Does Ultimate Guitar's Web2App Shred?
Intro
While the product has evolved over decades, offering a nostalgic yet familiar web presence, Ultimate Guitar has built a modern mobile app and an updated web funnel. On today’s episode we're going to break down what they’re doing well — and where there’s room for improvement — to help steer other growth teams in the right direction.
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Web2App Strategy
First up, let's check out Ultimate Guitar's Web2App strategy as a whole.
Ultimate Guitar is running a popular hybrid model where you can purchase it either on the App Store, or on the web. Here are three key benefits of running a hybrid model like this:
- Cost Savings: Apple and Google charge 15–30% commission fees. Selling on the web allows Ultimate Guitar to retain more revenue.
- Meeting Users Where They Are: Whether users prefer practicing at home on a desktop or need a mobile app at a live gig, Ultimate Guitar ensures they're accessible in multiple contexts.
- Higher Renewal Rates: Subscriptions initiated via web channels often see better renewal rates compared to app store purchases, offering a long-term retention advantage.
But here's the operational challenge: maintaining both web and mobile platforms demands significant development and maintenance resources. Ideally, new companies should start with one before expanding, but in Ultimate Guitar’s case, their audience demands both.
Onboarding
The onboarding journey on Ultimate Guitar’s web funnel begins when users click on promotional banners, typically offering discounts or special deals:
- Quiz-Based Engagement: Instead of a hard sell, users are drawn into a quiz flow that builds emotional investment and showcases the platform's depth of content.
- First Question - Instrument Selection: While a solid starting point, we suggest it could benefit from a bit more context upfront — such as a headline like “Let’s Personalize Your Experience.”
- Genre Selection: Users select musical genres they like, but the UI could be optimized. The current single-scroll format could be streamlined to avoid unnecessary scrolling.
- Age Collection: Asking for age might seem disconnected from the musical theme, but it's crucial for ad targeting and audience segmentation. Pairing it with a “How did you hear about us?” question would provide even stronger marketing data.
- Short Flow: Ultimate Guitar’s onboarding is notably brief compared to competitors like Blinkist or Headway. Given their already high brand recognition and free user base, this shorter approach may be sufficient.
Overall, the onboarding flow prioritizes speed and simplicity, catering to an audience likely eager to get straight to playing.
Paywall
After completing onboarding, users encounter the pricing page. Here are a few key observations:
- Toggle Switch Between Plans: Users toggle between monthly and annual options — but toggling hides side-by-side comparisons. We recommend displaying plans side-by-side to highlight the steep discount (over 50%) for annual subscriptions.
- Localized Pricing: Ultimate Guitar dynamically adjusts currency based on location, ensuring users see prices in their local currency — euros in Europe, dollars in the U.S., and so on.
- This simple yet critical move reduces cognitive dissonance and improves trust.
- Payment Methods: Currently, payment options are somewhat limited. Adding options like Apple Pay, Google Pay, or PayPal could remove friction points — especially when users hesitate because they need to find their wallet for a credit card.
More payment methods almost always lead to higher conversion rates, making it an easy win for future experiments.
Download Friction
After purchasing, Ultimate Guitar doesn’t actively guide users from the web experience over to the mobile app. There's no QR code, no app download link, and no email handoff:
- If users are on mobile web, it’s critical to push them toward downloading the app because app users retain better and pay more.
- On desktop, the urgency is less critical — some users may actually prefer a large screen for viewing tabs and sheet music.
- Low Friction Email Follow-up: Even a simple email suggesting users download the app would be a smart enhancement.
Wrap-Up
As the final chords of the episode ring out, here are two major strengths of Ultimate Guitar’s funnel:
What They’re Doing Well:
- Delivering Value: Ultimate Guitar builds immense upfront value by offering a wealth of free content and then gradually encouraging upgrades through personalization.
- Effective Discounting: They smartly discount annual plans, boosting retention and lifetime value.
Where They Could Improve:
- Enhancing Personalization: They collect good data through the quiz flow, but could better surface that personalization back to the user — for example, by highlighting favorite genres or popular tabs based on user input.
- Expanding Payment Options: Adding more modern payment methods like Apple Pay or Google Pay could capture more conversions at the critical checkout moment.
As always, Fix That Funnel will be back next time, where we’ll break down MyFitnessPal's Web2App strategy. Stay tuned!
Want the full interview with Jacob? Subscribers get it for free.
00:00:02:08 - 00:00:19:21
Steve
I love pounding the drums. I love slapping the bass, and I even love tickling the keys. But I've always been a guitar guy at my core. I'm your host, Steve Cerasoli and today we're breaking down the web funnel of Ultimate Guitar. As you can see, I've been an ax man since middle school, and Ultimate Guitar has been around as long as I can remember.
00:00:19:23 - 00:00:41:03
Steve
I remember the old days when the website looked like this. Now the website looks like this. In an age where web design is changing at faster and faster speeds, I can always head over to Ultimate Guitar and get that childhood nostalgia trapped like time in a bottle. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. The one thing that has changed over on Ultimate Guitar is they've developed a fancy new mobile app, and they have a fancy new web funnel.
00:00:41:08 - 00:01:03:12
Steve
So we're going to break down what they're doing well and not so well to help steer you in the right direction. So are you ready to fix that funnel? We're going to fix that funnel tonight. We're going to fix your funnel right. We're going to fix that funnel tonight. We're going to make those prospects buy. Doesn't matter if you're big or small.
00:01:03:12 - 00:01:10:01
Steve
We're going to fix your onboarding. And meanwhile we're gonna fix that funnel tonight. We're gonna fix.
00:01:10:01 - 00:01:18:21
Steve
That until tonight. The world needs more.
00:01:18:23 - 00:01:45:20
Steve
World needs more. The world needs oh, hello. My name is Steven Webb of the Paddle Phonics. I have a solo career now, and you could be the first to own my solo career on a ten disc set. Paddle present Steven Webb's The Music of the Paddle Phonics, a ten disc set with all your favorite hits. When your product is life, then your prospects are right.
00:01:45:22 - 00:02:02:21
Steve
That's Moray. I know the app stores got an answer, but it's not the only place where customers go web to flows ten discs with all the old classics as well as new favorites.
00:02:02:23 - 00:02:08:01
Steve
Can you tax me higher?
00:02:08:02 - 00:02:28:05
Steve
To a place where that feels free I. So what are you waiting for? You love the music you love more. Buy my ten disc set. The world needs more.
00:02:28:07 - 00:02:41:03
Steve
Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Hey, welcome to fix that funnel. Today I am joined by the Master of Retention himself, the founder of retention.blog, Jacob Rushfinn. Jacob, thanks for being here today.
00:02:41:05 - 00:02:43:01
Jacob
Excited to chat with you today.
00:02:43:03 - 00:02:58:03
Steve
Make sure to check our retention dot blog after this. But for now we're going to break down Ultimate Guitar's web funnel, and there's no better place to start than taking a big step back and checking out their web two app strategy as a whole.
00:02:58:05 - 00:03:07:07
Steve
Now, Jacob, you can purchase Ultimate Guitar on the web, and you can also purchase it easily on the App Store with just a couple clicks. What's the importance of running a hybrid approach like this?
00:03:07:08 - 00:03:34:03
Jacob
So there's, a few different benefits. One plus being people where they are from a kind of user experience perspective. There's also the cost savings. You take home more money depending on your size. You know, Apple, Google take 15 to 30%. With the different privacy restrictions from Apple, it's a bit harder to optimize your paid campaigns. Now you have higher renewal rates on with web subscriptions.
00:03:34:09 - 00:03:45:06
Steve
Now Ultimate guitar, they have the desktop app where I can kind of sit at home and practice with the big screen, or if I'm at a gig, I can use the mobile app. What are some things they can consider with having this unique use case with their desktop and mobile app?
00:03:45:06 - 00:04:12:03
Jacob
There's certainly value to having both. I typically recommend you start on one platform just for development costs, development resources, maintenance. A lot of companies do start on web and then move over to app. Your app, users retain much better. And so there can be a lot of value to working hard to get your users that are on web only or desktop, on to mobile and downloading the app.
00:04:12:05 - 00:04:21:23
Steve
Now that Jacob's laid out some benefits of web two app, let's actually dive headfirst into Ultimate Guitar's onboarding.
00:04:22:01 - 00:04:28:09
Steve
Now we're on our first page for onboarding for Ultimate Guitar Pro. But how would someone actually stumble upon this page in the first place?
00:04:28:11 - 00:04:51:05
Jacob
I encountered this from, a promotional campaign. It seems like what they're doing here is they're offering a lot of value just for free. You can explore the website, but then they know that to get people to buy, they have to build up a little more intent, a little more investment. And so this quiz flow can be helpful for that, for getting people a little more engaged, also showing that they have all this value.
00:04:51:05 - 00:04:54:14
Steve
And what do we think about this first page where we actually select our instrument here?
00:04:54:15 - 00:05:17:10
Jacob
It is a good first question. It felt a little odd to me because I clicked the sale banner and this came up. And so there wasn't enough context. I thought if they could do something like, let's personalize your membership or something. I think this is actually really good because because you notice that, it's personalized based on what you answered, you want to think about these questions and in two ways.
00:05:17:10 - 00:05:28:08
Jacob
One can use this information to personalize something for the user. But also you're teaching your users or customers about what you offer and what value you could provide.
00:05:28:12 - 00:05:34:12
Steve
And on the next page, we get a little more personalization. What do we think about this page? Here? We kind of select the genres that we like.
00:05:34:14 - 00:05:53:04
Jacob
I think the formatting could be a little different because as you see, it's a long scrolling bar. They had, you know, like 4 or 5 like icons in that space. Like you could have a few bars if you could ever eliminate scrolling to get everything in one view, you should. But generally this this makes sense to me.
00:05:53:06 - 00:06:04:10
Steve
Now that we're almost at the end of the flow, we're getting asked a question about our age. Now, this doesn't seem super relevant to musicianship or genre choosing or some of the earlier questions we got. What's the importance of having a question like this?
00:06:04:16 - 00:06:22:07
Jacob
Maybe they are, you know, as they're saying, they're stressing more relevant slides. Maybe they also do that. But but really, I think we're a lot of this value comes in is targeting and advertising. So if you know what customers convert better or people under 18 or they don't have money to pay, they never convert. We exclude those people from our audience.
00:06:22:07 - 00:06:32:03
Jacob
And the other question I think is good to add is, how did you hear about us? Question. So age and how do you hear about us can get you pretty far now.
00:06:32:03 - 00:06:41:00
Steve
That's it. We're already at the end of the onboarding flow. It's one of the shortest flows we have this season. So could they benefit from having a more extensive flow, something like Blinkist or Headway?
00:06:41:02 - 00:06:58:20
Jacob
They probably have a huge free user base that uses their product, and those people convert over time. Could they convert more people through that type of flow? Maybe. Maybe not. But if people already have this high intent from using the product, this could work fine for them.
00:06:58:22 - 00:07:14:00
Steve
Well, now that Jacob helped guide us through the onboarding flow, it's time to pull out our credit cards and head over to the paywall. So, Jacob, we finished up our onboarding and now we're on the pricing page. What do we think about this toggle switch to switch between the two plans?
00:07:14:02 - 00:07:21:21
Jacob
What is tricky for me here I can't compare the prices, so I can't see them side by side. So I have to remember and toggle back and forth.
00:07:21:21 - 00:07:24:03
Steve
And that would help better show off this discount, right?
00:07:24:04 - 00:07:35:18
Jacob
If you switch back to the monthly option, it's it's quite large, right. It's like over 50%. I would really, really accentuate that. But then also have the monthly annual side by side. So you can you can really understand that.
00:07:35:20 - 00:07:50:10
Steve
Now say we think the pricing looks good. We decide to head over to the paywall here to put in our credit card information. We actually found out that if you put this through a VPN, Ultimate Guitar localizes pricing for you. That means if you're in Europe, they charge in euros. If you're in the United States, they charge in USD.
00:07:50:12 - 00:08:02:18
Steve
Our data actually found that most people are able to pay for ultimate guitar in their native currency pedals. Immersion of record. And we can handle this part for you. So we love this section. So we do it on every episode. But let's run through the importance of localized pricing.
00:08:02:21 - 00:08:20:15
Jacob
Very important just to make it feel like it's a product for me. If I'm in the US and I see something in euros, it just feels off because it's kind of this like cognitive disconnect between what you're used to seeing. It's one making sure people understand that this product is for them, but also it's a it's kind of a sign of quality.
00:08:20:15 - 00:08:22:04
Jacob
And it's your global product.
00:08:22:07 - 00:08:26:09
Steve
And last up, payment methods. Are they offering a diverse enough set of payment methods here.
00:08:26:11 - 00:08:49:22
Jacob
Anecdotally, like if I have a credit card field or the PayPal thing, I go, oh, my wallet's over another room. I'll buy it later. If you can offer more payment options, why not? Because it's just, a better user experience catering to what people want. If it's technically feasible for you to do it, do it.
00:08:50:00 - 00:08:58:17
Steve
So after we purchase Ultimate Guitar Pro, we have all access to our features, but we don't really have anything that guides us from the web over to the app. Is this okay for something like Ultimate Guitar?
00:08:58:22 - 00:09:16:14
Jacob
I think so if they're on mobile web, push super hard to get them into the App Store, because your experience on mobile web will always be worse than in the app. If you're on desktop web, maybe you let them know. Send them a link, send this link to their email. You know, maybe you think there's a lot of value in having this in a big screen.
00:09:16:14 - 00:09:20:19
Jacob
Generally, people have your app are going to retain better, are going to pay more.
00:09:21:01 - 00:09:27:06
Steve
Well, we ran through the entire web funnel and now it's time for two big takeaways. So Jacob, what are they doing really, really well here.
00:09:27:08 - 00:09:47:07
Jacob
Offering a lot of value to their users. I mean, this is this is kind of outside the the web app flow, but really just kind of creating a great product that, that people seem to love. You know, they push things, they have great offers. I think they do a good job of discounting the annual plan, where that's usually, a better move.
00:09:47:07 - 00:09:49:00
Jacob
You keep users for longer.
00:09:49:05 - 00:09:54:03
Steve
And with the good always comes some areas of improvement. So what's something they could improve upon in 2025?
00:09:54:05 - 00:10:15:04
Jacob
They use the personalization, it seems like from those questions, but just letting people know they use those and telling people more about what they're getting will display your favorite artists or display your favorite genres. Or okay, I'm a beginner grades. We have 10 million beginners using ultimate guitar or whatever it is. So, so a little kind of confirmations.
00:10:15:10 - 00:10:29:09
Steve
Well Jacob, thank you so much for being here. Make sure to check out all things Jacob Rushfinn and check him out on social. And make sure you go to retention Dot blog for a ton more insights like this. Thanks, Jacob. Now that was a lot of fun, but if you'll excuse me, I got to go warm up for the gig of my life.
00:10:29:11 - 00:10:37:08
Steve
Well, thanks to Jacob Rushfinn, thanks to Ultimate Guitar, and thanks to you at home for watching Fix that Funnel. Take it away, boys.
00:10:37:10 - 00:10:48:02
Steve
Hey!
