Getting Started with the Arc XP Subscriptions Paywall
Publishers and Broadcasters are looking for new tools and strategies to increase monetization. It takes not just the correct tools, but experience and knowledge on implementing those tools, to successfully grow the subscriber base and revenue.
Arc XP Subscriptions is revamping our paywall tools to help clients reach their monetization, membership, and subscriber goals. To do this we are approaching our next wave of new feature work with a strategy that leans into partnerships and new paywall capabilities.
Our strategy to help clients level up with their paywall
The Arc XP Paywall is there for clients wherever they may be in their paywall and monetization journey. We want to grow with clients, as we enhance and improve our paywall and content controls we are considering different maturity levels for clients when building a subscription model.
Our approach provides options for clients along each phase of their subscription maturity level for using first party data. As our first level, we have the building block capabilities for clients to control content access and target potential subscribers and members. To help clients improve, we are adding new targeting capabilities, monetization options, testing features, and quick no-code paywall and offer building.
How the Arc XP paywall works
Arc XP Subscriptions includes a self-service Paywall that allows you to easily manage what content your readers can consume before they need to register or subscribe.
Your team can build Rules that target specific content and audience criteria, such as “Readers consuming sports galleries on their phone or tablet”, and set a content budget, such as “The reader gets 8 unique pieces of content before seeing our sports photography-focused paywall.” You can bundle multiple rules together as a Ruleset and deploy them as a Paywall for a specific timeframe.
To learn more about how to integrate the paywall evaluator on your site and a bit about how it works under the hood, check out the Developers Guide to Setting Up a Paywall as well as this guide to setting up an AMP Paywall.
User Entitlement
When planning what users will not trigger the paywall, we recommend a planned approach to Entitlement. While it may be tempting to create many different Entitlements with all the options that you may want to provide separately to users, too many Entitlements will make it difficult to adjust your strategy or pivot to different product bundling options. Additionally, using product SKUs in place of the Entitlement object can inhibit flexibility for testing marketing strategies and potentially introduce instability. More details on using and planning for the Entitlements object can be found in the Guide to Using Entitlements with Your Paywall.
Additional Paywall Capabilities
The Arc XP Paywall has many options and features for clients to configure rules based on their business needs. To customize your paywall we have a wide set of options when you create rules and rulesets. More details on the different options when creating paywall rules are in the Arc XP Paywall Rule Capabilities.
Limitations and Reducing Paywall Avoidance
Running a coherent paywall strategy requires a series of decisions about how to engage and convert a given audience. Every approach has benefits and drawbacks and the best solution depends on the unique positioning of the publisher.
Many publishers are balancing the desire for scale (and the resulting advertising opportunities) with a desire to grow their reader revenue business. With this approach, publishers are keen to constrain access for their most engaged audience members while not scaring away consumers at the top of the funnel who haven’t established a strong relationship with the brand.
For recommendations on reducing avoidance read the Arc XP Paywall Reducing Avoidance article.
Server-side Paywall
You may be considering a server-side paywall to ensure no bad actors can get access to your valuable content. We have some recommendations and a guide on setting up a server-side paywall that provides more benefits and drawbacks.
Server-side paywall best practices
How to guide to creating a server-side paywall