Developers can now create subscription offer codes for their apps

Following the initial announcement in September, subscription offer codes for App Store apps and games are now available to developers as a way to retain customers.

A subscription offer code is an alphanumeric string that can be redeemed once on the App Store or within the app. To help developers market these offers, they can create unique redemption URLs associated with their offer code and distribute it via social media, blog posts and so forth. Up to 150,000 new codes can be created every quarter per app. Codes expire a maximum of six months from their creation date.

Apple notes:

Offer codes can help you acquire, retain, and win back people by letting them experience your subscription at a free or discounted price for a specific duration. At the end of the offer period, the subscription auto-renews at the standard price unless a subscriber cancels it or turns off auto-renewal.

On top of that, developers can also take advantage of a new discount code to promote buying a subscription with a single, up-front charge.

Apple provided a few examples of how these offer codes can be used:

  • Send an email to current or lapsed subscribers that share the latest features or recently added content, along with an offer code to experience your service for a limited time.
  • Distribute flyers to event attendees that promote your service and include a unique offer code on each flyer.
  • Partner with another company on a marketing initiative or campaign to help promote your app
    Provide a subscriber with a customer service issue an offer code to compensate for the issue and encourage retention.
  • You can provide multiple types of offers to people depending on your business goals. To determine which type might be best for a particular use case, consider each offer’s intended use, customer eligibility, redemption limits and other criteria.

As Apple mentions, this new tool helps developers make their subscription service accessible at no additional cost to a customer for a set period of time.

So if a company decides that prompting an extra week of access might sway a potential customer, that’s much easier with this process. “Customers can redeem only one code per active offer, but may be eligible to redeem multiple different offer codes for a single subscription, depending on your configuration choices,” Apple explains.

And this, too:

Once a user redeems an offer, provide a relevant experience based on their subscription state. For example, for a first-time subscriber, you might highlight the benefits of your subscription and provide onboarding. If your app includes account creation or requires agreement to additional terms, make this process as smooth as possible for customers who redeemed a code and are new to your app.

Developers can create new offer codes within App Store Connect.