:32:16
Steve
Now, we ran Zoom's paywall through a VPN. And notice that they're using localized pricing. That means if I'm in Europe, they're charging me in euros. If I'm in the U.S, they're charging me in USD. Our data even showed that most people were able to purchase Noom in their native currency. What's the importance of localized pricing?
00:07:32:18 - 00:07:43:20
Andrey
Sure, yeah. It's essential. It just, hope you're doing it to increase conversion rate to have a localized pricing, localized payment method based on this. Joe, always works better.
00:07:43:22 - 00:07:50:21
Steve
Now that we've wrapped up the paywall, it's time to head from the web over to the app.
00:07:50:23 - 00:07:56:22
Steve
All right. Getting users from the web over to the app. What's the importance of this last screen here? And how do you reduce friction.
00:07:57:00 - 00:08:14:08
Andrey
If they don't get to the app and don't get the value you ended up with? A lot of refunds and, like, chargeback request. It's really important to, to have this flow as smooth as possible is a deep links. And, yeah, with, sending emails with this is the principle.
00:08:14:09 - 00:08:18:18
Steve
All right. To wrap it all up, what are two things Noom did really, really well here.
00:08:18:20 - 00:08:27:07
Andrey
Was the legend in terms of like, onboarding for I mean, that quiz and questions, I think they do very great, very great job.
00:08:27:09 - 00:08:30:18
Steve
And what are some areas where Noom could improve to do even better?
00:08:30:20 - 00:08:47:00
Andrey
They focus too much on, different branches, different scenarios of the onboarding and different segmentation problems they already tested. But I know the test like not only paid trial but also different options for, subscription.
00:08:47:01 - 00:08:55:13
Steve
All right. We've wrapped up all of Noom onboarding their paywall, their download friction. And I want to thank Andrew for being here. Make sure you check out Funnel Fox. Thanks, Andre.
00:08:55:19 - 00:08:56:18
Andrey
Sure. Okay.
00:08:56:20 - 00:09:17:15
Steve
Now with that being said, I think I deserve a healthy meal. I want to thank Andrew for being here to I want to thank Noom for being such an awesome product. And I want to thank you at home for watching fix that funnel. Make sure you check us out next week. We have a very special presentation from Matthew.
00:09:17:17 - 00:09:18:08
Steve
Thanks for watching.
